Fuel to the Fire
by DarkElements10
Summary: SEQUEL TO CROSSFIRE. After the singularity Barry struggles to move on in all areas of his life but may be too late. Cadence has full control of her powers but an unforeseen tragedy fans the flames of her inner turmoil. And while working to stop Zoom Barry and Cadence continue to grow closer bringing new meaning to 'love is friendship set on fire'. -S2- Barry/OC! SEQUEL UP: Friction
1. The Dream Is Over

**Fuel to the Fire**

 **By: Riley**

* * *

 **Full Summary** **–** [Sequel to Crossfire]. Now that Barry has managed to save Central City, Team Flash works its way to come back together after the events of the singularity tore it apart. But the singularity brings in the new threat of the speedster, Zoom, and the mysterious Jay Garrick. With the weight of saving the city on his shoulders once more Barry struggles to move on in all areas of his life and finds he may be too late. Cadence has finally gained control of her powers as well as her family life. Having to deal with her ex-boyfriend is hard enough when her feelings for a certain speedster grow, but to deal with a fire obsessed criminal following her around makes things one hundred times more difficult. Then an unforeseen tragedy may knock her progress askew and fan the flames of her inner turmoil. Through their own problems Barry and Cadence continue to grow closer while working to stop Zoom breaking through the reasons they stayed apart, bringing new meaning to the phrase 'love is friendship set on fire'. Throwing in Brady's and Cisco's developing powers, a time traveling villain, and a sudden decrease in temperatures around Central City and Barry finds protecting Central City to be harder than ever before. Barry/OC (yes, finally). Season 2.

 **R **ated T**** : For language, violence, and mature/sexual themes. Might go up to 'M' later.

 **Pairings** : Barry/OC (yes, finally), SnowWells (Caitlin/Harry), and something for Cisco ;)

Some one-sided WestAllen, some SnowBarry, some SnowJay

 **Warnings** : Some heavy goreish violence and sexual moments

* * *

 **.:01:.**

* * *

Barry Allen used to come flying into STAR Labs with a bright smile on his face, ready to be congratulated on a job well done. Ready for whatever event that was waiting for the presence of The Flash. It was a bit of a rush to know what was going on and how he could save people.

It felt like a dream.

Such a happy dream.

He turned towards Cadence Nash, who appeared behind him accompanied by little wisps of smoke and the two high-fived.

The next thing he knew he was surrounded by his family and friends; Joe and Iris West, Brady Nash, Ronnie Raymond, Professor Martin Stein—whom had separated from Ronnie, Eddie Thawne, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Harrison Wells as they all congratulated each other on an amazing job taking down Captain Cold and Heat Wave.

It felt so real.

Yet it could never be real again.

Too many things had gone wrong six months ago when the singularity had started to take over the city. Too many things none of them could have seen coming and all of them were his fault. As he stood in the empty STAR Labs, nothing coming alive except a monitor in the corner of the Cortex warning him of a murder that had just been committed, sending him out into the streets.

It was his job now, to take everything out on his own. He couldn't stand the idea of being around everyone else.

Cisco.

Caitlin.

Cadence.

Iris and Joe.

Not that it was any easier. They were a big part of his life, he couldn't quit them cold turkey. Yet it hurt so much it almost became a physical pain whenever he saw them. And he continued to see them through many parts of his day to day life. He still lived with Joe but as often as he was away from the house he grew up in it was as if he was never there. Whenever he could hear Joe coming to his room he either pretended to be asleep or would quickly race out before the doorknob would even turn, unable to look his 'father' in the eye. He even stopped going to see Henry in jail, knowing it would be too difficult to see the man who had dealt with the tragedy of losing his wife try to talk him through the loses he already had.

It was hard.

First there was his mother, then Detective Chyre, those at STAR Labs when the Particle Accelerator blew, the security guard that had gotten in the way of his fight with Captain Cold, Eddie, Eobard…those that had been in the skyscrapers sucked into the vortex…so many people. All gone. All because of him. And there was nothing he could do to bring them back. Hearing how they were in 'a better place' and things like that…it made him angry. He couldn't see his father and hear that things were going to be okay when they most certainly were not going to be okay.

The monitor continued to beep rapidly and his cell phone started to buzz in his pocket. So it was a CCPD thing as well, not just what needed to be done at STAR Labs. A sigh escaped Barry's lips. It was times like these were he was reminded once more that no matter how hard he tried to avoid things it was going to push harder to be noticed. Turning on his heel, Barry raced to the crime scene.

Barrels of radioactive waste sat around a body that lay quietly on the floor of the nuclear plant. As he approached, his messenger bag slapping against his side, he spotted CCPD's medical examiner, Cadence Nash, kneeling over the body, absentmindedly brushing her hair behind her ears with the hand that didn't have a glove on it. The other hand—that did have the protective glove—was gently prodding around the neck of the man. She looked up as Barry walked closer and smiled at him.

Barry suddenly found himself back at the singularity with her and Ronnie by his side, using their fire powers the best they could. They both fought as hard as they could to stop the singularity and yet things still progressed the way they had.

Shaking his head, Barry pushed the thoughts away and focused on Cadence once more. It wasn't like he could ignore her when they had to work together. Still, Barry wondered how she had managed to move on so quickly. _She probably hasn't moved on, but is keeping things lighthearted for Brady,_ he realized. _To make sure he's okay._ All of a sudden Barry realized how much he missed having her around. If there was anyone that ever understood what he was going through with his insecurities of being a metahuman it was her. She was always able to make him laugh and easily excitable about a lot of things (of which usually ended up with her laughing at him in some way, her Zumba class being the biggest offender).

 _Stop torturing yourself,_ Barry thought. He pressed his lips together. _It's not helping anyone._ Instead of betraying his private thoughts, Barry cleared his throat and nodded at her. "Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," she replied. She didn't move from her kneeling position and Barry, instead, kneeled down next to her, carefully placing his briefcase on the ground. "You're late."

"I know," Barry said. But he didn't give so much as an excuse. He didn't even apologize, all because it had become so much of a common thing. Even having his speed kept him from being able to get places on time.

He didn't need to this time around. The unspoken reason hung over their heads so thick that she had to have been blind to have missed it. Barry kneeled down next to her and looked over the body, quickly taking in the broke blood vessels in the eyes and the dark marks on the throat. The man didn't go very peacefully.

Cadence merely glanced at the body once more and continued speaking to Barry, "I covered for you with Captain Singh. I don't think he's going to ask you any questions but if he does, just say that you had some intestinal issues due to bad Chinese food."

"Thanks."

"So what have we got here?" Barry looked up as Joe West strolled over to the two, his hands in the pockets of his car-length coat. Barry tried not to look him in the eye but couldn't help it. And he saw exactly what he didn't want to see; kind disappointment. The sort of look where a parent was obvious very disappointed in you but there was something that had been done that kept them from being 100% enraged. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Victim's name's Al Rothstein, he was a welder here at the plant. A co-worker found him this morning," Joe explained to Barry.

"Looks like cause of death was strangulation," Cadence explained. She looked at Barry for added confirmation and he nodded.

He titled his head, glancing over the body once more just to be sure he didn't mess up in some way. "There's petechia in the whites of his eyes, the eyelids, and some bruising around his neck. He was strangled by someone very strong and _very_ large."

"Or something?" Joe asked.

For a minute Barry was confused, then he exchanged a glance with Cadence, who was looking at Joe intently and a light bulb went off. "It wasn't Grodd. Trust me, there would be numerous news reports if Grodd suddenly appeared back in Central City again," Barry reassured him.

"Or else you'd hear it from Brady," Cadence added. She stood up, pulling off her gloves with a snap. "Somehow, kids always seem to know what's going on around here before the adults do." She let out a light sigh. "Case in point, they seem to know a _lot_ more about The Flash than anyone else does."

Barry grimaced. He knew exactly where this conversation was going and he needed to get out before it got there. Almost frantically, he packed up his bag and stood up. "I'll let you know when I find more, I really have to go." But Joe reached out a hand and stopped him before he could go.

 _I really need to learn when to move faster,_ Barry thought, turning back to him.

"So this Flash Day thing…I hope you plan on making an appearance," Joe said almost firmly.

Still, Barry hemmed and hawed for a second before stating, "I haven't decided."

"The mayor wants to give you a key to the city," Cadence piped up. There was a bit of envy in her tone and Barry smile a little. Nevertheless he was annoyed at this tag team operation to get him to go to a celebration he didn't even want, need, or deserve in the first place.

"I don't need an award."

"I beg to differ. You _love_ getting awards, Bare. Like all of those science trophies and awards you got in high school," Joe reminded him.

"Those I deserved." Barry turned away. "I'll let you know what I find."

Barry started to walk away from the crime scene and only made it a few feet before Cadence was at his side, taking steps so powerful that wind moved through her hair as if she were on the runway. He glanced at her. "I know you're the one that's supposed to confirm the cause of death but I do need some of this stuff, too."

"It's not that, Barry," Cadence commented. Her eyes squinted against the sunlight as she turned to him. "Brady's been asking about you. You said you'd take him to the science museum."

"I know; I've just been really busy."

Cadence grabbed Barry's arm and pulled him to a stop. He sighed, allowing himself to be stopped. "Look, you can avoid me all you want. As a matter of fact it's probably something that I'd do to if I didn't have the others to talk to. But you can't do that to a little kid." She paused, watching Barry when he looked away. "You know he really looks up to you."

"If you ask me he should be looking up to someone else. Maybe the Arrow," Barry pointed out.

"He doesn't look up to the Flash, Barry, he looks up to _you._ With good reason. But there's been enough people in and out of his life, please don't be the next one."

Barry closed his eyes briefly. It wasn't a responsibility he should have. He didn't deserve it. But on the other hand she was right. If Joe and Iris had walked out of his life shortly after his father went to jail he didn't know what he would do.

"I promise I'll take him to the museum," Barry said, giving her a meaningful look. She gave him a skeptical one in return. "Promise. I have to go."

Once more, Barry turned and walked away from Cadence resisting the urge to use a boost of his speed to get as far away from Central City as possible.

* * *

Once her work day was over, Cadence headed over to STAR Labs as soon as possible. Stepping out into the cortex she couldn't help but smile. It certainly was becoming her second home, she spent more time there than anywhere else. Especially over the last six months where she was essentially working to save Central City on her own. Or else she hadn't run into Barry so often when she was out in the field. Rebuilding Central City was going along well; she had pitched in with that effort and Ryder's contracting company was making good money off it as well, but Barry was doing the bulk of the work in that aspect, leaving her to handle the day to day criminal activities.

On the positive side it was giving her a chance to be there for Central City and to show there was someone else to help if The Flash wasn't there, not to mention her powers were increasing day by day with the extra effort. On the negative side doing it on her own was starting to take its toll; she couldn't bounce back as quickly as Barry could. Not to mention their team dynamic continued to fall apart.

"Caitlin's still not back?" She asked, walking further inside. Iris West, who was standing behind Cisco Ramon as he sat at a computer, shook her head.

"I haven't talked to her much since she started working at Mercury Labs," Cisco commented over his shoulder. "I guess things are still pretty hard for her around here. Though, honestly, I can't really blame her." He turned around and gave her a knowing look. "But I think I should be asking you that question considering your familial connections around here."

Cadence placed her hands on her hips and gave him a look. He gave her a look in return and she started to smile though it faded quickly. Things certainly were strange around STAR Labs with both Harrison and Tess around. It had to be harder for Caitlin who not only lost the man she was engaged to, but had fallen for someone else, who turned out to have his body taken over from a being from the future, whose wife turned out to be not quite as dead as they originally thought, became engaged once more, got married, and now lost everything around her once more.

And even then having Harrison and Tess was a little weirder than she thought it was going to be. Mostly because she didn't have to look down at Harrison in a wheelchair anymore, but because of the relationships that had to be formed. (Or re-formed as the case may be). She didn't know Tess at all as anything other than her biological mother who gave her up for adoption and had to form that relationship. Then there was Harrison who she _had_ created a relationship with over the past year...who had also been a villain from the future intent on killing one of her best friends. But it had been discovered once he was released from the hospital that he had every memory of his time at STAR Labs and working with Team Flash, just that Eobard controlled his body at the time.

Of course that confused Brady a little but as soon as he realized it meant he would get even more attention he was okay with it.

"Everything's fine with me, I'm just worried about Barry," Cadence insisted. "Joe and I were talking at the crime scene about Flash Day and he didn't seem interested at all."

"I don't think it's anything he can really ignore though; they're giving him the key to the city," Iris insisted.

"Even though as members of Team Flash we should all be getting keys," Cisco mused.

"If anything, we should be mentioned on the damn poster," Cadence said.

"You're on the poster," Iris pointed out. At Cadence's confused glance Iris picked up a flyer lying on Cisco's computer table and handed it to Cadence, pointing it to the small words under Flash Day. "See? It says 'And Flare' right there."

"You've gotta be kidding," Cadence remarked, frowning at the poster.

That was something else she had been combating for as long as she could remember; trying to get the recognition she truly deserved, having worked with The Flash for so long. At this point she was starting to find it funny in a ridiculous way.

Iris shrugged. Then she reached out her hand and placed it on Cadence's shoulder sympathetically. "I've been working hard on my blog to mention all of the good you've been doing for the city. But this is a good start, you're going to get the recognition you deserve soon."

"Thanks Iris, that really helps," Cadence replied. She looked over as the elevator doors to the Cortex opened and Brady rushed into the room.

"Uncle Cisco!" Brady called as he ran over to the STAR Labs employee. His backpack bounced across his back as he went. He hopped onto the chair next to Cisco and leaned into him, looking at the blue prints Cisco had been pouring over. "Have you finished my suit yet?"

"Not yet, I've actually been commissioned to do some for the CCPD metahuman task force that I'm putting the final touches on," Cisco replied. He held up the blueprints to his friends before turning so everyone could see. "I call it 'The B.O.O.T.'."

"The boot?" Iris repeated, tilting her head to the side. "You mean, like slides and pumps?"

"I can't believe you would even joke like that! _No!_ The B.O.O.T. is created to restrain and subdue a metahuman due to emitted electrical shocks that neutralizes the wearer," Cisco explained.

Cadence blinked once. "So it's an industrial strength taser?"

Pouting, Cisco placed the blueprints back onto his desk. "Well, when you say it like that…"

"Honestly, Cadence, coming from a family of scientists you'd think you'd learn not to put down the excitement of inventions," Harrison Wells commented as he walked into the Cortex. He pushed his clear framed glasses up his nose before sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "This is something that Cisco and I worked on together and it should yield some positive results from the metas."

"And considering Flash Day is coming up, that's probably the best time for it to be used," Cisco added. He rubbed his hands together. "There's going to be a chance that someone might come to try and ruin it."

"If Barry even goes," Iris pointed out. "He's one of the most stubborn people I've ever met and if you can't convince him to do something the first time, it may take some time to get him to listen to reason." She took a deep breath. "That being said, I think we should just force him to go, instead of asking just tell him to do it."

"From the tone of your voice I assume that you'll be taking on that job?" Harrison asked.

A smile crossed Iris's face. "I've known Barry a long time and I think I can convince him to go. He deserves it, even he doesn't think so. Maybe every one telling him how much they appreciate his work will get him to realize that nothing was his fault."

"I hope so." Cadence glanced at her watch then motioned for Brady to come to her side. "Well, let me know if anything else is going on. I've got to take Brady to Ryder's house."

"It's his weekend with him already?" Harrison asked.

"Yep. And considering CPS is watching us closer than ever since the singularity I need to stay on schedule as much as possible. Let me know if there's anything else you need me to do and I'll see you guys later." With that, Cadence took Brady's backpack into her hand and the two left STAR Labs, heading out to her car parked in the parking lot.

"Mom?" Brady asked as they went. "How come Aunt Caitlin doesn't come to STAR Labs anymore?"

"Because she works at Mercury Labs now," Cadence patiently explained. She placed Brady's backpack in the backseat of the car, pausing for a moment. She could've sworn she left the doors locked before going inside the building. _Maybe they finally got some security around here,_ she thought before getting into the driver's seat. "You can't go somewhere you don't work anymore."

"But why doesn't she want to work with us?"

"I don't think it's that she doesn't want to work with us. She's just really hurt over what happened and needs some time to process it."

"Like Barry?"

"Like Barry."

Cadence tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she drove to her ex-boyfriend's house. On one hand Caitlin and Barry certainly did deserve to have as much time as they needed to get over what they were going through, but on the other hand it was good to see him again that day. Within the CCPD their jobs didn't cross paths as much as she originally thought; typically her job needed to confirm a cause of death, to have families come in to identify a body mostly within violent and suspicious cases of death. In other mundane areas; heart attacks, aneurysms, and car accidents, collecting physical evidence was something that Barry's job was a big part of.

Being able to see him that day gave her a sense of relief to know that he hadn't done something stupid or ran out of Central City. He looked as good as she hoped he would; there were no bags under his eyes to show long hours of work. He didn't look wasted away like he was working too hard to eat properly. He was just MIA and she greatly missed having him around.

"Are you thinking about Barry?"

Brady's question caught Cadence so off-guard that she almost forgot to brake before running her car into the one in front of her when the light turned red. Then she glanced at her son who looked at her curiously.

"What makes you say that?" She asked.

"Because you always get this look on your face whenever you're thinking about him," Brady said matter-of-fact.

"Yeah…I just miss him."

"Me too."

* * *

"So?"

Mick Rory growled a little as he lifted his gaze to meet Leonard Snart's. He sat at the head of the table with an impatient glare on his face, running a cloth over his cold gun almost lovingly. Realizing he had his partner's attention, Snart's steel eyes shifted over to Mick.

Mick's eyes flickered with the light of the flames in front of him in an almost demonic way. He sat with a computer directly at his side and the heat gun right next to it, hooked up with some strange wires. Even from where he was sitting in the darkness Snart could see Mick was growing frustrated. He looked over at Lisa, who sat on the other side of the room, absentmindedly flipping through a magazine. Every now and then she would hold it away from her and study the picture.

Then Snart turned his attention back to Mick. "I told you that this computer from STAR Labs was going to be hard to use. And that's saying something coming from me, even I haven't found a way to crack into it."

"Please," Mick muttered. "There hasn't been anything I've gotten my hands on that I haven't been able to figure out."

"Other than keeping a woman?"

"A woman isn't useful to me at this point," Mick pointed out. "Except one." He turned his attention back to the computer screen and his eyebrows came together even tighter than it had before, a dull headache starting to pound at his head. "And I'm not going to stop until I can figure out how to get this to work."

"Well don't hurt yourself," Snart said.

Mick grumbled in reply.

* * *

 **A/N:** So what do you think for the opening? We've seen Barry's struggles as well as what's changed in the six months that's passed between the last story and this one. Things are going to move forward in what I hope is a faster pace than last story because I feel like it dragged a little at some points.

Again this had a part from the original _Sparks Fly_ as my original idea for that story had been incorporated into this one while others are sticking with its re-write _When We Collide, Sparks Fly._ As an added bonus to reading this, I'm updating that story this week its long awaited fourth chapter.

So, please let me know what you think about characterizations from the six months passing, plots, pacing of the chapter, what have you.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	2. So Right, But Feels So Wrong

**.:02:.**

* * *

"Cade, you've got a flank coming up on your left. And they're moving fast," Cisco's voice rang through Cadence's comm. link.

Cadence nodded as she lowered her hand from her ear; releasing her hold on the comm. link. "Got it, I can hear them coming over already. Looks like they're trying to block me in." She shifted her gaze around the bank where they rested on a particular spot on the wall. She started to smirk then her smile dropped, hearing the sound of a gun cock behind her.

Raising her hands, Cadence slowly turned to face a pistol pointed directly in between her eyes. She shifted her gaze upwards and found them locked onto the face of a scraggly, bearded man dressed completely in black. She then noticed the three others hat crept up behind him, all carrying bags filled to the brim with money. As if on cue the three pulled up their guns and pointed it at her as well. Then Cadence's eyes squinted against the bright light that suddenly hit her in the face.

She blinked and tilted her gaze upwards to find a man crouched on the balcony above, pointing a scope at her. Cadence's eyebrows rose. "A sniper? That's the first time I've had to deal with one of those."

"Turn around slowly and walk out…and we'll go easy on you," the man who pointed the gun directly at her growled.

Cadence smiled sweetly. "That's cute. You think going easy on me is actually going to help you." With that, Cadence took a step back and used her heat vision to burn the guns that sat in the robbers' hands. They screamed in pain, dropping their weapons and Cadence immediately flew into action.

Using her teleportation ability, Cadence first went up to where the sniper had been waiting for her. He cried out in surprise as she suddenly appeared behind him. Whirling around, he tried to train his gun back on her but with a series of well-placed punches and kicks Cadence knocked the gun out of his hands then gave a high kick to his face. As he fell backwards she teleported behind him and caught him by the neck of his shirt as he started to fall. Pulling hard, she tossed him over the railing and onto his cohorts below.

Then she teleported back down and started to attack the rest of the group. There was a flurry of movement as she continued to teleport back and forth from one of the robbers to another, using strong punches and fire and smoke tactics to render them useless. Finally the leader started to attack her back, causing her to flip backwards out of the way with a series of backhand springs before doing a back hand tuck to land on the ground. She followed up with a high kick to his head, knocking him to the ground.

"And people say being a cheerleader is just about looking cute," Cadence gloated.

The robber groaned, turning his head to the side and reached out his hand towards the gun that was only a few feet out of his grasp.

Cadence walked over to the fallen man and took his gun, melting it in her hands. "Sorry, sweetie, but it looks like you're going to be spending a lot of time behind bars."

Dusting off her hands, Cadence listened as Tess said, "The CCPD is on their way, you might want to get out of there. Those guys certainly aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

"You got it." Cadence teleported back into the cortex and pulled her goggles off, resting them around her neck. "These guys are starting to get a little smarter. They've actually been working around the clock now." She shook her head. "Not that it's hard to figure out there's less security this early in the morning."

"Then it's a good thing we came in to check things out, right?" Tess replied, turning away from her computer with a bright smile. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and crossed her legs at the knee.

"That's funny, I thought you lived here," Cisco remarked with a half smile. His eyes were locked on Cadence's suit as she teleported out of it and into her clothes. He jumped as the suit was dumped into her lap and started to painstakingly look it over. "I mean, you're _always_ here."

"Sounds to me like you're starting to get annoyed that you're not the one running the shots on field operations," Cadence remarked with a light smile. She pushed Cisco out of the way and opened his bottom desk drawer to root around in his candy stash.

"No, I'm just annoyed that I've needed to buy more candy this month than any other time I've been here!" Reaching out with his foot, Cisco pushed the door shut, nearly shutting it on Cadence's fingers. He then yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Besides, right now, nothing is better than being here."

"Are you having problems at home?" Tess asked.

Cisco snorted. "If by 'problems' you mean my parents and my brother then my life has been nothing but problems at home." He frowned, turning his attention to Cadence's suit. "But right now my problem is how you've been treating my suit."

"Cisco, trust me when I say if you ever have children, you better treat them the way you treat these suits." Cadence stood up, looking at her watch. "I have to go. I've got to get Brady on the bus and then I have to get to class and then I have to get to work."

"How have you managed to do all of this without keeling over?"

"Because I steal from your candy stash." Cadence bit into the chocolate bar she held in her hand. "Next time get more Snickers."

"I thought you liked Twizzlers."

"I do. But those are empty calories and I need energy to burn." Cadence couldn't stop the smirk that came to her face as she turned away and said, "Besides, I like nuts."

Cisco laughed and Tess made a sound of disapproval as Cadence hurried out of STAR Labs and back to her apartment where Brady sat in the middle of the living room floor, watching cartoons on TV. He barely looked up as his mother hurried by. "Did you get them?" He asked.

"Yep, they didn't know what hit them," Cadence replied. She moved back and forth, getting her things together for the day. "You might see it on the news later today."

"Okay." Brady nodded and took another bite of cereal. Then, with milk dribbling down his chin, he asked, "Do I smell chocolate?"

Cadence glanced at the partially eaten chocolate bar in her hand and walked into the kitchen to get Brady's lunch together. She made sure to pack in a sandwich, chips, fruit, and applesauce. Once it was packed she grabbed a sheet of plastic wrap and wrapped it around the chocolate bar before walking it and his lunch bag out to him. "Have it for lunch."

Brady frowned as he took the chocolate bar before he put it into his lunch bag. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Did Barry come help you today?"

Now Cadence frowned as she shook her head. "No. Not this time." She didn't want to tell him that she didn't expect him to show up either. For the last six months she had worked on taking down metahumans, tracking the ones they had lost within their last encounter with the Reverse-Flash, and stopping petty criminals all by herself.

On one hand it was good so that she was able to prove she could handle things herself when the time came, but on the other hand she was starting to wonder if the city was losing its faith in The Flash due to Barry's absence.

Even Brady helped out with a few of the adventures from time to time.

"I hope he's okay." Brady got off the floor, taking his cereal bowl to the sink to wash out. "Mom?"

"No, I'm not going to call the school to get you out of your math test today," Cadence said. Distracted, she started to move around, filling up her water bottle, grabbing her gym shoes, and everything she needed for work to put in the bag that sat by the door.

"It's not that."

"Sorry, did I say that out loud?"

Brady ignored her. "What happens if he or Aunt Caitlin don't come back?"

With a long sigh Cadence pushed her hair behind her ears and twisted around to face her son. "Then we continue to work the way we're always working and hope they're happy with their decision. The thing you have to remember is that they're still grieving over what happened. Some people take longer to grieve than others while some people grieve differently. And while the rest of us are allowed to care about them and want them to move on, we can't push them to do so. You get it?"

"Yeah." Brady nodded. Still, he looked troubled.

"Good. Let's get you to the bus."

Cadence waited as Brady got his backpack then grabbed her gym bag and police badge before leaving the apartment complex. She walked Brady to the bus, handed him his backpack and gave him a quick kiss before the bus pulled away. Then Cadence looked around for a moment before she teleported once more.

Instead of going directly to the health center where her Zumba class was going to start in the next twenty minutes, Cadence went to the West house. More importantly, she teleported into Barry's room where he slept soundly—not after knocking first.

"Barry." Cadence reached over and shook his shoulder. "Barry, wake up."

Barry's eyes flickered open and he gazed dreamily up at Cadence. Then with a slight scream he shifted backwards, arms and legs moving at hurricane speeds as he became entangled in his blankets. Finally, he brought a hand to his chest, where his heart threw itself repeated against his ribcage, and flopped onto his back.

"Sorry," Cadence said meekly. "I knocked."

"Don't _do_ that," Barry gasped. "I might be the Fastest Man Alive, but you're a ninja or something. I swear." Finally he caught his breath, bare chest slowly calming down from its heaving. "What are you doing here?" He reached up to rub his eyes. He paused in his movements then dropped his arm over his eyes. "How did you know I was here?"

"It's Thursday," Cadence said simply.

"You've been stalking me again?"

"Watching."

It had to be the tenth time.

"Whatever."

"And, no, I didn't need to watch you. You've had the same schedule for the past couple of weeks; it's not hard to figure out where you'd be and what you do. Besides, I'm worried about you."

"Worried enough to break into my house?"

"Teleported. And, I knocked."

Barry started to say something else then stopped, eyes shifting to the side. Cadence raised hers in response and watched silently as he grabbed his blankets and pulled it tighter around him. Then he rested his arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling. "Why are you here?"

"Because, Tholly, I wanted to check on you." Cadence bobbed her head back and forth. "Check on _you_ , check you _out_ , whichever one makes you feel more flattered that I care." Barry couldn't help but laugh. "See, at least I made you smile."

Barry closed his eyes. "It's the first time I've smiled in a while."

"I can imagine."

"…I'm not going to Flash Day, Cade. Please stop asking me."

"I didn't ask you to go to Flash Day, Barry. And I'm not asking you to do anything at all." Cadence reached over and grabbed onto Barry's hands, shuffling her feet over the ground to pull him up into a sitting position. "I'm _telling_ you to come to my Zumba class."

Barry groaned and tried to lean back so he could stay in bed. "How was Brady's weekend with Ryder?"

"That was three days ago, Tholly. Don't change the subject." Cadence continued to pull on his arms. "You've been trying to avoid reality by fixing things and staying out of sight. Well, this will get your mind off everything before we have to go to work."

Barry then used his speed to launch himself off his bed, reverse Cadence's grip so that he was now holding her wrists, and looked down at her. Cadence's breath was ripped from her throat as she looked up into Barry's face.

"Fine," he finally said. "I'll go. Just, _please_ , get off my back about it."

Cadence smiled and clasped her hands together. "Yay!"

"Now get out as I can at least get dressed." Barry grabbed her arm and started her towards the door. He opened it and the two looked out to see Joe walking towards the stairs. At the sound of the door opening Joe started to turn their way. Panicked, Barry slammed the door shut once more and zoomed across the room, pushing Cadence into the closet.

She barely got a chance to gather her bearings, though could hear Joe and Barry talk quietly for a few moments, before the door opened and Barry pulled her out. "Sorry about that...Joe—"

"You've never had a girl in your room before?" Cadence asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have. I mean, I guess. Not like that." Barry suddenly paled as Cadence's eyebrows rose even further. "I mean, not like _this_ is like _that_ but. I mean. It's Joe. And I don't want to disrespect his house. Not that we _were_ disrespecting his house. Or—or that I've thought about it or anything." He released a long breath. "Sorry," he finally said.

"You're acting like I've never been in a closet before," Cadence remarked. _Not for a long time, anyway,_ she reminded herself. "Besides, this works better for me. When I get to class too early one of the mothers uses me as a sort of babysitter." She placed her hands on the sides of her head. "If I have to hear 'Row your boat', 'The wheels on the bus', or 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' again I'll scream. It's even gotten to the point that whenever I'm cooking pork I'm yelling 'die Peppa Pig, die' in my head'."

Barry gave her a funny look. "What do you have against Peppa Pig?"

Now Cadence laughed. "Buy me something to drink after class and I'll let you know."

* * *

"Well, well, well if I knew I'd find you here I would've looked here in the first place."

Barry turned away from his computer as Iris walked into his lab. He gave a soft smile then subconsciously reached up to smooth out his hair. A dust cloud erupted around him and he coughed, waving it away. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have been so eager to greet her like that if he knew he had just gotten back form fixing up Jitters a little bit.

Most of his work had been done the night before, but before heading out to the CCPD, he had to fix the banner and a few of the light fixtures before he felt CC Jitters was back to the way it had been before. Now he looked sheepishly at Iris, who looked a bit smug at him.

"Have I ever told you that you have a future in contracting?" Iris teased, reaching over to pick rubble from Barry's hair and shoulders. Maybe he should've done a better job of making sure he didn't give too many hints to his secret identity. Captain Singh had already looked at him funny when he arrived at work that day, surprising on time.

But what surprised him even more was when he said, "Good to see you, Mr. Allen."

Causing Barry and Cadence to turn to each other and shrug before Cadence went off to her office and Barry went up to his lab. But not before scuttling by Joe's desk, where his foster father watched him over the folder opened in front of him. He hadn't said anything about his suspicions from that morning and Joe had been watching him for a while now…Barry hoped he was just being a worried father.

"A great backup plan from being The Flash." She sat down in a seat next to him, crossing her legs at the knee. "I mean, you _were_ the one who cleaned up Jitters right?"

Barry smiled a little. Then he let out a breath, stretching his arms over his head. If there was one thing Cadence was good at, it was making sure he never forgot what it was like to be in one of her classes. _I need to start changing my schedule or she'll find my again,_ he realized. "Yeah, I just wanted to fix things. To make them go back to the way they were…" He took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes as a lump appeared in his throat.

Six months and it was still difficult to talk about.

"You mean the way it was before the Singularity?" Iris gently pressed. She reached up a finger to gently move her hair from her face to look directly at him. "It seems like you've been getting a lot of work done," she continued. Barry looked at her out of her corner of his eye as he turned back to his computer.

There was nothing interesting to look at, a bunch of tests being run he was waiting for the results on, and his social media accounts seemed to be dead. He figured at least Cisco would've wanted to start another game of Trivia Crack.

 _What else does he do in STAR Labs when I'm not there?_ Barry thought. Then he felt guilty at his selfish and self-centered question. Then he smiled a little; knowing Cisco he probably found a way to create some sort of a projection screen to have his own 'Cisco Cinema' wherever he meant.

"You know…with a lot of business and stores being rebuilt at night. In secret." Still, Barry didn't take the bait. Iris then crossed her legs the other way and gave him a pointed look. "You know, I was thinking of writing an article about all of these construction projects for the CCPN."

"Please don't."

Barry said it so quickly and so firmly that it startled Iris into silence for a moment. But she wasn't silent for long. "They know you're there, Barry. They've read the articles and may have even seen you streaking by at one point."

"I thought we were done calling me the streak." Barry couldn't help but smile. _Out of all of the nicknames…_ The Streak was the one he hated the most.

"We won't be done with anything for a while, Barry; I was just running it by you." Iris tilted her head and gave him a pointed look at the use of the word 'run'. "Not like you've been so easy to catch."

"I've been busy."

"We're all busy, Barry. You're forgetting that until the people of Central City know that the Flash is there…until they can actually _see_ the Flash, they can have any opinion of you they want."

"So let them have that opinion, Iris."

"You don't want them to see that you're the one they really can believe in?"

Barry leaned forward and rested his face in his hands. This was typical Iris; she was one of the few people that could talk him into anything. She was also the person that was very strong in her beliefs and wouldn't let anyone change her mind. That was starting to bite him in the ass.

"So that's why you're here? To get me to go to Flash Day? I'm not going," Barry said voice muffled from his hands.

"People just want to see the man that saved Central City," She insisted.

"Well, that's not me."

"Barry, of course it is."

"No, it's not! And you know that! You know it was Eddie…and Ronnie that saved Central City. Not me! I didn't do anything! At all!" Barry felt like he had been screaming at the top of his lungs, though it was just an incensed outburst that projected itself towards her. He immediately felt bad afterwards. Iris's eyes flashed with pain as she took a breath and turned away from him. Barry chewed his lower lip and reached out to place his hand on her knee. "Iris, I-I'm _so_ sorry."

Iris surprised him with a smile. "It's okay," she said. "It's been six months…I'm starting to get used to things. I miss him like hell…but he made the decision to do what he did. And I can't be more proud than that." Iris leaned forward and grasped Barry's hand. "If I can see that Barry, why can't you? They both wanted to help. They made that choice."

Barry closed his eyes.

Why couldn't he? Because he still relived that day. Every time he closed his eyes, every time he went to sleep, every time he daydreamed it was about that day.

He still knew what it felt like when he made his way up into the Singularity. How the wind buffeted him from all sides as he raced around the opening of the vortex as fast as he could go, pushing himself to go faster.

 _Barry gasped for air as he continued to run. Each breath he got was robbed of him from the strong winds around him. Tears slipped down his face as he ran, causing him to blink rapidly to clear his eyes from the tears and debris. Every now and then a large piece of debris would come flying his way but a well-timed blast of fire from Cadence would break it apart and send them flying in two different directions, allowing him to continue running. But the longer he ran the quicker Barry could see it wasn't going to help entirely._

 _The Singularity wasn't the same as the first vortex he had gone up against from Clyde Mardon. It was something else entirely. And as he continued to run and Cadence continued to fight it off, the strength of the Singularity continued to grow. He continued to run even when the wind slowly suffocated Cadence's flames and her eyes shut before she started to fall back towards the ground below._

 _"Cade!" Barry faltered when he saw her fall, ready to race out and save her._

 _Then he saw a burst of light and squinted against the driving wind and debris to see Ronnie and Professor Stein had gathered together again to become Firestorm. They caught Cadence and gently returned her to the ground before racing up into the middle of the Singularity. Before Barry could get a grasp on what was happening they flew up into the middle of the Singularity and split apart. Everything stopped all at once and Barry felt himself falling._

 _The Singularity dissipated, the winds stopped, and nothing was there to catch him. Debris of broken glass, wood, and whatever else the Singularity had managed to suck up rained back down to the Earth along with Barry. He twisted and turned in the air, trying to catch his bearings before frantically wind milling his arms. A blast of air shot from his arms, slowing his descent until he landed on the ground in a lunge before falling to the ground, chest heaving with effort._

 _It hadn't taken long for him to figure out what happened, to know Ronnie and Professor Stein had both disappeared, for Cadence to be knocked out long enough that she didn't wake up until almost half a day later, to know there had been more fatalities of innocent people than he could have ever imagined._

It all continued to go screaming through his head each second of the day.

Iris removed her hand from Barry, the movement bringing him back to reality. "Central City believes in The Flash. And so do I."

He watched as she left the lab and stretched back in his seat, pressing his arms over his eyes once more.

How did everything go so wrong when it should've been going so right?

* * *

Harrison frowned as he looked over the miniature tower of boxes in front of him. He took a step back, counted them, and then counted them again. Now almost glaring, he leaned over and pulled out his phone. Harrison scrolled over a few pages then his frown deepened.

He lifted his hands as if seconds away from throwing his phone against the wall then stopped, resting his hands on the sides of his head. He let out a deep breath through his nose and tried to calm himself down.

After all, it wasn't ever day that one of his specially made computers for STAR Labs went missing in shipment.

* * *

 **A/N:** The first 'episode' ends with the next chapter and things will greatly be my original work though will still have influences from season 2 aka Earth-2, Zoom, Jay Garrick, etc. If that makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't and I'll try to explain further. That being said, Caitlin, Tess, and Harrison will be shown more in the next chapter as they've both been sidelined a bit in these first two.

So what do you think so far? What are the things you like? What are the things you dislike? What do you think of the characterization? The pacing? Let me know. Don't be shy. I can take it.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	3. Recovering Guilt

**.:03:.**

* * *

"Looks like someone's been taking a ride on the hot mess express."

Caitlin Snow looked over her shoulder and smiled when she spotted Cadence walking her way, glancing around at all of the equipment that surrounded her. "Hey Cade."

Cadence flashed a warm smile before opening her arms to give her best friend a hug. "Hey Cait."

"What's this 'hot mess express' thing you're talking about?" Caitlin sat down in an office chair, crossing her legs at the knee.

Opting to lean against the desk, Cadence crossed her arms and flashed a teasing smile. "You're doing that thing with your hair, where you twirl it around your finger when you're nervous about something. Kind of like how you chew your lip when you're worried."

Caitlin lowered her hand from her hair and placed it in her lap. "I was just having a problem with this project I'm working on. Dr. McGee wants information on some of my findings later today and nothing seems to be going right for me at the moment." Her smile faded. "I've been feeling that way a lot lately."

Cadence nodded, briefly closing her eyes. Of course Caitlin was still thinking about Ronnie's disappearance. She, Barry, and Superman had gone looking for him once the singularity had dissipated and each search continued to turn up nothing. Caitlin tried to put on a brave face about it but actions spoke louder than words. Since then, while the others had been rebuilding she quickly moved on to Mercury Labs and buckled down in her work.

And Cadence was sure that Ronnie wasn't the only reason she didn't want to stay with STAR Labs.

"I'm sure a lot of us have," Cadence said gently. "But that's not really what I came here to talk about. I wanted to see how my best friend was doing. Brady's been asking a lot about you lately. Every time I turn around its 'Aunt Caitlin' this and 'Aunt Caitlin' that."

"That's sweet, but tell him I'm fine," Caitlin said. She waved her hand in the air. "I've just been incredibly busy lately. There's a lot that's been going on over here now that STAR Labs isn't…" she took a deep breath. "Now that STAR Labs isn't operating as well as it used to. And I just my head down and went right to work. You know me, Cade. I've gotten so used to working that when I have time off I don't what to do with myself."

"That's when you call me, dummy!" Cadence declared, gently swatting her on the knee. "Or else you forgot I'm the life of the party!"

Caitlin laughed. "Don't let Cisco hear you say that."

Cadence laughed and nodded in agreement. Then her laughter faded and she changed the subject to the real reason she had stopped by. "So are you going to this Flash Day thing?" She watched as Caitlin closed her eyes and turned her head away.

She was silent for a long time and Cadence knew from the slight trembling of her lips and chin that she was thinking about Ronnie and what had happened. Not just thinking about it, reliving it. Finally, Caitlin turned back to Cadence and sat up straight. She crossed her legs the other way and turned on her 'business face'. The same face Barry had told her about when detailing his experiences when first getting his powers and meeting Caitlin and Cisco. This was the second time she lost Ronnie and it had to be even more painful than before. At least this time she knew the reason why he was gone rather than just disappearing completely.

"I don't think I have the time. Like I said, Dr. McGee keeps us busy. Are you going?"

"Captain Singh is sending out some officers and deputies to make sure things don't get out of hand. I have some paperwork I need to fill out but I think I can sneak out and get there." Cadence glanced at her watch and pushed herself off of Caitlin's desk. "I hope I see you there."

Movement caught Cadence's eye and she glanced down to see Caitlin running her hands over each other, as if trying to rub some warmth into them. She watched her movements for a minute and then sat up. "I don't get why you like to keep your office so closed all the time if you're just going to shiver and try to keep warm."

Caitlin smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. "Not all of us have the power to keep ourselves warm all the time." She reached out and gently grasped Cadence's wrist. "Thanks for coming to see me. Tell Brady I said, 'hi'."

"I will."

Cadence left Caitlin's office and got as far as the door before she was stopped.

"About this Flash Day thing," Caitlin said. Cadence turned around to face her. Caitlin's teasing smile widened. "Don't you mean 'Flash and Friends'?"

Cadence gave her the finger.

* * *

Barry stood as far back of the Flash Day crowd as he could, keeping his head low, keeping his gaze low, and making sure no one got a good look at his face. The last thing he wanted to do was be where he didn't deserve any sort of praise and yet…maybe the others were right? Maybe he was being a little bit too hard on himself.

 _Besides, it wasn't like you were trying to find him,_ He reminded himself. _It wasn't like Firestorm, Flare, and Superman weren't all trying to help you take down the Singularity. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made._ Barry rolled his eyes, realizing he was starting to sound like Oliver.

He _hated_ it when that happened.

A roar moved over the crowd as the mayor of the city stepped up to the podium and started to sing Barry's praises. The _Flash's_ praises. And Barry listened to everything that had to be said, trying to take it deep inside. He glanced around at the faces nearby him and found that they were all nodding to what the mayor was saying, smiling as much as they had been before metahumans appeared in the city. Many of them were decked out in red and yellow, others wore shirts that carried the insignia that rested on the front of Barry's suit. Little kids held red, yellow, and white balloons, bobbing them up and down as they half-listened to what the Mayor had to say.

"We had a new breed of criminal," the mayor continued. "Men and women who defied our laws and physics. But we got something else too, we got the Flash!" Another roar went over the crowd and Barry could see the smiles on some of their faces increase in size and glee.

They really did think he was the one that saved the city.

They really did think he was the one who deserved the recognition.

They really did believe in him and what he stood for.

So why was he the only on that couldn't see it?

"Our wounds run deep and I know many of you are worried over the threats that may come soon. But the Flash is more than our protector; he is the hope that keeps us and our city alive. It is why I'm honored to present the key to the city to The Flash!"

Barry held his breath, lowering his gaze once more. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the loudest screams and cheers he had ever heard—even louder than the Lady Gaga concert he had been to. He had the thought of turning and running away, but the sound of a low murmur reached his ears and he looked up to see the Mayor lowering the key from his forward thrust to present it. His eyes searched the crowd as if expecting the Flash to stand in the middle of the crowd with a winning smile, fashionably late.

Oh how ironic that was.

Barry pursed his lips and took a few steps backwards. Once he saw no one was looking his way he raced to STAR Labs, changed into his suit, and ran up on stage, coming to a stop next to the Mayor. The Mayor was so startled he jumped, nearly dropping the key to the ground. Barry looked at him for a moment before turning to glance at the audience. He could see Joe and Cisco leaning against police cruisers at the back of the lot—he was surprised he didn't see them on the way in, he could see Iris and Professor Stein standing near the front of the crowd both smiling up at him, he could see Brady and the rest of his third—no, fourth grade class all clapping and cheering for him, and he could see Harrison and Tess standing towards the side of the crowd both smiling warmly.

An unfamiliar feeling fluttered through Barry's chest. A mixture of pride and uncertainty. He had stopped going to STAR Labs after the singularity so he hadn't been able to get to know the _real_ Harrison Wells and he wasn't sure if he wanted to. The man may have been stuck inside another man's body, a time traveler no less, but there were parts of him that were still familiar to Barry and he couldn't handle the fresh wound of betrayal.

Finally, Barry turned back to the Mayor and took the key from him. "The doors to Central City will forever be open to you, Flash."

Barry smiled and took the key in his hand, running his thumb over the metal. He couldn't help but smile a little. It was actually kind of cool.

He didn't have a lot of time to take in the significance of the situation as a loud, piercing scream reached his ears. He looked up in time to find a massive grill, probably from one of the vendors of the day, careening towards the stage. Barry reacted quickly and grabbed the Mayor by his jacket sleeve and whisked him off-stage.

The audience immediately scattered, sprinting in all directions as Barry turned towards the man responsible, finding him to be a man in a black trench coat and a mask over his face. Barry turned back towards him and watched as he took a few steps forward.

Barry followed suit and raced towards the man, but was caught by surprise with a strong punch to the gut. It was so strong Barry didn't have a chance to react before he was momentarily knocked out. The wind escaped his lungs in a hard grunt and he went flying through the air, landing on a police car.

Gunshots rang out, bullet casing littering the ground as the CCPD started to shoot at the man that attacked Barry. Joe whipped out his pistol and knelt on the ground, squeezing one eye shut as he aimed towards the man as well.

"Cisco, get the B.O.O.T.," he exclaimed.

"I'm on it!" Cisco shot back. He raced to the trunk of the police car and pulled out his new invention. He looked up just as Harrison and Tess came over, Tess moving as quickly as she could in a limp; she held what looked like a scanning device in her hands.

"This guy is reading off the charts," Tess said, her thumb rapidly sliding over the face of the device. "There's some sort of a metahuman power in there but I can't get a good idea of what it is yet. If we can get him back to STAR Labs then we can get some tests done."

"Let's hope your B.O.O.T. actually works, Cisco," Harrison added. "I'd hate for all of that work to go to waste. Though I can't say I'm not excited to see it in action as well."

"You and me both," Cisco agreed. He tossed the case down onto the trunk of the car and pulled out his invention. He glanced over it as quickly as he could before racing back to Joe. The crowd had mostly gotten out of the way of the attack but he could still some stragglers moving slower. Then there were those that stopped to take pictures and videos of the attack. "I hope these guys think getting all of this footage is worth it."

"Now you know how upset I was to know Iris was doing a blog on all of her Flash sightings," Joe declared. He took the B.O.O.T., took aim, and fired the contraption towards the man's feet.

The device clamped onto the man's left foot and sent electric shots through the body. Instead of the meta falling to the ground, right before their very eyes, it started to grow. The man's neck, which was already thick, then had the thickness of a tree trunk with a body to match.

Harrison reached out, pressing his glasses up his nose. "Didn't see that coming at all."

"I _did_ say the readings were off the charts," Tess commented.

The metahuman started towards them once more, the ground shaking under its feet each step he took. Still lying on the ground, Barry's eyes snapped back open and he sucked in a gulp of air. He rolled onto his front and pushed himself back to his feet, watching as the metahuman continued to lumber towards his friends. He started to race forward but was cut off by a sudden blast of flame that appeared in the sky behind the metahuman.

Cadence, dressed in her suit, emerged from the flames with her foot sticking out, kicking the metahuman in the back of the heard. Flipping backwards, she landed on the ground in a crouch, keeping her hands pressed to the ground. The ground split open and a tower of flames rushed out like a geyser, knocking the metahuman over once more.

Though his shoulder smoldered, skin started to fall off in clumps, the metahuman continued to lumber towards the group.

Barry's mind rolled through a million thoughts before something white caught his eye. Flicking his head to the side he found a couple of propane tanks lined up near some food trucks. Barry raced over and grabbed onto them. He glanced at Joe and nodded before throwing them towards the metahuman. Joe whipped up his pistol and fired at the propane tanks, blowing them up into the face of the metahuman.

The shockwave forced the metahuman backwards where he fell to his knees. He grunted in anger, the face plate of his mask opening to reveal Al Rothstein's glaring face.

Barry's moth dropped open in surprise.

"Is that…that's Al Rothstein," Joe murmured, watching him. "He's alive."

"That's impossible," Barry replied.

Al Rothstein continued to glare at the group in front of him before he turned on his heel and raced from the area. His bigger size kept him at a slow, bumbling pace at first before he picked up speed, knocking things out of his way.

The group then met up at STAR Labs where Cadence announced, "Al Rothstein's body has been in the morgue all night. There's no way he could still be alive."

"Maybe he has a twin," Brady piped up, gently twisting back and forth in his seat, kicking his legs as he did so. After the attack at the Flash Day rally the school day had been cut short and he went back to STAR Labs with them.

"No, we looked into that as well," Tess commented, pulling her hair behind her ears. "There's no indication he has any siblings. No twins or older or younger brothers that could've done this."

Barry snapped his fingers. "What about that meta that could change appearances? The one who looked like me and tried to infiltrate STAR Labs."

Harrison shook his head. "We looked into that as well and he's still on the lost after Eobard managed to set all of the metas you've captured free." He cleared his throat, pulling up the screen of the metas that used to be in STAR Labs' pipeline. "Pied Piper, Rainbow Raider, and the Mist, to name a few, are still missing as well."

"So we're basically looking to see how a man that has been dead for the past couple of days, is able to grow to twice the size he used to be?" Iris pointed out. She crossed her arms, jutting out her hip. "I've seen a lot of things but a zombie metahuman isn't something I ever thought we'd come across."

"He's not a zombie, Iris," Cisco reminded her. "I mean he wasn't looking to get anyone's brains or anything cool like that."

"Duh," Brady added.

Joe rolled his eyes but found himself chuckling.

Barry gave a fleeting smile.

"I can look into the coroner's office, see what they have to say," Cadence suggested. "Chances are they don't particularly want to air out their dirty laundry if a body managed to get up and walk away. It'd still be under wraps so to speak." She chuckled at her joke before waving to the group to leave STAR Labs with Brady getting off his seat and following after her.

"The hospital at the Flash Day rally said that a lot of their machines went down at the same time of the attack," Iris added. "If that helps at all."

"It does help, Iris, thanks," Barry said. "But I can take it from here." He turned on his heel to leave. He didn't want to have to deal with everyone at STAR Labs at the moment. They were at the incident so getting their opinions was helpful but he didn't really need it.

Barry looked over as Cadence walked a few steps ahead of him. He battled with himself for a minute, wondering if he should say something. Finally, he cleared his throat and hurried to catch up to her. "Cade," he called. She turned and looked at him curiously. He slowed to a stop and looked down at her, suddenly nervous. "I just wanted to say…I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out. I didn't think you were going to go to Flash Day."

"Neither did I," Cadence agreed. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "Really, I shouldn't have considering they still don't give credit where credit is due. But it's important for the city." She tilted her head towards Brady. "Besides, he really wanted me to go."

Brady smiled up at the speedy metahuman. "I knew you'd show up," he said simply.

Barry smiled his thanks to the young boy. Then he turned back to Cadence desperate to say anything, really, to stop her from looking at him as if he was a bug of some sort. "I didn't know you could do that…geyser thing! It was really awesome."

Cadence was silent for a long time. Her eyes shifted back and forth, looking over Barry completely before resting on his eyes. Finally she said, "It's been six months, Barry. You don't know what I can do."

* * *

Cadence had finished another visit with Child Protective Services when she got the call that Al Rothstein had been seen once more. It was the first visit since she and Ryder had managed to come up with a custody plan that worked with both of their schedules.

She understood the purpose; to make sure things were going fine while Brady was being shuttled back and forth. Surprisingly it worked better than any of the three of them had thought. Despite being angry at Ryder for so long, being able to express that anger, even a little bit, calmed her down. And through that confrontation they were able to speak openly over the last six months about what they wanted and apologizing over everything that had transpired between them.

It was then Ryder broached the topic once more about wanting to have joint custody or Brady, wanting to make up time for the last eight years he hadn't had with him. At first Cadence had hesitated over the idea but then relented, knowing it would probably look good for CPS when asked about Ryder's having moved to Central City for his work. Then the two had spoken to Brady about it, who hadn't had appeared too worried about the arrangement.

He had wondered what his father was like and now he was getting that opportunity.

And while Cadence was happy he was able to get to know her father, she was still angry. Not at Ryder. Not anymore. But at Joe West because he was the one who had called Child Protective Services on him in the first place. Having to continue weekly, if not monthly meeting with them around her work schedule and when metahumans seemed to pop up didn't make things easier and she couldn't help but focus on why it started in the first place.

She had just finished inputting the information with the next meeting on her phone when her phone frantically rang. It jumped and buzzed across the table beside her and she quickly reached to get it before it bounced to the floor.

"Hello?"

"It's Cisco," he practically barked into her ear. "You need to get here right now!"

"What's going on?" Cadence was already up out of her seat before she realized she had even moved. Something in her gut told her it had to do with Barry.

"Barry went to face Atom Smasher by himself," Cisco explained.

"Atom Smasher?"

"Isn't it a good name? It's because he absorbs radioactivity and—"

"—Cisco!"

"Right! Barry went to face him himself and Atom Smasher…well let's just say he really lives up to his name."

"I'm on my way." Cadence hung up and turned to find Brady walking through the wall, looking at her curiously. Cadence paused and gave him a disapproving look. "You're not going to stop doing that are you?"

Brady shrugged. "I knock when I'm supposed to. What's going on with Barry?"

"He's done something stupid."

"You mean like how he doesn't want our help?"

The question stumped Cadence for minute. She briefly wondered where he got so smart, but then realized he spent a lot of time watching what everyone else at STAR Labs did—to the point his science vocabulary had increased significantly.

Instead of responding she said, "We need to go to STAR Labs."

Brady nodded and grasped Cadence's hand. Fire erupted at her feet and covered their bodies as she teleported from the apartment to STAR Labs. She arrived just in time to find Barry stumble back into the cortex and collapse to the ground. Opening her arms, Cadence slipped hers through Barry's and held onto him. His head lolled back and forth, a bead of blood rolling down from the corner of his mouth.

"Quick, get him into the medical bay," Harrison instructed, coming to Cadence's side. Cadence did as she was told and he slap on a pair of gloves, bringing over a cart filled with needles. There was an almost excited smile on his face as he said, "I've been working on these for a while, glad I'm able to get some use out of them."

Cadence shook her head. This Harrison, the _true_ Harrison Wells certainly was different than the man she had gotten to know over the last years. Dragging Barry over to a bed she carefully pulled him up onto one of the beds and laid him down. She then pulled on a pair of gloves as well, picking up a flashlight to look into Barry's eyes. His pupils contracted within each eye. Then she removed the flashlight and started to feel around his forehead.

"No lumps or anything. Looks like most of his injuries are internal," She commented.

"This should do the trick then," Harrison said. He held up a syringe and shot some liquid out while flicking the tip then held out Barry's arm, gently gliding it into the vein.

"What is that?" Cadence asked.

"Nutrient supplement, it'll keep his body reacting regularly while he heals, giving him a boost of energy when he wakes up," Harrison explained. He pulled off his gloves and took a step back. "It's a prototype at the moment, but with his increased metabolic rate it should work well and we'll see results from him fairly soon."

"So like an IV?"

"Similar, but this has healing properties, much like his and your powers have."

Cadence nodded and pulled off her gloves as well. Pulling a chair over, she pulled the glove off Barry's left hand and grabbed onto it with hers. Already she became a little drained while using her powers to heal him, all the while giving him a bit of a jump start.

As he lay quietly she studied his face as it fell into a peaceful expression. His chest gently rose up and down and his grip held steady against her palm. It was the most peaceful she had seen him over the last six months. Even at work he seemed to avoid her and everything she reminded him of; they didn't go out on their lunch breaks as much as they used to and he busied himself with his work. When he did take some time off it wasn't long until the televisions all around the CCPD were detailing how another building had miraculously been rebuilt.

She knew the guilt he felt over everything couldn't have been helping his plight; he was surely suffering from PTSD. She had seen it enough in patients from her residency that had been abused or seen some heavy things while looking for their next drug fix.

The healing process from PTSD couldn't be rushed but he wasn't doing himself any favors by acting reckless.

"C'mon Tholly," She murmured. "Wake up."

"How's he doing?"

Cadence looked over her shoulder as Joe walked into the medical bay, looking as worried and tired as any parent would. She hadn't realized how long she had been in there, watching Barry until he spoke. Joe gave her a look as she sat down and Cadence had to resist the urge to respond to him sarcastically.

He was worried about Barry, now wasn't the time to be annoyed with him. "As fine as he can be, I guess."

Joe nodded. He leaned back in his seat and was silent for a long moment, staring at his foster son, his true son by all accounts. Then he sat up once more. "He can't do this alone anymore," he stated.

Cadence snorted. "I've never tried to let him to do it alone, but he can be as stubborn as an ass sometimes. You'd think I'd be used to it with Brady but you can't force a grown man to do something he doesn't want to do."

"My point exactly. I've given him space over the last six months to deal with the problems he's been having. For him to come back to us. And today proved that he'd rather throw his life away than face any of us."

"And do what instead? Get my friends killed?"

Barry's voice startled Joe and Cadence, turning their attention back to him. Cadence started to pull her hand away but Barry tightened his grip on it, keeping her still. Barry's breathing was still regular, the heart monitor next to him keeping track of its steady rate. A bruise rested on his cheek offsetting the defiant look in his eye.

Joe cleared his throat as he turned a flinty gaze to his son. "I didn't want to tell you this, Barry, because you've been moping around here feeling sorry for yourself. But this is something you need to hear." Joe made sure he had Barry's attention before continuing. "Yes, all of this is your fault. Everything that has happened over the last six months, even before then is your fault. You're free to make whatever decision you feel is right but you're not free of the consequences that come from them.

"No one can predict what's going to happen with each decision we make. That's why it's called uncertainty. But to continue to revel in that guilt is a choice you're making and the consequences you'll face are pushing away everyone who loves and cares about you. And when you find yourself alone you'll wonder what you can do to turn back time. You may have the ability to travel at the speed of sound or even faster you can't run away from your choices. All of us were there the day of the…" he trailed off.

"Singularity," he prompted.

"Singularity," Joe agreed. "We were all there and we all chose to help you the best ways we could. There were some wins and there were some loses but that's something that we as humans face every day. Meta or not. So you need to stop putting the guilt all on yourself."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Barry whispered.

"Stop thinking that _you're_ the one that has this great responsibility to save everything," Cadence spoke up, causing him to turn towards her. "Despite what Flash Day is supposed to be for, you have a whole team that's standing behind you to help in any way they can." She paused, knowing the next part may hurt him. "You couldn't save your mother; you couldn't save Eddie or Ronnie. Start thinking of the things that you _can_ do." She tightened her grip on his hand. "No matter what I've got your back."

The corners of Barry's lips turned up. "Promise?"

"I already made that promise, didn't I?"

He nodded and pulled his hand away. Slowly rolling on his side, he turned to Joe and looked at him for a long moment. Then Joe smiled and reached out his hand, gently caressing Barry's face. "You know, you didn't have to be so hard on me," Barry joked.

Joe laughed. "Oh, like that time you and Iris skipped school and I made you two pick up trash on the side of the road?"

"That was cruel and unusual punishment."

"I thought it fit the crime very well." Joe laughed and leaned over Barry, giving him a long hug. Barry was smiling, finally smiling when he pulled back. "My yelling may have been a bit overboard but I got my point across."

Joe chuckled once more and his attention turned behind the two and Cadence turned to see Brady leaning in the doorway, motioning rapidly to them. "Come on," he said, once he had their attention. "Aunt Caitlin's here."

"Caitlin?" Barry repeated.

He started to get out of the bed and Joe reached out his arm, helping him up before the three shuffled out into the Cortex where everyone was watching Caitlin as she, almost timidly, walked in.

"Hey," Iris greeted her warmly. "It's good to see you."

"I didn't think you'd come back," Cadence said.

"Ditto," Cisco agreed.

Caitlin smiled at the group. Her gaze flickered around the room, landing on Harrison for a long moment. Then it was as if a chill ran through her and she shuddered, looking away. "I was at the Flash Day…and Cisco told me what happened with Barry...I had to come back. I-I don't blame you for what happened to Ronnie, Barry." His eyebrows rose in surprise and she rushed to continue. "I blame myself. For everything, for all of it."

"How is it your fault, Caitlin?" Tess asked gently.

"Because it is. I didn't stop him when he first went into the Pipeline and the accelerator exploded. And that was the first time he…he disappeared. Then when Ronnie became Firestorm he asked me to leave Central City so we could have a normal life. I didn't tell anyone about it because I didn't need to think about it. I said no." She started to gesture around the room. "I couldn't leave STAR Labs, Dr. Wells…you guys." A tear started to fall down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. "If I had gone with him Ronnie would still be alive and being at STAR Labs just made me think about that every single day."

Harrison shook his head. "That's not your fault at all."

"I know. I know that now. But for a long time I thought it was something I could rationalize as something I could've stopped. But Cisco and Cade came to visit me and with what happened…I couldn't stay away. There was too much good that I've gone through here. And I'm tired of being afraid. Afraid of not knowing, afraid of knowing what _would_ happen. This was something all of us had gotten used to and it's a part of my life I couldn't ignore. So…you were saying there was a new meta you needed help taking down?"

Barry smiled and rubbed his hands over his neck before clasping his hands together. "Does anyone have any ideas? Clearly, I can't stop him by myself…and I don't want to."

"Well, Cisco explained everything to me and I think I have an idea of how to take him down," Caitlin said. "But of course, I can't do it alone either." She looked over at Cisco, who smiled back at her.

* * *

"Are you still thinking about what happened, Barry?" Brady asked, looking at Barry across the kitchen table. He held a fork of spaghetti in his fingers and absentmindedly twirled it around and around, sprinkling the table with droplets of red sauce.

Barry nodded, his left hand resting over his mouth, his right hand spread his fork around his plate. His eyebrows came together, forming a crease in his forehead as he was stuck deep in thought. It hadn't been so difficult to defeat Atom Smasher once Caitlin explained hers and Cisco's idea; overloading him with nuclear energy from the nuclear reactor in Central City's power plant that his body couldn't completely absorb.

It worked and it worked well. Maybe a bit too well. Atom Smasher had shrank back to normal size but died from radiation poisoning shortly after. But not before explaining to Barry that the only reason he had tried to kill The Flash was because he wanted to go home.

 _"Zoom told me he'd take me home if I killed you."_

That thought followed Barry for the rest of the night; who was 'Zoom' and where was the 'home' that Atom Smasher wanted to return to so badly? Despite how happy he was that his friends were actually his friends again, that Team Flash was back together…he only wondered what they were going to face next.

"It wasn't your fault," Brady helpfully reminded him.

Barry dropped his hand from his chin and nodded. "No, I know that. I just don't get what it was this whole Zoom thing is about." He shook his head. "It's nothing, don't worry about it. But thanks for inviting me over for dinner."

"My pleasure," Cadence replied. "Considering it's the first time you've actually come over considering how many times I've asked."

"I know, I'm sorry," he apologized. He then turned back to Brady and said, "And I promise I'll take you to the science museum this weekend." Brady smiled around his mouthful of spaghetti, causing Barry to smile back. "But why did you keep inviting me over if I kept saying 'no'?"

"Because I know how hard it is being alone. And, I missed you," Cadence said.

Barry smiled. "I missed you, too, Cade."

"Mom. Mom!" Brady frantically pointed at the TV that sat across the apartment and one-look at the Breaking News headline reading: _Metahumans on Way Out?_ Got their attention. Cadence grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

"And since the metahuman incident at the Flash Day rally, there has been an outcry from the citizens of the city that demand to have metahumans eradicated," the anchor said. "Of course this brings up the question of those that may be metahumans and haven't exhibited their powers yet. Or at all. What of the ones who are known to have shown their powers like The Flash? Should it be fair that they're able to walk among those within Central City who are considered 'normal' and then go on to be The Flash later?"

"First time in my life I'm glad I wasn't mentioned," Cadence murmured. Barry glared at her and her eyes widened at her mistake. "But that's very, very terrible."

Brady shushed her and looked at the TV again.

"The city council is already fielding calls and demands for metahumans to turn themselves into custody while others are defending those saying metahumans have rights too." The TV then went on to show footage, professional and amateur, from the attack earlier that day.

"What does that mean?" Brady asked.

"It means that if people find out we're metas" Barry took a deep breath. "…We're going to be in a lot of trouble."

* * *

Tess stretched her legs out on the couch, resting them in Harrison's lap as she held onto a mug of tea. Harrison, on the other hand, leaned into his computer screen, rubbing his hands over his face every now and then. "What's the matter?"

Harrison paused for a long moment before leaning back, taking his glasses off. He rubbed his eyes and let out a low sigh. "I've continued to work in STAR Labs over the last couple of months because it's my home. Even when Eobard had my body it was a place where I felt safe. I naively thought once it got through to them that I wasn't in control for a lot of things that happened they'd see we were two different people. But Eobard has damaged their relationships enough. Cisco can barely look at me let alone work beside me, Barry continues to ignore that I'm there, and Caitlin…"

He glanced over at his wife who reached out and lovingly ran her fingers through his hair. She understood completely. It had to have been devastating for Caitlin, to have fallen in love with someone who wasn't truly real. She would've spoken to her about it if she didn't fear it would make Caitlin detest her on principal. Nevertheless the same thing had happened to Tess in a way, there was a man she had grown to love who ended up not being the same person she ran into when arriving back in Central City. It hurt her to know Harrison had suffered so much within Eobard's decisions.

"They're all hurt and while Cisco and Caitlin can move on from their pain, Barry can't because his family still won't get any justice."

Tess studied her husband for a long moment. "What are you thinking about?" She asked. "You're starting to sound very cryptic."

"I think it's best if we got Mr. Allen out of jail," Harrison said. "I need to confess to his mother's murder."

* * *

 **A/N:** I originally intended to have _When We Collide, Sparks Fly_ updated but nothing I was writing for it was coming out right. So here's an update to this story instead. Also, if you haven't yet check out my new one-shots _Noise_ and _Warm._ (Warm is rated 'M' for a reason).

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **PS -** We're on tumblr as purple-and-red-ribbons; we talk about our fanfiction, fandoms, and the Flash there so feel free to follow/chat.

 _Review Replies_

Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1.

 **Ethan:** Pretty easy to confuse especially since I wrote the beginning part of the chapter after re-reading _When We Collide, Sparks Fly_ as I worked on the next chapter to that simultaneously. Brady cares a lot about his friends, especially his mother's friends so he would wonder what was going on with them. Barry does like the class, but it's not high on his list of things to wake up for. Peppa Pig is a childrne's show. Snart and Mick did get the computer before it was sent to STAR Labs and you'll see why they wanted it soon.

 **jospehguy217:** Again, thanks for your constant support! :)


	4. Getting Back to Normal

**.:04:.**

* * *

Brady walked into his fourth grade classroom and sat at his pod of desks. He dropped his backpack to the floor and started to dig around inside for his books for his first class. He barely looked up when Conner sat across from him.

"Hi," Conner said quietly.

Brady looked at him then went back to digging through his desk. It was fruitless, really. His desk was immaculate, with all of his books in order of what subject was done first to the one that was done at the end of the day. "Hi," he replied just as quietly.

"You haven't been to soccer practice much lately; the coach says you can come any time you want. He's not going to kick you off the team."

"I know."

"And mom says you can come over whenever you want."

"I know," Brady repeated. "I just haven't felt like going."

Conner lowered his gaze to his desk. "Oh." He frowned then lifted his chin. "Why?"

Brady shrugged. He leaned back in his seat and looked around the classroom for a minute. His classmates greeted each other happily s they streamed into the room before the bell rang. They all seemed to be happy and cheerful without a care in the world. He could've been the same way, especially now that Team Flash was working together again, but there was still so much that was different around Central City.

Now he had to be even more careful about his powers than ever before because of the news reports of metahuman rights and what metas have been doing to destroy Central City. And he was still having some trouble with control over it. Every now and then he'd lost feeling in his body and he'd start to sink through the floor or whatever chair or couch he was sitting on. On the bright side he was slowly starting to be allowed to work on his fighting skills despite how hesitant the others were to let him into battle.

"I haven't been sleeping well lately," he said honestly. "I'm just tired."

"Oh. Well, maybe you want to come over for a sleepover this weekend? You know my mom, she does her best to make sure we actually go to sleep," Conner reminded him. Brady smiled and nodded. It was always fun to see how much they could push Ms. Hawke's buttons before they were finally forced to go to sleep.

"Maybe," Brady finally replied.

"Cool." Conner smiled and sat up in his seat. "So how was your weekend? You were with your dad, right?"

Brady nodded. "We went to the park one day then we went to the trampoline park the day after. I'm still sort of sore." He reached up and rubbed his shoulder. Then his nose wrinkled. "Ryder's cool and I like to hang out with him. But it's kind of hard to think of him as being my dad when he hasn't been a dad before."

"Mom says the same thing about my dad whenever I ask," Conner agreed. "She says he wouldn't know how to be a dad if he were punched in the face by a toddler. Or something. Whatever that means." Now he shrugged and Brady laughed. Then Conner grabbed the bottom of his seat and started to shuffle across the floor so that he was sitting next to Brady. He leaned in, placing a hand by his mouth. "I found a check in a drawer in the kitchen and Mom freaked out when I found it. I think it might have something to do with my dad."

"What makes you say that?"

"She only gets that way whenever I bring him up."

"Did you see how much the check was for?"

"No. But I wonder why my mom left it there. I mean, its money and she's always complaining about taxes and stuff."

Brady started to say something else then stopped when the teacher came into the classroom, clapping for their attention. Conner shifted back in his seat and Brady turned in his desk to listen patiently. He stopped and blinked when something shot out of the corner of his eye. Twisting around to face the window, Brady's eyes narrowed. He could've sworn he had seen something there, almost like a lightning streak.

Tilting his head, Brady continued to watch out the window. He blinked once more when he saw the lightning flash again. This time, he turned back towards Conner, who was looking his way, eyebrows raised in question. "What'd you see?" He whispered.

"I think I saw The Flash," Brady whispered back.

"You _think?"_

"The lightning looked a little funny. It's always supposed to be yellow. It looked kind of white."

All of a sudden the lights flickered rapidly, bringing everyone's attention towards the windows. Before the teacher could stop them, the students got up from their desks and raced towards the windows and watched. Every few seconds a shock of blue light would go flashing by the windows. Brady counted the time it took between each one in the same way you would count the time between thunder and lightning. The lightning seemed to be coming form miles away.

 _Or maybe it's running around Central City,_ Brady thought.

"It's the Flash!" One of his classmates cried, causing the kids to press their faces against the windows even harder.

Brady exchanged a glance with Conner and shook his head imperceptibly. _His lightning streak isn't blue._ The lights in the room continued to flicker before completely going out, causing the hubbub from the students to increase. Then the lights flickered back on as the lightning outside stopped.

"Alright, kids, everyone back to your seats," The teacher called as Brady's classmates groaned and shuffled back to their desks. "Yes, yes, it's all very exciting to see The Flash is trying to save your city as he always does. It must be exciting to see him again after the Flash Day rally we were allowed to see on our field trip. But that reminds me, please make sure your parents get the notice that your parents are suggested to be at the school's PTA meeting that's coming up. With the Flash around there are plenty of things that needs to be discussed."

"Oh a PTA meeting?" Brady's nose wrinkled as he sat back at his desk. "Mom hates PTA meetings."

"Why?" Conner asked.

"They hunt her down."

* * *

Barry glanced at his phone as it started to buzz. He read the message from Joe and immediately pushed his chair backwards from his desk. He headed down towards the lobby of the CCPD as all of the officers and detectives came together, streaming out of their offices. They all turned towards Captain Singh as he strode out of his office, face set in stone.

"He doesn't look like he's in a good mood," Barry muttered as he came to a stop at the foot of the stairs.

"So what else is new," Cadence remarked, coming to a stop next to him as she came from her office. Barry glanced down as she pulled a pair of gloves off her hands, turning them inside out and tucking them into the pocket of her jeans. She noticed his glance and gave him a funny smile. "Don't worry, I wasn't actively dissecting anything, I was just cleaning my tools." She wiggled her fingers. "No need to be afraid of being contaminated."

"My fears of being contaminated went flying out the window once I started working with chemicals ages ago," Barry replied with an easy-going shrug. "Though there was one time where I managed to get some to eat through my clothes on accident."

Cadence laughed. "What happened?"

"I had to be stripped down in front of the entire precinct to be hosed off by the emergency shower," Barry said, causing Cadence to laugh harder. "I promise it's not as funny as it sounds."

"Maybe from your position," Cadence said.

Her laughter faded and the two turned their attention to Captain Singh as he started speaking loudly to get everyone's attention. "I'm sure all of you have seen the news reports on what is now becoming a hot topic on metahuman vs. human rights." Barry exchanged a worried glance with Cadence. He swallowed hard and turned back to Captain Singh, wondering where he was going with the speech. "And until things are figured out we're going to operate as normal; take metahumans that we deem doing serious crimes and capture them, putting them in the metahuman facilities in Iron Heights. We are not to escalate any instances of coming across metahumans unless otherwise needed."

Captain Singh leveled the precinct with a stern gaze to bring the point home. Barry let out a quiet sigh of relief. As long as he didn't need to hide his true identity any more than he already had been.

"That being said we've already put more precautions in place in terms of what's happened at the Flash Day rally. Unfortunately it seems that there's already another metahuman that has been coming through our city wreaking havoc. We've had reports of lightning strikes and power outages all over the city and we can't take the threat lying down. These reports have been coming from all over the city at roughly the same time which gives us the idea that this is the work of a metahuman."

Now Barry frowned.

A new metahuman in the city? If it was anything like Atom Smasher than it could get pretty bad pretty fast, especially if what Atom Smasher said was true. That he was looking to find and kill Barry just so that he could be brought back 'home'. Wherever 'home' was or who this 'Zoom' was that wanted him dead.

"We want everyone here to continue to protect and serve the city as we originally signed up for, but to be aware that metahumans are now part of our daily lives and that we have to work differently to make sure they're brought to justice as any criminal would."

Barry looked over as a hand was suddenly thrust into the air with gusto. He leaned over to find a blond woman with bright blue eyes staring hard at Captain Singh, with what appeared to be a scowl on her face. Her other hand was gently resting atop the holster that held the CCPD sanctioned pistol given to all officers.

Captain Singh glanced at her and nodded. "Yes, uh…?"

"Spivot, sir," the woman said. "Patty Spivot. I'm new here at the CCPD from Keystone. Can you give us an idea of what this new metahuman is able to do? Just in case we run into him or her?"

"We haven't gotten any eyewitnesses to the metahuman yet but it is someone or something that can move pretty fast," Captain Singh explained.

"So this wouldn't be the work of The Flash?"

A low snort escaped Cadence's lips at Patty's suggestion. She ducked her head when some eyes moved her way. Barry smiled to himself, glad for at least her sound of protest. At least he wasn't the only one who didn't like the idea of The Flash being lumped together with the metahumans that continued to cause harm to the city.

Captain Singh held up a hand. "I assure you Miss. Spivot that The Flash is someone that we want on our side, he has helped out the CCPD through some of their more recent plights against these metahumans. I will continue to give you as much information as I can when it comes in. In the meantime carry on with your duties."

With that the meeting dispersed and Barry turned to face Cadence. "You don't think this has anything to do with that Zoom guy do you?" He asked.

Eyebrows rising, Cadence said, "That's a bit of a leap don't you think? Zoom could be a biker or a gang leader as far as we know. Maybe even a high crime boss from Starling City." She thought for a moment. "It's probably good if we look into that first, maybe get into contact with Oliver to see if that's an option. If not, then we can get Caitlin, Cisco, Harrison, and Tess to look into these instances if they haven't already."

Barry nodded in agreement. The two started to head in the direction of the break room situated halfway between both of their offices. "So how's that going by the way?" He asked. "Harrison and Tess being around?"

"Probably the same as Brady thinks being around Ryder so much lately is," Cadence said honestly. She shrugged. "Sort of weird but sort of cool at the same time. Now that I'm getting to know the _real_ Harrison Wells and to get to know Tess…it's easy to see what sorts of things I got from the both of them rather than my mom and dad." She reached up and rubbed her temples. "But the whole 'mom and dad' thing is that part that's starting to become confusing."

"Well, I'm glad thing are going well for you on that front." Barry couldn't keep the strange tone out of his voice. He knew Cadence realized it as soon as she stopped walking and turned back to him.

"I'm having the same problem," she said honestly. Barry tried to play dumb but she saw right through it. "Trying to separate this Harrison from the Harrison we thought we knew who ended up being Eobard. It's hard to trust him entirely, not knowing if I'm going to turn around and find a hand shoved through my chest." She shook her head. "He doesn't say it but I know Cisco's having the same troubles as well. He doesn't stay in the same room with Harrison for too long unless he has to. And as we both know Caitlin's having trouble with it, but probably more with Tess being around than Harrison."

Barry swallowed hard, licking his lips as he took his gaze away from her. He tried not to think about it too much since having rejoined Team Flash the week before. But he had to admit the feeling around STAR Labs was difficult for him to be around as well. They weren't as cohesive as they used to be; unknowns and uncertainties continuing to swirl around.

He started to say something else but stopped when he heard his name being called. Turning, Barry found himself face to face with Patty Spivot, who reached out and took his hand, shaking it with gusto. "Barry Allen, right?" She asked. Before he could confirm she reached out and took Cadence's hand, shaking it just as firmly. "I was told I was to speak with you about metahumans due to your experience with them."

"My experience?" Barry repeated. He willed himself to extinguish the immediate explosion of anxiety that robbed him of his breath. "W-with the m-metahumans. I don't know; I don't have so much experience with them. I've just been them a few times. I mean it's not like I'm an _expert_ or anything."

Patty frowned. "Oh, but I've heard that you have connections with STAR Labs and—"

"Oh, you mean through STAR Labs!" Cadence broke in, coming to Barry's rescue. "There have been a few cases that the CCPD has worked on that STAR Labs has helped with a few times. But not anything that'd make any one an expert."

Barry nodded.

Patty nodded back, looking back and forth between the two as if she sussed they were hiding something. "Oh, well, I just thought that maybe you could give me some more information on these metas. But if not…then it was great meeting you." She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. "I still have some work I need to do, getting settled and all that."

"Right." Barry nodded again. He mentally kicked himself, suddenly realizing he was doing it a lot. "It was nice meeting you…" he trailed off, realizing he didn't remember her name.

"Patty," she reminded him with a smile. "Patty Spivot." There was a brief moment of silence between the three before she took a step back, nodded, and walked away, long braided ponytail swinging behind her as she went.

Barry watched her go, noticing she went up to a partner and said something to him before they left the precinct to patrol the city. He looked over at Cadence as she said, "Wow, she's cute. Really forward on what she wants, too."

"Yeah…" Barry agreed. Then he blinked rapidly and turned back to Cadence who started to smile knowingly at him. "What?"

Cadence reached out and gently jostled Barry's arm. "If you don't ask her out, I will."

"What? Ask her ou—no, no, I was just—"Then Barry keyed in on what Cadence had said. She looked at him curiously as he tried to ask what he was curious about without being rude. There had been a few signs here and there but still... "Oh, I didn't…well, I mean, you're…? I didn't know that you're…"

"Bisexual?" Cadence broke in. She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Who would've thought you can be a superhero _and_ bisexual and not have it be an issue?"

"That's not what I meant," Barry quickly defended himself.

"I mean I didn't know there was a superhero questionnaire I had to fill in to disclose my name, my age, and my sexual orientation." She flashed him a reassuring smile. "I'm just kidding, Tholly. Yes, I'm bisexual. I've been on dates with girls, never had a girlfriend, and I've always been more attracted to guys. Either way I can always tell when someone is checking someone out."

"I just meant, well…" he took a breath. This was another conversation he wasn't sure how to have. Six months was a long time to not speak to or be around someone. It was harder when you had a close relationship with someone, one that wasn't so clearly defined. "We haven't talked in a while…and I wasn't quite sure…"

"Where we stood?" Cadence guessed. She sighed quietly, looking away from him for a moment. "You were the one that broke up with me, Barry. I was fine with going out with you but you were the one who thought it wasn't the right time to be going out. Which I understand and completely respect but—"

She was broken off by the sound of their phones buzzing which they concluded were texts from STAR Labs when taking out their phones. Barry gave her a sheepish smile as he replaced his phone. "Rain check?" He asked.

"Of course."

"Okay, now we just need an excuse to get out of here."

"That's easy." Cadence reached into her pocket and pulled out the gloves, sliding them onto her hands. "I can just say someone died and I need you as my assistant."

Barry gave a startled laugh at her plan. "That's terrible," he said honestly.

"I know, but I don't really have any other excuses with my line of work and at this point I'm sure Captain Singh is starting to grow suspicious of yours."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

Barry and Cadence hurried over to STAR Labs, noticing the news cast that was being played on the screen right as they came in. Then Cisco changed the source code and a map of Central City was being shown instead. Then Caitlin went on to explain their reasoning to bring the two to STAR Labs being an indication of a metahuman that was racing around the city at top speeds.

"So it's a speedster?" Cadence asked. Her eyes narrowed as she watched little blips appear on screen, tracking the same movements that Captain Singh had mentioned earlier.

"That's the thing, we don't know for sure," Caitlin said.

"Because as far as we know from what Eobard had told us,"—Cisco glanced at Harrison who sat nearby and took a step away—"speedsters are only created from the speed force. I'm not getting any sort of reading that we get from Barry that would say they _are_ from the speed force."

"So there's something that moving quickly around Central City but you haven't been able to figure out what it is?" Barry asked, crossing his arms. Then he reached up a hand and brought it through his hair. "That's exactly what Captain Singh was saying earlier. They're going to send out more patrols over Central City to see if they can catch whoever it is."

"Did they say anything about what they'd do once they found him?" Tess questioned from the other side of the cortex. She watched the screen with as much enthusiasm as the others, her eyes darting towards Harrison every few seconds. Harrison, on the other hand, sat patiently with his fingers folded and elbows resting on the desk, staring in front of him.

"Put him into Iron Heights with the rest of the metas," Barry said.

"Or 'her'," Cadence pointed out.

"We're tracking it as much as we can," Caitlin said. She ran her hands through her hair then crossed her arms. She chewed her lower lip. "But like Cisco said we haven't been able to figure anything out about him. All we got was our tracking systems showing that whoever it was, was moving around the city at top speed. They could've been teleporting; they could be flying for all we know."

"Never came up against a flier before. That would have many helpful capabilities if they were to join our side." Cisco rubbed his chin.

Cadence elbowed Barry in the side and gave him a pointed look. "Right, well, there may at least be a name that goes along with whoever this is," Barry said. "When I was talking to Atom Smasher, right before he died, he said he was sent to find me by a guy named Zoom. That he was trying to kill me so that he could go home."

"Home where?" Tess asked.

"That's what we're trying to find out and so far we have no leads," Cadence pointed out. She held out her hand, a fireball appearing over her palm, and started to juggle it back and forth between her hands. "We're going to get into contact with Oliver and see if it's someone who might've ducked under the radar in Starling and is making its way into Central City."

"A meta?"

"They had Deathbolt in Starling City before he came to Central City," Cisco reminded her.

"That _is_ a possibility," Caitlin agreed. "Looks like our jobs just got harder."

"What do you think, Harrison?" At Tess's question all eyes turned towards Harrison as he continued to sit quietly amongst the group. That confused Barry a little, to be honest. From what he and the others had been told of Harrison from Dr. McGee and others who knew him before Eobard had taken him over, Harrison was a very excitable and open scientist who was ready and willing to do anything to make advancements in technology and science.

And now he was staying eerily quiet.

"I think the only thing we can do is wait and see if this 'Zoom' guy will ever show himself." With that he excused himself from the room.

A brief silence ripped through the Cortex before Tess excused herself as well. "Awkward," Cisco sang in a high-pitched voice.

"Yeah, well, it's not like anyone is being so open and welcoming to them," Barry pointed out. He motioned to Cisco. "I get it. We're all wary of them being around here, we don't know if this is the real Harrison Wells. But he and Tess haven't done anything wrong yet and I think we should try to give them a second chance."

"So it's not hard for you to look him in the eye day after day?" Caitlin challenged.

Barry briefly closed his eyes. He'd be lying if he said it wasn't hard. But still this was the _real_ Harrison, he hadn't raised his voice or steered any of them wrong since he had been split from Eobard. He kept to himself. And yet…

Barry shook his head.

It was all he needed to do; no one pressed the topic even further.

"On that note I think we should turn the conversation to something a bit more lighthearted," Cadence broke in. She placed her hands on her hips. "I think we deserve to have a little bit of a break." At the confused glances that turned her way she gave a short sigh. "We just started to work as a team again and we haven't really acknowledged it."

"That's kind of hard to do when you have metahumans to deal with," Cisco reminded her.

"All the more reason for us to deserve at least a _little_ bit of a break." Cadence then motioned to Barry. "And besides, we never celebrated your birthday. So let's go to Exposure tonight. Drinks are on me."

"You had me at free drinks."

Caitlin shrugged then agreed to go as well. Barry, realizing that he agreed with them, they hadn't had a good time to just hang out and have some fun in a long time, especially since he and Caitlin rejoined the team the week before. They really had thrown themselves back into their work.

"Okay," Barry finally agreed. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

Henry Allen smiled as he turned the page of his book. The adventure had hooked him just as much as the newspaper clippings that lined his cell. They weren't adventures that managed to come to the same sort of caliber as the Flash—or as he had been told second hand—but they were good enough as he waited for Barry to visit with his latest tale as the Scarlett Speedster.

If that's what they were calling him anyway.

Many of the men in Iron Heights had different, more lewd names for the one that had put them into jail in the first place. Henry kept a straight face through it all, shrugging and giving non-committal answers when asked about his opinions on The Flash. In prison he always kept to himself, but he couldn't bring unwanted attention due to his affiliation with The Flash. Not just because it was his son but because of the hostilities that came about when his name was mentioned. If any of them were to get out of prison soon it wouldn't be a surprise if the former convicts hunted down the speedy hero to exact their revenge.

Still, he had to limit his time to know what was going on in the world of the Flash with his time viewing television during his daily breaks and when Barry came to visit. Otherwise he passed time allowing himself to become immersed in the world of whatever book he was able to get from the prison library.

"Don't you ever run out of books to read?"

Startled, Henry tore his eyes away from the pages and glanced up at the iron bars in front of his cell. For a minute he thought he was seeing things. Then he wondered if someone within the prison was targeting him for an attack of some sort as he didn't ever have many visitors. Then he recognized Joe West's low chuckle and immediately relaxed.

"Joe?" Henry slowly put his book aside and swung his legs to the floor. "What are you doing here?"

Joe gave him a small smile. "Came to visit an old friend; to give him some good news," he replied.

Henry drew a hand through his hair. "Good news?"

"How would you like to finally feel the fresh air as a free man?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, this chapter was a bit more of a downtime sort of chapter after all of the emotions and action through the last three chapters, but I hope you liked it anyway. It brought up the status of BarryCade's relationship, it brought in Patty and Zoom, which of course proves to be interesting, and brings up Henry once more. I had intended him to be a bigger character in the last story but that didn't work out so well.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **josephguy217:** Hope it was worth the wait!

 **Ethan:** It was mentioned in the last chapter (chapter 3) as well as the last story that Cadence was told/knew that Joe was the one that called CPS. She's just angry that she has to continue to deal with it and essentially blames it all on him.

 **DarkHelm145:** Thank you for mentioning what happens with the end of season 2 and by addition season 3. It took me a while but I've finally figured out what i'm going to be doing with it. As for Zoom, he'll be making his official appearance soon so I hope the wait is worth it.

 **Yummers:** Glad you like it.

 **babyj:** As you said I took out the Atom Smasher fight due to pacing issues as well as feeling it was time for the first episode to be done with in terms of the plot for that. Mostly because original plots are coming in now and I'm shifting gears a bit to focus more on that.

 **PowerHero432:** You won't have to wait long, the Rogues are appearing again starting with the next chapter. There is certainly going to be more tension with Cisco and Wells as the story goes on. I just needed to set up a few things first.


	5. Acting Out

**.:05:.**

* * *

Cadence slid her hands into the pocket of her blazer, looking at her watch. An anxious sigh escaped her lips. The last thing she wanted was to be late when Captain Singh was on the prowl. She was never late as it was, but being one of the youngest of the precinct where the other was the one who didn't seem to ever be on time for everything didn't help much either.

Not that she blamed Barry, either. There was always something or someone that needed saving. And he _did_ manage to get there first and always did a good job with it too. Captain Singh just needed to lighten up. Thankfully she at least managed to tell him a few days before she would be a little late, Barry was going to have to live without her excuses to save his butt for a little while.

 _Not that he couldn't come up with any on his own_ _if last night was anything to go by,_ she thought with a wry smile.

Going out for drinks the night before certainly had been interesting. Not in the way she had expected to celebrate Barry's birthday. He kept saying he had a good time and he liked the gifts his friends gave him, but she wasn't so sure.

While getting ready to go out that night Cadence was immediately aware of a change in temperature while she was moving around her room. She brought a hand up to her forehead realizing she was warm, beads of sweat dotting her hairline. Lowering her hand, she looked around the room, eyes narrowing. It was too quiet; not the sort of quiet that let a parent know their children were up to something, but the sort of quiet animals did to foretell incoming danger. Then a chill ran down her spine when she recognized the smell of smoke. There was something about the acrid scent she recognized from a mile away; even if it was just someone lighting a candle.

Maybe because she became so sensitive to it just as she became sensitive about the cold, dirt, and dust. Cadence turned, sniffing the air around her. That was something else she knew from her own powers, which direction the fire was set in, and from what it started. No, it wasn't coming from her room. It wasn't coming from her.

She wasn't projecting heat at all.

And yet her room was steadily growing hotter and hotter by the second. Frowning, Cadence went over to her bedroom window and stuck her hand out of it. The cool air that blew over her hand was certainly much cooler than her room. Tilting her head to the side, Cadence concentrated for a second then her eyesight shifted. Instead of the darkness of the room it changed to swirls of the colors of the rainbow; heat vision.

Still nothing.

Then he heat had disappeared as quickly as it came, almost as if Cadence imagined it completely. And that wasn't the only thing that had gone sort of wrong that night. When arriving at the club Cisco immediately went off onto the dance floor, stating that he needed to work out the stress from working in STAR Labs. Cadence knew he meant more of the stress of having to work with the man that had, technically, killed him in another timeline not to mention tried to kill them all again when Eobard finally revealed himself. Caitlin immediately backed away from his outstretched hand, stating she wouldn't be able to keep up with him and instead he dragged Cadence out onto the dance floor with him.

Caitlin, Barry, and Ryder—whom Cadence had invited as well after getting Barry's blessing, sat back, ordering the drinks that Cadence kept her word to and said she'd buy, opening her tab as soon as they arrived.

Eventually the five moved onto the dance floor, finally having the most fun they've had in a long time. Though that wasn't able to last so long either. In a way she knew it was her fault, and she _was_ kind of pushing Barry's buttons in terms of the conversation they hadn't finished earlier. But she had been having a good time and it wasn't like she was tied down or anything.

She had been sitting with Barry and Ryder at the bar, taking a break from Cisco's skillfully flinging her across the dance floor—Caitlin was now his next target, when a guy about their age walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. Cadence twisted in her seat as he leaned against the counter, grinning.

"Can I buy you a drink?" He asked. Or at least she thought he did, she couldn't hear him over the throbbing music and cheers from everyone else in the club. Motioning towards her ear, the man reached around her and pressed his finger to her opposite ear, leaning in to be better heard. "Can I buy you a drink?" He repeated.

This time Cadence heard him correctly. She leaned back and shook her head at him. "I don't accept drinks from strangers."

"Well, I'm Dale." He reached out his hand and Cadence shook it. "So now that I'm not a stranger, how about that drink?"

"I'm Cadence." Out of the corner of her eye she could see Barry turn away from the two, shaking his head as he brought a drink to his mouth. That annoyed her a little bit. "Still a stranger, so no drink. But I will dance with you."

"Okay."

And she had danced with him for a couple of songs-with his hands on her waist as she had her back pressed against his front-before going back to the bar once more, finding Barry and Ryder in a deep conversation, talking animatedly and appearing that they were getting along. Cadence heard a snippet of the conversation as she sat down. "Oh God," she said, grabbing their attention. "Don't get Ryder started on basketball, he can talk about it for hours."

"I know, we were just talking about the game between the Miners and the Goliaths," Barry replied with a nod. "It was really close. Definitely one of the best that Central City has had in a while. I'm sorry I missed it."

"Well at this point they're still far away from making it into the championship, but if they can up their three pointer average they'd have a better chance," Ryder agreed. "The power is there, their accuracy is way off."

That surprised Cadence, but only a little bit. She knew Barry and Ryder would get along if they found something in common, but she didn't expect basketball to be it. Not only that but Barry didn't particularly strike her as someone who would be so into basketball. He seemed to have read her mind as he said, "I never played but I always liked to watch. My dad and I watched every Miners game before he went to jail."

"Your mom wasn't into it?"

"Not so much. It was more like a father-son thing."

"Mm, doesn't that sound familiar," Cadence said, her gaze shifting towards Ryder.

"Shut up, Cade," he replied, getting up to get another drink from the bar.

Cadence chuckled, turning back to Barry. "He and his dad were never really close so his mom tried to force them into boding by making them go to different sporting events together." Barry smiled and nodded. "What?"

"Nothing, I guess I just never realized how close you guys still were," Barry said.

Oh. That. Cadence's shoulders hitched upwards. "He's my only other friend here," She said honestly. For so long it had just been her and Brady in Central City and meeting Barry and the others had changed her life. But sometimes it was good to have a reminder of home. "I mean, it's always good to have a friend that's separate from parts of your life. You and Cisco and Caitlin are my best friends, but Ryder's my friend too. It's a breath of fresh air, sometimes."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize we annoyed you so much," Barry said. But he laughed, teasing her all the same. She knew he understood. He had that in Iris and Joe.

"You guys could never annoy me; it's just hard sometimes. I don't understand everything you guys are saying since I obviously don't have the science background you have. He's who I go to when I want to take a break sometimes. And anyway, I'm glad you two are getting along."

"Yeah, Ryder's cool!" He ran a hand over his hair, clearing his throat. "Honestly, I thought it would be sort of awkward, just because we don't really know each other at all and he already knows that I'm The Flash. But he's cool."

A wave of relief moved through Cadence's body. "Good, I'm glad." With that, the music changed and she started to wiggle in her seat to the beat. She took one look at Barry and he immediately shook his head, giving a sharp "no!". But she wasn't going to give up that easily. "Come on, I love this song!" She took Barry's hand and teleported him onto the dance floor. His eyes widened as he looked around, hoping no one had seen them. Cadence laughed and moved closer to him. "Relax, Tholly, no one's paying attention to us."

It only took a few minutes before he relaxed enough to move along to the music as well. The rest of the night had gone better from there and Barry enjoyed the gifts he was given as well. A Netflix subscription from Cisco, a NASA Bomber jacket from Caitlin, a mug that said 'Respect Chemistry' on it inspired from the periodic table of elements from Brady, and a GoPro from Cadence. Thankfully, the team felt like the way it used to, like they were an actual team again.

That was the best part of the night.

Now she had to do something a little hard. A nurse came up to her and led her to a back room, where Michael Bloom was sitting quietly, hands between his knees. He looked up as Cadence walked over and stood to give her a hug. Then she sat in the seat across from him, crossing her leg at the knee.

"So I heard you're supposed to be getting out of here soon," She said.

"Yeah, I'm being released this weekend," Michael replied. His voice, which used to hold much pain and torment, was now clear, filled with life. "Then I can see my daughter. I'm going to work hard to get custody of her again." He shook his head. "I just wish I could tell her what happened."

"I'm assuming no one here believes you," Cadence said. She wished she had never said that, the second it came from her mouth. Of course no one believed him; he was in a metal hospital for God's sake. Not only that, but even with more and more people understanding metahumans as of late, there were still things that didn't make a lot of sense. That people didn't understand.

Hearing that he wasn't doing anything his body did…that was grounds for some psychological evaluation if it couldn't be proven that metahumans were behind it.

Michael nodded.

"If it helps, the meta that did this to you, Leah? I can positively say that she won't do anything like this again and that she's in a protective custody." Protective custody, held down in the pipeline, same thing. She noticed Michael's eyes lit up, causing her to smile. "Once you're out of here it's all going to be over and you and your family can start again." She leaned towards him, looking him in the eye. "But you need to move out of Central City to get that new start."

Michael nodded but didn't say anything more. As if the news of Leah—or as Cadence knew her, Mindboggler—gave him enough relief that he didn't need to hear anything else. Cadence took that as her cue to leave, but she felt nothing but guilt as she did so. The man was finally leaving the mental hospital but he wouldn't have been put there in the first place if it wasn't for her. No matter how far away the Assassination Bureau were, no matter how locked up they were in the Pipeline, she couldn't help her slight paranoia that they'd somehow get out. That things weren't completely over.

 _Speak of the devil._ Her cell phone started to ring as soon as the thought crossed her mind. Glancing at the screen she saw it was Joe calling, something must've come up at the CCPD. There was never a dull moment in Central City.

"Yeah?" She asked, answering the phone.

"Hey, it's me. You're needed down at Carmichael Elementary," Joe said.

Cadence thought for a moment. Her first thought was that it was Brady's school and she briefly wondered what could've happened that resulted in a call needing her to go down. Then her second thought was that things had to be really bad if she was being called in.

"I'll be there in a few minutes."

More like a few seconds but who was counting? She didn't say goodbye to Joe. She didn't say anything else, instead she hung up. She couldn't talk to him without feeling a sense of—admittedly—irrational anger and frustration. Cadence then turned to Michael to bid her goodbye then left the mental hospital, taking back the items she had to give over before going in. Then she went to her car, looked around for a moment, and teleported it and herself to the far end of the school parking lot.

That had been something she worked on a lot over the past six months in terms of her powers, now she was able to teleport things bigger than herself when time warranted it. It certainly made moving things around a lot easier, especially with the flames that now surrounded her as she did so didn't appear to burn anything they touched as she did it.

Cadence hurried out of the car and grabbed her bag of supplies from the backseat, eyes moving over the sight in front of her. Students were milling around, teachers trying to get things ordered as parents came to pick up their children. Police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance sat around the front of the school.

There was a sudden gust of wind and Cadence didn't have to look over to know Barry was standing next to her. "Did you just hear?" She asked, stepping back to close the backdoor of the car.

"Yeah, as soon as Captain Singh saw me he sent me out here." Barry shifted his bag of supplies over his shoulder and the two headed towards the crime scene. "What are you thinking it is?"

"If we're being called in, probably nothing other than a heart attack," Cadence explained. "Otherwise someone would have to be sick to want to target an elementary school." It was then she noticed Barry looking around, almost wistfully. "What?"

"Nothing," Barry replied. "I just haven't been here in a long time. A lot of it has changed."

"You used to go to school here?"

"Yep, me and Iris. I never thought I'd ever be back here, especially not for something like this. How's Brady liking it? How's everything going?"

"Not so great, lately. He hasn't been sleeping very well and he isn't paying as close attention to his work and schoolwork. I'm starting to get really worried; he tells me it's because he's still having nightmares from remembering everything with the Assassination Bureau and what happened with Eobard can't help. He's been sleeping in my bed a lot lately and is really restless. I don't know what else to do."

Barry looked at his feet for a moment, maybe not wanting to overstep any boundaries before offering, "I can talk to him if you want? Maybe he just doesn't want to worry you or anything."

"That's be great, Barry. Thanks."

"It's no problem at all, really."

She and Barry found Joe in a deep conversation with Patty Spivot. Joe looked over at them and nodded as they approached. "Hey Joe," Barry greeted him. Cadence lifted her fingers in a wave but didn't say anything. "What's up? What's going on?"

"Hey Bare." Joe heaved a heavy sigh. He looked exhausted. "I just spoke with the school principal and it seems like we've got a death on school grounds," he remarked. "And before you freak out, no, it wasn't one of the students. The school had an older gentleman employed as a janitor and it appears he suffered from a massive heart attack when he was cleaning the men's room."

Cadence and Barry exchanged a glance, immediately understanding. It had to be meta related or else they wouldn't have been called in for a simple heart attack case. He couldn't say it with Patty around.

"Oh man," Barry whispered.

He ran a hand through his hair. Cadence shook her head. That must've been a really sad way to go, completely alone. He had seen a lot of death while on the job as the CSI of the CCPD but nothing as…peaceful as that in comparison.

"Officer Spivot was the first one to the scene," Joe continued.

"So what was so unusual about it that we would need to be called in?" Barry asked.

"Follow me and see for yourselves," Patty said, nodding towards the school's gym. The four tell in step with each other as they went. "You know, I'm a huge fan of yours."

"Excuse me?" Barry stumbled over his words. Cadence could see the anxiety that flashed over his face as easily as she could feel it move through hers. Did that mean she knew he was The Flash? Sure, Cadence went a sneaky way about finding out—starting a controlled fire knowing he would race to stop it—but no one else seemed to be so quick on the uptake.

"Of your forensic reports," Patty was quick to correct herself. She let out a light laugh, almost nervous. " I-I read them sometimes. Who am I kidding? All the time, I've actually read them all!"

Now Cadence's eyebrows rose. A brief moment of stunned silence stretched between them. Finally, Barry found his voice to say, "I don't even think I've read them all."

Patty started speaking once more, almost jumping on the end of Barry's sentence before he could finish his thought. Almost as if excited by it. Cadence frowned. "They paint a picture," Patty said. "They really go into detail as if you were actually there when someone was being brutally murdered."

"Thank you," Barry finally said.

They entered the boys' bathroom to find a body lying quietly on the floor, a sheet covered it. Cadence took one look over the sheet, no red spots, and no blotches of vile. That took out her theory of a quick and sudden brain aneurism. "Well, I found something. Or I think I found something, it's a theory. But I wanted to show you." Patty reached over and pulled off the sheet to show the man had a fearful expression stuck on his face, hand pressed to his chest. "If he had a heart attack that was so sudden, he'd have a peaceful expression. He looks like he's afraid of something, like he saw something before he passed." Patty started speaking at a rapid pace. "And even here, his face is red; almost as if it were sunburned; not very common with a heart attack usually faces go ashen.

"And looking over here," Patty said. She walked to a bathroom stall where it appeared that the whole door was welded shut. "This clearly has come into contact with high traces of heat. I think a metahuman was involved."

"Or a student who has an affinity for arson," Joe suggested. His eyes shifted away from Patty. "I've seen many cases like that over the years, little kids who think it'd be funny to set things on fire, they get out of control quickly." He turned back to Patty and nodded. "Thanks for your help, Officer Spivot. We'll leave these two to get their answers."

Barry nodded his thanks to Joe as the two left the room. He and Cadence pulled on some gloves and got to work. "Two metas seen at this school? That's not starting to look good."

"You think it's another meta sent by Zoom?" Cadence asked. Her heart sank as Barry replied with, "It's possible." Her frown deepened, but this time for a different reason than the first. "What would Zoom want with an elementary school? What would _anyone_ want with an elementary school for that matter?"

"Honestly, I don't know. But we can't rule it out." He motioned towards the bathroom stall. "I can't think of anything else that would manage to weld this the way it is. Patty may have a point."

Cadence couldn't help herself as she said, "You mean your number one fan?" She adopted a higher pitched voice. "Oh my God, it's Barry Allen. _The Barry Allen!"_ Cadence grabbed onto Barry's arm and leaned into him. She fluttered her eyelashes and smiled sweetly. "I'm such a big fan of yours; could I get your autograph? Please?"

Barry laughed, swatting Cadence away. "Ha ha, very funny."

"She's a fan of your _work?"_ Cadence repeated with an amused smile. "Who sits around and takes the time to read your files?" Barry turned a sharp glance her way and she added sheepishly, "I mean, apart from the rest of us."

For a long moment Barry was silent and then he said with a tiny, amused smile, "Sounds like you're jealous."

Cadence felt her skin grow hot. "What would I have to be jealous about, Barry? It's not like we're dating."

"I know." Barry sat back on his heels. He licked his lips. It was the worst time to have this conversation, she knew it too. She hated herself for bringing it up. But hated herself even more knowing that she wasn't entirely happy with the way things were between the two of them. One minute they could be the best friends they had been practically since meeting and the next they would try to talk about and equally avoid the status of their relationship.

They continued working in silence before other members of the CCPD took the body and bundled it up to take to the morgue. Then they left the bathroom and went outside.

"Mom!"

Cadence and Barry turned around to find Brady running their way, squeezing through the crowds that were in his way. He reached Cadence and threw his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. "Hey." Cadence hugged him back before kneeling down to his eye level. "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," Brady replied. His eyebrows lowered over his hazel eyes. "Do you know what's going on? We were suddenly let out of school but no one will tell us anything." He then tilted his head back and looked up at Barry. "Hi, Barry. What are you doing here?"

"The CCPD were called in," Barry explained.

"Oh, does it look like something a meta did?"

"It might but we don't know for sure, yet."

"Okay." Brady leaned his head against Cadence's stomach. "Can we go home now?"

"Sure." She started to turn away but stopped when Barry's phone rang. She waited in case it was something for STAR Labs. He answered the phone and as the conversation continued his eyes widened and mouth dropped open. Finally, he ended the call and slowly hung up. Then he turned to Cadence and Brady and said. "I have to go…they're letting my dad out of jail."

Cadence's eyes widened. "Wow, really?" She asked. He nodded, unable to form any words. "That's great, Barry! But…how did he…?"

"I don't know. They'll explain when I get there. I have to get going now."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Cadence asked. She cringed as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She was grasping at straws now to make sure their friendship was still on track. Not like anything as small as this could derail it. But when it came to emotions and things of that matter they could get messy pretty quick.

And the last thing she wanted to do was lose one of her best friends.

Barry must've felt the same way as he turned a conflicted gaze her way. Then he shook his head his head. He thanked her for the offer before he hurried away. But instead of running using his super speed he ran as fast as his legs would take him normally.

As if he had reverted back to a little kid who was racing to greet his father who had just walked through the front door.

She was happy for him.

"Mom?" Brady broke her out of her thoughts as they walked to the car. "Are you and Barry in a fight?"

"No, we're just not communicating very well," she said honestly. She could never lie to him and would never want to. Even if he was a bit too young to understand relationships specifically he at least understood the emotions going with it. "But we'll be fine."

"Didn't you have a good time for his birthday?"

Cadence tried not to blush when thinking about how closely she and Barry had danced the night before. "Yeah, we all had a great time."

"Don't you like him anymore?"

"I do like him. But here's the thing, bud." Cadence stooped once they reached the car and looked Brady in the eye so he understood how serious she was. It was hard for her to even admit to herself than even try to bring it up to Barry. "Sometimes I don't think I'd have enough attention or time to give him and I don't want to hold him back. Not only that but sometimes I feel like I don't deserve it."

"Why?"

 _Because I'm not sure if I'm a good person,_ Cadence thought. But instead of saying that she ruffled his hair and motioned for him to get into the car. She closed the door then froze, looking at the reflection in the window.

Standing stock still she slowly twisted around to stare at the heat gun pointed directly in her face.

Cadence lifted her gaze to meet Mick's eyes, his face blank of any emotion. Even the crazed one that came up whenever something fire was involved or he was ready to beat someone down wasn't present in his face. No, instead he stared directly at her, almost through her. Cadence's muscles twitched, ready to launch herself aside or at least to attack him but stopped when she heard the high-pitched whirring sound of his gun powering up.

"I can blast this even before you have the thought to teleport," Mick said to her, gravelly voice reaching her ears despite how quietly he spoke. It must've been heat damage, of smoker's voice. It wouldn't surprise her if he had taken up smoking at one point in his life. Or wanted to damage himself with his fire obsession. "Don't even think about it."

Cadence rubbed her thumb over her knuckles, waiting to see what Mick had to say. Her molars gnashed together, jaw tightening as she glared at him. "What do you want?" She finally asked.

Mick's gaze shifted for a moment. It went away from her face to behind her, then back to her face once more. Realizing she wasn't going to teleport away from him, or attack him, he lowered his heat gun. Reaching out a hand, he moved it towards Cadence's face, gently brushing her hair back. Cadence immediately moved to teleport and he grabbed onto her around the neck. She brought her hands up, immediately encasing them in flames and Mick's eyes lit up, a dream-like expression coming onto his face. He lowered his hand away from her neck and Cadence snuffed out the flames around her right hand to bring it up to her neck, rubbing it.

Mick dropped his gun to his side then to the ground. Kneeling in front of her, he rested his hands on his knees, into a pose reminiscent of prayer. Behind her, Cadence could hear Brady's muffled voice calling her for her. And still Mick continued to watch her, eyes roaming over her body, her face, then to her hands that had just been encased in flames.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Mick said to her. "I don't want to hurt you. Not the only person that's ever managed to knock out Snart. Not the only person that's ever managed to shut him up. I want you. I want your flame. Your beautiful flame. Your talents with the destructive elements…it's like a dance. You have a talent with the way you control the chaotic flames, allowing them to dance around and show who you really are." He brought his hand up and gently grabbed his face, the pinkened skin, small burn scars stretching from his hairline to his chin. "The fire always has a way of showing people who they really are."

"What do you want?" She repeated, much more forcefully this time. Her hardened tone snapped Mick out of his daze. He reached over and started towards the heat gun once more. Cadence watched as his hand slowly inched towards it. "I want you," he repeated.

Cadence ninja-rolled to his side and kicked up as hard as she could, knocking the gun out of his hands. Then she leapt a safe distance away and thrust her hand forward. A line of smoke shifted from her hands, twisting and turning before it created the shape of a hand, and grabbed Mick around the throat. He grinned a maniacal grin before breathing in deeply, taking in some of the smoke into his lungs. Cadence then lifted her other hand and created another smoke hand, tightening it around Mick's throat. His face deepened in color under the lack of oxygen that came to his lungs.

She then shot a blast of fire from her eyes and it struck Mick on the shoulder, causing his jacket to erupt into flames. Mick's loud growl of pain then shifted to one of excitement as he fell to his knees. She watched in abject horror as Mick continued to watch the flames take on more and more of his jacket, burning the cloth away so that his reddening skin appeared underneath.

Cadence held out her hand and curled her fingers into her palm. The flames on Mick's arm and shoulder disappeared and Mick continued to stare at the spot, lovingly running his fingers on his smoking, peeling skin. Cadence placed her foot on top of his heat gun and pulled it backwards away from him before moving forward and grabbed onto his arm. She teleported him to the hospital then teleported back to the car. It wasn't until she got back she realized that the heat gun had gone missing.

Instead of dwelling on it she quickly climbed into the car, locking the doors.

"Mom, are you okay?" Brady asked, leaning in from the backseat. "I'm sorry, I don't have my slingshot and I didn't know if I could phase—"

"—I'm fine, bud, don't worry about me."

Besides, they had bigger things to worry about; Zoom, these metahumans that were following him for whatever reason, and now Mick. Most importantly, why was he working by himself and where was Snart.

* * *

 **A/N:** So this chapter was all Cadence and the next one will be all Barry. Plus we got a little bit more into how Cadence feels around Central City that I've neglected to show before. If I hadn't mentioned before the Rogues are a big part of this story as much as Zoom is. So I'm excited for that. I'm sure you recognized some of this from the first version of _Sparks Fly,_ there are a few more things that will be intertwined here as I moved the rogues plot from there to here.

Caitlin's work into Killer Frost (if she does become Killer Frost) in this story was planned out, written, and hinted to since I was working on _Flash Fire._ I'm a teeny bit annoyed it's happening now in the Flash but I do have an idea for how it works in this story (starting with the next chapter, by the way) that I hope you all will like despite it happening a season later in the show.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** I'm sure you won't be disappointed. I at least hope not anyway, lol. There will be hints to it within the story as things go on before it's officially stated. So you may figure it out before I announce it.

 **Ethan:** I had actually contemplated not mentioning it since it wasn't anything that was so big to know about her character but figured that it would give more to her character if it was outright stated.

 **Guest:** At the moment, yes, this Harrison is still going to be around while "Harry" is there. I have a plan to make it work.

 **spinquin142:** It seems to be the general consensus that people want to see Zoom. But a different character has to show up, first.

 **josephguy217:** Glad to hear it!


	6. Father Figures

**.:06:.**

* * *

Barry paced back and forth in front of Iron Heights, suppressing his urge to use his powers to race inside and drag his father out.

But Henry had been emphatic with his last phone call, saying he didn't want Barry to go back inside Iron Heights ever again. That he didn't want him to even _think_ about stepping foot inside the prison unless something was on fire. Despite his impatience Barry understood; he didn't want to see the inside of Iron Heights either, not knowing how much it had ruined their lives over the last fourteen years.

Still, couldn't they move faster? How long did it take for someone to be released from prison? It didn't seem to take too long for him to be put inside, anyway. One minute he was reaching inside the open windows of the cop car to touch his father's face for the last time, the next he was in an interrogation room questioned left and right about what he had seen that night.

It had been cold and unfriendly and Barry couldn't imagine what his father went through while inside.

Finally, Barry heard the sound of a door opening and stopped on a dime. He turned and watched as his father stepped outside the prison and slowly tilted his head back, spreading his arms wide. Barry felt unbridled giddiness fill his body as he watched his father feel fresh air again for the first time. After a long moment, Henry lowered his arms and lowered his chin.

Father and son locked eyes and identical smiles wormed its way onto their faces. The smiles stayed as Henry walked down the concrete path towards the fence that connected them. Reaching out, Barry grabbed a hold of the fence, sticking his fingers through it, reminiscent of the same movement he made years before, watching his father go in, hands cuffed behind his back.

Henry reached out and patted Barry's fingertips before taking a step back. A klaxon sounded, causing Barry to jump. Henry chuckled to himself as the gate slowly started to open. "You get used to it, Slugger. They have those alarms around for every little thing that goes on. Just be glad I didn't immediately drop to the ground and cover my head."

Barry felt his heart lurch at the stark reality of how their lives differed. "Well let's see how comfortable you get used to things springing out at you as a meta."

"Oh I'm sure by now everyone knows never to mess with The Flash," Henry said, raising an eyebrow.

Laughing, Barry nodded. "I'm sure."

Opening his arms, Henry enveloped Barry in a tight hug. Barry rested his face against Henry's shoulder and squeezed back just as tightly. He took in a deep breath, smile widening when he realized that despite how long Henry had been in jail he still smelled like his father. Like cigars and leather.

Leaning back, Barry took in Henry's face. From the way his eyes crinkled in the corners when he smiled, to the way his top teeth showed when he laughed. He had a little bit more stubble than usual, definitely thinner, but from the brown leather jacket, to his flannel shirt, and jeans Barry saw nothing but his father. And from the way Henry was looking back at him, he could see his father was thinking the same about him.

"You're not my little boy anymore," Henry murmured, reaching up and grasping Barry's face.

"No, definitely not," Barry agreed. He reached up and gripped his father's shoulder. He really was there. "Let's get out of here."

"I'll race you."

"You'll lose."

Thirty minutes later the two were in a secluded booth at the back of the Motorcar Diner, a place the two and Nora used to go after church every Sunday, and for birthday dinners when Barry was growing up. Now as he sat in the booth across from his father Barry grinned as if it was his birthday all over again. The complementary newspaper that sat upon every table was flipped over to show the headline:

 _Conviction overturned, Henry Allen a free man._

It hurt a little of the pictures used; one of Henry and Nora shortly before the night of the murder. Inside the newspaper was a picture of the Allen family, back when Barry was very young. He used to hate looking at the picture, only able to look at them within the recent months. The six months he spent by himself had him cleaning out some of his old things, coming across more pictures than he remembered having. Now he mentally moved through them, trying to figure out the best ones to set up.

He looked over and found his father with his chin rested atop his hands, elbows resting on the table. Looking at him. Barry's eyes shifted for a minute. "What?"

"Nothing," Henry replied. He let out a low sigh, leaning back in his seat, eyes roving around the restaurant. "It's just really weird to be out, you know? I've always thought about it, counted down the days…even thought that I was going to die in jail."

Barry's smile started to fade. "Dad…"

"No, it's good that you hear this. I didn't think there'd be anything that would get me out. But I kept thinking that as long as you were okay, then I could keep going. Now that you're able to do what you do, I know you'll be okay. Still, I can't help but worry, especially with what happened six months ago."

"With the singularity?"

"Is that what you're calling it?"

"In the simplest form, yes."

Henry's eyebrows rose. Then he cleared his throat. "Either way, there were a lot of things that kept me going, you being my number one priority. Now that I'm out there's a lot I need to adjust to." His eyes shifted and Barry followed his gaze, looking over his shoulder at the other patrons, who were all looking their way. "That being one of them."

"Oh, come on, that's nothing." Barry turned back to his father. "Try being me." He meant it as a joke, but his smile faded when his father didn't laugh. "Sorry…I just meant—"

"I know what you meant, Barry. It's okay. I understand things could've been better for you, growing up. But what I wanted to say was that there are a lot of things I need to become adjusted to and I'd love to be able to it with you. But that you need to be patient with everyone around us, since there are some out there that still think….that I deserved to be in there."

Yeah, he understood that. Even on the way to the prison there were people who were eagerly reading the news article and whispering about his father. Some people were glad he was getting out, others weren't so happy, and there were some that didn't particularly care either way. Still, the bad always outweighed the good and it was easier to notice the negative than the positive.

The two fell silent as the waitress came over with their breakfast orders; the biggest plate for Barry and a smaller one for Henry. Henry glanced at the different sizes of the plates and chuckled.

Barry shrugged. "I have to make those calories count," he said sheepishly.

"I guess I have to get used to that, too," Henry remarked. His eyes shone as he leaned forward. "So…what else can you do?"

"Things you couldn't even imagine," Barry replied, cutting into his stack of pancakes. "Basically, anything people thought was impossible. I can run incredibly fast, like, at Mach 3."

"Mach 3?"

"Maybe even faster. I can heal myself, I can throw lightning…and there's still things I'm learning how to do."

"You must've been on some pretty neat adventures."

For the next hour Henry and Barry continued to eat, speaking quietly as Barry detailed what had been going on with him and his friends for the last year or so. It was hard to describe what had happened with the singularity, but Henry listened with rapt attention, especially at the mention of Superman and how he helped in their fight against the Reverse-Flash. Then there was the Flash Day—which he wanted to hear every detail, including Barry receiving the key to the city, and their latest fights against Atom Smasher.

Barry kept quiet about the whole 'Zoom' thing, only because he didn't want to worry his father anymore than he had to be. _He just got out of jail, probably to a good idea to freak him out anymore than he has to be,_ he thought.

Finally, they finished their food and left a generous tip before heading back to his house. Barry and Henry unlocked the door and both recoiled in shock and startled surprise when streamers were suddenly thrown into their faces with cries of 'Welcome home!' reaching their ears.

Barry looked around and spotted his friends gathered into the living room, streamers hung from the corners of the room, a cake sat on the back table with a punch bowl and cups scattered around it. Soft jazz music played in the background as all of Barry's friends smiled towards him.

"I told you he'd be surprised," Iris declared, elbowing her father in the side.

"You're right, I'm very surprised," Barry agreed, bringing a hand up to his chest.

"Not you, your dad!" Iris declared. She swatted Barry on the shoulder as she passed him, heading towards Henry, who smiled pleasantly. "You look great, Henry. Welcome home." She enveloped him in a tight hug and Henry responded, patting her on the back.

"I feel great; it's great to be out of there."

That spurred the rest of the room to break into action as all moved forward to give him a hug in greeting or a congratulatory pat on the back. Barry looked around the room, frowning when he saw Harrison wasn't there. Not that he really expected him to be there but…he had no idea how his father was able to be let out of jail if Harrison hadn't confessed or done something else. Then again, Tess wasn't there as well. But Cadence and Brady were cheerfully greeting Henry along with the others.

 _So if something happened, they don't know about it yet,_ Barry reasoned.

But his suspicions were quickly overshadowed by the excitement of the party. Barry sat back and watched as everyone came together for the party, eating cake, listening to music, and teaching Henry everything he missed while in jail. Brady had a good time explaining the different video game systems and their games that were now out while Cisco walked him through different dating sites like Tinder.

"I honestly don't know why anyone would want to use an app like this," Henry remarked, turning Cisco's phone this way and that as he looked over the different profiles. "Whatever happened to meeting someone and dating?"

"That can still get pretty complicated in today's dating age," Cadence commented, crossing her arms. "If you don't meet someone at the bar then how else are you supposed to meet them?"

"At work," Brady piped up, scraping frosting off the sides of his piece of cake. Barry tried and failed to keep a smile from his face as Cadence reached out and lightly tapped him on the back of the head. But his smile faded, listening eagerly as Brady turned back to Henry and asked, "Mr. Allen, what are you going to do now?"

Henry thought for a moment. Then he lowered his glass of champagne to the table in front of him. He clasped his hands together. "Firstly, you can call me Henry. Secondly… I don't know." He lifted his gaze around the room. "I haven't thought far enough of what I would do once I got out. I didn't think it would come so soon. Maybe if I did I would have planned ahead." He chuckled. "I guess I should ask what you all would do if you got out, to get some ideas."

"Connect with my family," Joe said. He put his arm around Iris, pulling her into his side. Iris smiled and wrapped her arms around her father's waist, leaning into him as well. "To let them know how much I really loved him, how much I thought of them while I was gone."

"Well, I don't think Barry ever had to worry about that," Caitlin surmised. "I don't think I know anyone else that holds their father in such high esteem as you, Mr. Allen." Henry gave her a look and she held up a hand. "I mean, Henry."

"I'd probably eat as much as I could," Cisco declared. Cadence nodded her agreement and gave him a high-five. "As much homemade cooking as I could handle." He licked his lips, placing his hands on his stomach. Then his smile faded. "Then again, my mom has a habit to make enough food to feed an army when it's someone's birthday, so I wouldn't want to waste it."

Barry chuckled.

"All of that sounds like a good idea," Henry said. He started to get to his feet. "But, I think the very first thing I want to do is take a walk."

Barry watched him for a moment then pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning again. "I'll go with you," he offered. He turned back to his friends. "You guys…thank you so much for this. But how…how did you…?" He tried to form the words.

He had only just figured out about his father being released from prison not long before, everyone had to have moved fast to set the party up in that time.

"Well, what can we say?" Iris asked, clasping her hands together. "We're not Team Flash for nothing."

"Thank you."

Iris smiled and nodded.

Then he followed his father outside and the two started to walk down the street. Barry watched as his father sort of swayed as he went along, almost as if his left leg was shorter than the right. Finally, Barry reached out and grasped his father's shoulders, holding him still.

"Whoa, are you sure you're okay?" Barry asked with a laugh.

Henry laughed as well. He brought his hand to his forehead. He rubbed his temples then cleared his throat, standing up straight. "Champagne," he explained. "That stuff goes to your head after being away from it for fourteen years."

"I wouldn't know," Barry said. "Not only does my metabolism make me need to eat a lot of food, but I can't get drunk."

"I don't know, that seems like an ability I'd like to have," Henry said. He stretched his arms over his head. "Being able to move so fast…maybe I'd go and see the world. It's what your mother and I always wanted to do."

"Well, in the meantime you could get your medical license back and start your practice up again or work at STAR Labs with the rest of us." It all came out of Barry in a sudden blurt. He couldn't help himself. The ideas had flashed through his head as long as he had known his father was getting out. The things they could do, together, now that he was back out as a free man.

 _Everything can go back to the way it used to be,_ Barry thought. But then he noticed his father's hesitation. Barry pushed his neck forward, waiting for a response. Henry glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Y-you…I mean if you don't want to do that—"

"—it's not that I don't want to, but would anyone else want me to? How can they look at me and not see the man that killed his wife for…whatever reasons they've come up with?" Henry slid his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

"But you're innocent!"

"You and I both know that, but who knows how many other people do."

"Who cares what they think?!"

"Clearly you do."

Huh. Barry stopped in his tracks, gazing at his father as if he were a new man. Maybe that was the truth. He hadn't been able to do a lot of things in life because of people whispering about his parents. Whispering about that 'poor Allen boy'. Eventually the whispers stopped, but their effects lasted on Barry longer than he thought.

Henry took a deep breath and turned back to face his son. As he did so, rain droplets started to fall from the sky, slowly at first then harder. Blinking them away, Barry tilted his head back and looked towards the sky.

He didn't think it was supposed to rain that day.

"Barry," Henry started. "I've thought long and hard about this while I was in there. Honestly, I hoped it would never come to me having to say it but…you're The Flash." Confused, Barry nodded. "Can you be all that you are becoming with me here?"

The words hit Barry like a ton of bricks; cement filling his lower body, rooting his feet to the ground. Maybe pulling him through the ground to his destruction. It felt like it. "You're the only family that I have left…" he whispered.

Lips tugging at the corners, Henry's eyes sparkled. "Well, that's not very true is it? Don't you have some more family back at the house? Much more family than I ever thought was possible for you to make, you used to be so shy."

Barry smiled a little.

"And you still haven't caught me up on what's going on with you and, uh, Candace?"

"Cadence."

Henry quickly apologized. "Right, I'm sorry. But don't think you can change the subject. She must be pretty special if she came to help celebrate."

"She's a great friend," Barry finally said. "They all are."

"I can see that," Henry said. "And they need your help, too. More than me." He reached out his hand, using it to wipe raindrops from Barry's face. Then he firmly grasped Barry's face, looking his son in the eye. His adult son, not his little boy. "And when you need me, I will be here. But right now Central City doesn't need you to be Henry Allen's son; it needs you to be The Flash. My kid…is a hero. I need you to tell me its okay."

Barry shook his head. Slowly, at first, then faster."No," he said. "No. I can't do that."

Now Henry frowned, moving his grasp to Barry's shoulders. "Barry, listen to me. I can't be there the way you want me to be," he said. "Too much time has passed, we've both changed—"

"—we've grown up but we haven't changed. We're still the same people. You're my dad and I love you."

"I don't want to hold you back."

"You're not going to hold me back. Knowing that you're here in Central City is exactly what I need. If you go away…it'll be even harder to deal with this." Barry swallowed hard. It was weird, to be the parent in the situation. To be the one to let _him_ know that everything was going to be okay. "Things are going to be hard in the beginning, dad. I know you're afraid of what'll happen and what people will say. But just like I'm there for Central City, I'm here for you, too. I promise."

Henry stared at Barry for a long moment.

Finally, his eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled.

His top teeth showed as he laughed.

He reached out and gave Barry a hug.

"I guess I should start looking at apartments then," Henry said.

The two continued around the neighborhood until Barry realized they had been gone for a while. Then he grasped Henry by the shoulder and rushed them back to the party. Henry wobbled, grabbing onto the back of the couch as he came to a sudden stop. "Ugh, I'm hoping it won't take too long to get used to that."

"I never noticed," Barry said, crossing his arms as he shrugged. He sat down on the couch with Cisco and Caitlin as they started up a game of Cranium—which Iris apologized profusely for as it was only one of the few games left in the West house and Joe had banned them from playing Monopoly years before. Barry rubbed his hands together. "Get ready to lose! I'm the master at this game."

"Oh, I beg to differ!" Iris shot back, choosing her game piece. "My dad and I always crush you at this game! And we'll crush you again."

"That's okay, me and dad can beat you this time," Barry said.

"Once he stops throwing up, I bet," Cadence said. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I guess Brady and I'll be a team, then." She raised up her hands as Brady said, "yeah!" in agreement before slapping her a high-ten.

"Ugh, gym class all over again," Caitlin murmured. She gently nudged Cisco's side. "I guess it's you and me, Ramon."

Cisco put his arm around Caitlin's shoulders. "That's alright, Cait. We both know that we have the smarts to beat all of them. And to raise the stakes, loser has to clean up!"

Two hours later Barry stretched his arms overhead then cracked his knuckles. He stretched his legs then took a deep breath, lowering the bottom of his shirt as it rose up. He glanced around the room, taking in everything that had become messy from the party after everyone left. Then in a blink of an eye—or in a flash—Barry had it all cleaned up and stretched out on the couch.

Joe laughed as he walked by the couch, dragging a tied trash bag with him. "It must run in the Allen family, you and your father both conked out once the game was over."

"Just a lot of excitement today," Barry breathed. The smile stayed on his face as he put his arms behind his head, closing his eyes. "Today starts the rest of our lives. I know dad's going to love it here as much as he did before…" he trailed off.

It had taken most of the day without thinking of his mother and now the memory came back. Almost everything was perfect and he had to go and ruin it by thinking of the worst day of his life. Joe must've noticed for he put the trash bag down and patted Barry's stomach. "You know your mother is happy for you both, Bare. It's not going to help dwelling on what could've been."

Barry squeezed his eyes tighter. He had hoped he could keep what happened when he time traveled back to the night of his mother's death a secret. That he wouldn't have to say anything about it ever again. That everyone would believe him when he said he didn't go to save her.

It was far from the truth.

 _Barry went down the line of his friends and family, giving each of them a hug as he came to them. It was hard to do it, each of his friends looked at him with sadness in their eyes but grudging respect of what he was going to do. Brady held tightly onto his waist until Ryder had to forcibly make him let go. The hardest was when he came to Joe, the man that had taken him into his home without a second thought._

 _Barry gazed at him for a long moment then reached out his hand, placing it on Joe's shoulder. He squeezed it tightly. "Goodbye, dad," he whispered._

 _Joe smiled back, tears falling down his cheeks. "Goodbye, son," he replied._

 _Barry nodded and looked over at Cadence, who nodded back. "Protect these guys in case something goes wrong," he said._

 _"You can trust me," she replied._

 _"I know I can." Barry reached over and gave her another hug. I just hope everything goes according to plan._

 _He pulled his mask over his eyes and stepped down into the cavernous Particle Accelerator. He looked around then turned, leveling his gaze with Harrison. Harrison looked back at him with an air of malice in his eyes. Still, he nodded in encouragement for Barry as well._

 _Barry nodded back and started to run fast, faster than he ever had before. Round and around he went through the Particle Accelerator. Everything around him flashed by in a blur until it was just a swirl of bright and dark colors. Finally, something opened up in front of him and he charged right through it._

"Bare?" Joe's voice broke through his thoughts.

"I lied," Barry whispered.

"You what?"

Barry opened his eyes and looked up at Joe, who moved around the couch and stood above him. Pressing his hands into the couch, Barry slowly turned so that he was sitting up. He rested his hands between his knees. "About my mom…I lied. I went back…I saw her."

Joe slowly sat down on the coffee table as he took everything in.

"When I went back in time, I saw her lying on the floor, screaming for help." A silent tear worked its way down Barry's cheek but he kept himself from bursting into tears once more. "I was going to go help her but I saw myself…like it was a different version of myself."

"Not your younger self?" Joe pressed. He closed his eyes, shook his head. His had to be as confusing for him as it was for Barry.

"No, I was the same age I am now. I was going to go help her but I stopped myself. I listened to the Reverse-Flash kill my mom, heard myself being taken out of the house. Then I snuck out. Mom was dying and I…I held her as she died. I let her know that everything was going to be okay."

"But you didn't save her?"

"No… I couldn't. I had the time but…I couldn't do it." Barry shook his head. "There was a reason I stopped myself, I could feel it in my gut. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do." He lifted his gaze to meet Joe's. "I can't tell my dad, it'd kill him. He told me not to go back and save her, but to know that I had the chance and didn't try…I can't tell him."

Joe reached out and placed his hand on Barry's neck, rubbing it comfortingly. "I know these words may not hold any weight, Bare," he said. "But right now you need to focus on the positive. Your dad's alive and he's out of prison. Things will get better now, I promise."

Outside the rain continued to fall.

* * *

Racing into STAR Labs, Barry came to a halt outside of Harrison's office. He watched as Harrison walked back and forth from his desk to a filing cabinet, transferring papers and folders filled to the brim as he did so. His face was set in an expression of intense concentration.

Almost serene in a way.

Clenching his jaw, Barry continued to watch. As hard as he tried, he couldn't get past the thought that Harrison was just waiting for the right time to take them down again. To show off his super speed and kill them all without a second of thought.

So far he hadn't shown any reason for Barry to believe he'd do it, but the thought wasn't going to leave him anytime soon.

"You know, I don't particularly like it when people hover in my doorway," Harrison murmured, eyes still downcast on a file. "There's something very unsettling about it." Finally he lifted his head and gazed at Barry with a small smile. "Or else I'm starting to become paranoid due to my experiences with Eobard Thawne."

A humorless chuckle escaped Barry's lips. He strode into Harrison's office. "I think a lot of us are starting to become paranoid about it."

"With good reason too," Harrison agreed. "Was there something I could help you with?"

There was a lot that he could help Barry with. A lot of things he still wasn't sure about. Things that he could and couldn't understand. Things he couldn't even begin to think about. He wondered what it was like when Eobard took over his body, but also didn't care to know. Wondered what it was like to kill all those people, knowing it was your body that was doing it all but not the mind.

Maybe something similar to when he had been whammied by Bivolo.

Barry had felt an insurmountable feeling of rage and said and did things he would never even dream. And yet, there was a part of him that was relieved he was able to say all those things.

"Why'd you do it?" Barry finally asked.

Harrison's eyebrows rose over his clear glasses. His blue eyes shone with something Barry couldn't quite place. For a moment Barry suspected Harrison to deny everything. But the scientist then set the file aside. "Why did I go and confess to your mother's murder?"

"If _you_ had confessed to my mom's murder you'd be in prison," Barry pointed out. "But you're still here."

"Tess certainly was right this time," Harrison said. He grinned. "That woman's always been much smarter than I. I should've known you would start to ask questions." He cleared his throat. "In essence, I did go and confess I killed your mother. Or, a part of me did. Eobard. I went to the police and told them that Eobard Thawne was the one who went into your house that night and killed her."

"But how did…?"

"There's plenty of technology around here, video footage, audio recordings…that gave substantial evidence to it being that Eobard Thawne, a distant relative of Eddie Thawne, was who killed your mother," Harrison explained. "Not only that, but that Eddie was caught in the crossfire and his relative killed him for finding out."

Barry lowered his gaze. "What…? How…?"

"I understand it may be difficult to wrap your head around but you must understand that Eobard Thawne, the man who used my likeness, was not me. I do not intend to kill you. It was true when I said…or rather, he said, that I've actually grown quite fond of you. Very fond. In many ways it feels that you all are my family."

 _No._ Barry turned away, bringing a hand up to rub his mouth. Then he moved his fingers through his hair, scratching at his neck. Finally, he lifted his gaze and placed it squarely on Harrison. "Why?"

"I couldn't let you continue to go through life knowing what I knew," Harrison said. He looked back at Barry. "That you had the chance to save your mother, but didn't take it." Barry's jaw dropped. "Yes, I know about that. Remember, I was part of Eobard at one point in time just as much as he was part of me. I know how hard of a decision that had to be. Making that decision, the sixth months of grief you went through afterwards, I knew that you deserve nothing more than your happiness, Barry. You were an innocent pawn through all of this and I'm trying to right a wrong."

 _He knew and he didn't tell anyone,_ Barry thought. He eyed Harrison suspiciously. Just a little bit. Why would he not tell anyone?

"But you have to promise me something," Harrison continued. He didn't speak again until Barry acknowledged the arrangements. "You can't tell Cadence."

"What?" Caught off guard, Barry took a step back. He expected many other things that he would have to do. Work harder, run faster, be a guinea pig in some way. But not that.

"You can't tell her what I've done," Harrison said. "I don't want you to tell her how your father got out of jail. There's already so much that's been going on but trust me…it can still come back to haunt me when the time comes. In more ways than you know."

"You want me to lie to her…?"

"I want you to understand that being a hero, having your abilities, comes with responsibility that's hard to handle at times. Having to make decisions without understanding all of the facts."

Silence stretched between the two.

Finally, Barry nodded. "Alright," he murmured. "I won't tell her."

"Thank you," Harrison said, sincerely.

Before the two could say anything else a warning signal started to blare through STAR Labs. Barry and Harrison exchanged a glance before turning and running out of Harrison's office, towards the Cortex. They arrived just as Cisco tossed himself into a computer chair next to Caitlin. Harrison sat on his other side and the three pulled up an image on the screens across from their desks.

Cadence and Brady then hurried into the Cortex behind Barry, coming from the medical bay. "What's going on?" Brady asked.

 _"Give me the Flash! I know he's around here somewhere!"_ Barry's eyes narrowed as he watched the images on screen. Somewhere in Central City—it looked like the business district, a tall man with long black hair stood in the middle of the road. He clenched his hands into fists, twisting back and forth, goggle covered eyes searching frantically. " _Bring him to me! He's around here somewhere!"_

The group watched as he shot out his hand, sending a blast of hard water into a nearby car. The windows immediately blew out, sending glass over the streets. The force of the water was so powerful that the pressure within the car filled with water blasted the other doors open.

Then the man turned and held up his fist, it stretched out, turning into a water whip, and slapped against the ground, leaving a crack in the ground where it had struck.

 _"I know you're hiding him! I just want to get home!"_

"That's the same thing Atom Smasher said," Barry said.

"So he has to be working for Zoom," Cadence added.

"But where's 'home' that these guys are coming from?" Caitlin asked, shaking her head. "And what does Zoom want with them."

"To take down Barry, haven't you been listening?" Cisco asked.

Caitlin rolled her eyes.

Harrison tapped a few more buttons on his keyboard and the image switched. "Using the facial recognition software, this guy has struck a few times before. More specifically over the last couple of days. It appears he's the cause of the coastal flooding we've been seeing. As well as the strange weather patterns."

Barry started. That meant the sudden rain storm shad been coming from this guy. A Meta who had been looking for him the entire time.

"Oh great, a Meta with a temper tantrum who likes to flood things," Cisco murmured. Then he shrugged. "Then again, the city has been seeing a drought lately."

"Nice to know where your priorities are, Cisco," Cadence commented with an amused smile.

They watched a few more minutes as the man continued to shoot water across the streets, continuing to scream for The Flash to come out. Barry clenched his hands into fists. If this guy was looking for The Flash, he just found him.

"He's shooting that water around like some sort of…?" Cisco started.

"Hydro Hunter?" Brady piped up. Cisco looked annoyed despite nodding his approval. "It's one of my vocabulary words."

"Let's see what this guy wants and what he has to do with Zoom," Barry said. He started to move towards his suit but Cadence reached out and grabbed his wrist.

She shook her head. "Let me go," she declared. "Alone." All eyes turned her way. "We don't know how strong this guy is and if he's looking for The Flash for whomever this Zoom guy is, it's probably not a good idea to give him exactly what he wants. Not unless we can get some answers first."

"But—"

"She's right," Caitlin agreed. Turning in her seat, she nodded towards Barry then reached out, placing her hand on his arm. Her hand felt cold to the touch, almost as if he could feel it through the sleeve of his sweater. Almost as if noticing herself, Caitlin quickly pulled her hand back.

She placed her hands in her lap, rubbing them over each other. "If you go out there, it might be a trap. They're looking for you, specifically. Who knows what'll happen." Then she briskly rubbed them together.

"I told you we need to turn up the heat in this place," Cisco said to her, eyes glued to the monitor.

Barry started to protest once more as Cadence teleported to her suit. She pulled her goggles down around her neck, making sure her comm-link was in place before sliding her goggles onto her forehead.

"I'm with Barry on this one," Cisco declared. "Haven't you ever played Pokémon? Fire is weak against water."

"I've been doing this for the last six months," Cadence shot back. "What's one more day?" She pulled her goggles down over her eyes. "Besides, haven't you played Kingdom Hearts?"

All eyes turned towards Barry and he looked away for a minute. He clenched his hands into fists, mind shooting back and forth over what decision to make. The longer time past, the more destruction Hydro Hunter was inflicting to the city. If they were going to do something, it had to be fast.

"Go," he finally said. "We'll be watching from here and can communicate via your comm-link."

"You got it," Cadence agreed.

"Be careful."

"Promise."

Barry reached out with his hands and rested them against the table in front of them, keeping his eyes on the screen in front of him. They watched as Cadence arrived on scene and Hydro Hunter turned her way, his arms still in the form of a water whip.

"You're not the Flash," he growled.

"Great observation," Cadence shot back. "What do you want with the Flash?"

"To bring him to Zoom," Hydro Hunter declared.

"What does Zoom want with him?"

Barry's grip tightened against the table. His knuckles turned white, breath catching in his throat. If they were going to get any answers this had to be it. But Hydro Hunter moved faster than they thought possible. He brought up his water whip and cracked it against the side of Cadence's face.

"Mom," Brady gasped.

Caitlin's eyes widened and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth, Cisco made a low grunting sound, Harrison's eyes narrowed, jaw clenching, and Barry lowered his head, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he lifted his gaze once more, watching as Cadence brought up her other hand and grabbed onto the water whip.

Steam erupted from it and started to evaporate in her hand. Hydro Hunter then pulled the whip back and thrust his other hand forward, striking her in the stomach with a hard wave of water. Cadence's legs came out from underneath her, bowled over backwards from the force of the water. Then she was back on her feet, shooting a wave of fire back at him.

Then the two were locked into battle.

Back and forth fire and water shot at each other until they were close enough to get into hand to hand combat. That was where Cadence shone, getting solid hits and kicks into each other. But once Cadence started to get the upper hand, Hydro Hunter would turn his arms into water whips and strike her across the face and chest over and over until she had to teleport back the other way.

Then she came back with a burst of flame and used her teleportation to her advantage, coming out of the air to send a flaming punch to his face. Teleporting before she hit the ground, to appear on his other side and attack him again. But a combination of an attack with his sent clouds of steam around the street, momentarily clouding the view.

"You need to keep your distance," Barry said, eyes glued to the screen. "His water whips can stretch out further than you can; your abilities make your attacks work better up close."

"Relax, she knows what she's doing," Harrison reassured him. His blue eyes stayed glued to the live feed in front of them.

Releasing his grasp on the table, Barry brought his hands up and rested them atop his head. He let out a long breath, resisting the urge to start running. They were right; he needed to stay back in case it was a trap. But it was hard to watch and not interact.

Back and forth, up and down the street Flare and Hydro Hunted moved, taking shot after shot against each other. Finally, Hydro Hunter turned and used his water whip to wrap around the top of a fire hydrant. He pulled and flung it towards Cadence, shooting across the street like a missile. Cadence ducked out of the way and used her heat vision to melt it down.

"Argh!" Hydro Hunter screamed as the molten metal dripped onto him, causing steam to rise from his body. Then Hydro Hunter used the water that was spewing into the air and directed it towards Cadence.

Cadence let out a yelp of surprise as she was lifted off her feet once more. This time the blast had been so strong, combined form his power and of the fire hydrant, that it lifted her off her feet and into the air. Cisco changed their surveillance view to that of inside the building and they watched as Cadence teleported through the front side of the building, but crashed through the interior walls, rolling as she went, the force of water following her.

She came to a stop inside one of the rooms. Above her the sprinklers mounted in the ceiling all burst, starting to fill the room with water. Shrieking, as if in pain, Cadence ducked her head out of the way before backing into a corner, trying to use her fire powers to burn the water away. Hydro Hunter stood in the street, grinning as he continued to manipulate the water inside.

"Cade, you have to find a way to get out of there," Caitlin said. She paused when she didn't receive a response. "Cade!"

"All that water coming in, her comm-link is fried," Cisco declared, shaking his head.

"I'm going in there," Barry said.

"Don't!" Harrison declared.

Barry continued to watch as the room filled up. Cadence ducked her head underwater and held her hand over her nose and mouth. He held his breath, willing that she would be okay. Hoping she would be okay. His fingers, jaw, every muscle in his body was starting to ache he clenched them so hard. Cadence gently kicked her legs through the water, her movements continuing to slow down as the seconds passed. Her hand clasped tighter around her mouth, her cheeks bunched up, and her eyes squeezed shut. Finally, Hydro Hunter brought his hands back and pushed forward again, sending more water into the room.

The increase in pressure made the window buckle and the water along with Cadence went flying out. She landed hard on the roof of a car, coughing and spitting up water as she did so. Then, seconds later, Hydro Hunter shot through the window Cadence had come out of, with a blast of water and landed on the ground.

Cadence pushed herself up as he shot another blast of water towards her. Rolling off the roof, Cadence crouched on the ground and punched her fist through the window. The she slid inside and crouched low in the front seat. Lifting a flaming fist she punched it into the steering column. The flames wrapped up her arm and ignited the interior of the car.

"What's she doing?" Barry asked.

"Fire Bomb!" Cisco shouted, raising his hands into the air. "It's a fire bomb!"

They watched as the flames continued to engulf the car until it finally exploded, sending flames into the air. The force of the hot wind smacked Hydro Hunter directly in the face, stopping his water attack in its tracks. The flames dissipated and the smoke cleared, revealing an unharmed Cadence. The air waved around her as she, completely engulfed in flames, walked towards Hydro Hunter.

Hydro Hunter turned his arms into water whips once more and shot them towards Cadence. She knocked them aside with ease, evaporating the water then sent a strong punch to his stomach. Hydro Hunter screamed as steam started to escape his entire body. Then she sent a straight jab to his face, knocking him out cold, leaving his skin blistering in response.

A sigh of relief escaped Barry's lips as he watched Hydro Hunter fall. Then he started to smile, placing his hands on his hips. It didn't take long for Cadence to grab Hydro Hunter and bring him back to STAR Labs, putting him into the pipeline.

She went back up to the Cortex to her waiting friends. Cisco immediately went to retrieve the comm-link to repair it. "I know I've been really hard with you and Barry on what you've done to my suits, but do you know how hard it is to fix these things? Especially with water damage?"

"I don't, but thanks, Cisco!" Cadence replied. She raised her hand for a high-five and Cisco rolled his eyes, grudgingly smiling and high-fived her back, muttering how awesome her fire bomb had been. A little tired, Cadence brought her hand up to her cheek. She winced, bringing her hand away and seeing blood. Caitlin was immediately by her side with a cotton swab and a bandage, examining the wound as Brady hurried over and grabbed her in a tight hug. "Ow, Cait, be careful."

"Stop moving," Caitlin replied. She tilted Cadence's head to the side. "Honestly, this doesn't look too bad. It just opened up the scar you already had here, ripping some of the scar tissue. But it'll heal just fine."

Cadence managed a small smile. "As long as the scar stays, I thought it was kind of cool." Then she looked over at Barry. "How'd I do?" She asked.

Barry smiled warmly. "I wouldn't call anyone else my partner," he said. He reached out, tucking some of her hair behind her ear before giing her a congratulatory high-five and enveloped her in a hug. Caitlin gave the two a knowing look as she backed away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied. He looked her in the eye. "Promise," she insisted.

Barry smiled and nodded. "Cisco's right, that fire bomb was pretty cool."

"I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve, Tholly."

"Once Hydro Hunter wakes up we can see what he wants with The Flash," Harrison commented.

"If it's anything like the others, they want nothing more than for Zoom to take him down," a voice behind them said, causing them to turn around. A tall, brunette stood in the doorway to the cortex, watching the group. "And they're not going to stop until that happens. They can't run away from him, he'll always find them."

"Who are you?" Brady asked.

"We really need to amp up security around here," Cisco complained.

Barry took a step towards the new comer. "What's your name? What do you want?"

"My name is Jay Garrick," he said. "And, Barry Allen, I need your help."

* * *

 **A/N:** So what did you think? Barry managed to have a moment with each of his father figures. Not only did I think it was well overdue, but being able to showcase each relationship and have them bounce off each other was fun. Then capped it all up with a metahuman fight!

I thought it would be great to have Cadence show that she can handle fights all on her own. Did that urn out well? It always seems to come out differently in my head than in my writing. But I've also been thinking of maybe treating each chapter like an episode in the sense to bring in more fights. Like, to have smaller metahumans coming in as things move on with Zoom and the Rogues and everything. So if you have any ideas for metas (or other villains) for them to face as time goes on, let me know!

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

Also, if you enjoy the story then recommend to others. I know Barry/OC stories are a bit of a small niche lately but I'm sure others would enjoy it.

Our stories are updated at least once a week so expect and update next week and have a Happy Thanksgiving! (If you celebrate).

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **PowerHero432:** Mick's and Cadence's interactions are always fun for me to write. But you know that ;). And there's plenty more coming in with Barry, Patty, and Cadence. **  
**

 **Ethan:** Yeah, I should've made it more clear that that was taken from Sparks Fly as I'm re-working some of that into this story. But I wasn't sure how to do it without multiple author's notes. Though my author's notes are now starting to becoming pretty long so I need to work on that. I'm excited to work on Patty's and Cadence's relationship more, especially with Barry being a common link. The heat gun thing will be explained.

 **Guest:** Seems like a lot of people can't wait to see what happens with Barry and Cade and Patty. It's coming in soon. Hopefully I can have a good balance of everything including that plot. *Fingers crossed*.

 **josephguy217:** Thank you, thank you. I hope you liked this chapter as well.

 **spinquin142:** Yes, not noticing the heat gun was really silly of Cade. If not a bit sloppy. But we'll see how that turns out. Family of Rogues is coming in soon.

 **yummers:** We'll see soon. ;)

 **babyj:** So what do you think of what I did with Harrison?


	7. What a Tangled Web

**.:07:.**

* * *

Barry ran a hand over his face as he yawned, trying to stay as quiet as possible. He pulled the brim to his cap lower on his forehead, pulling up the hood to his hoodie up on top of that. Anything to keep attention away from him. The last thing he needed was for someone else to follow him around and recognize him as the Flash. He shook his head, feeling anxiety move through his body, reaching out his hand and tapping it against his cup of CC Jitters' The Flash.

The irony wasn't lost on him.

If Jay Garrick could tell he was the Flash from only a few months of research…anyone else could. Leaning forward, Barry rested his elbows on the table and ran his hands over his face. Oh, this was starting to become so frustrating. The moment he was starting to have some fun and regroup with his friends again things started to fall apart once more. Not that he didn't expect it in some way; he just thought he had a better chance of coming across Captain Cold more than the potential of another Speedster.

Zoom.

Barry took a sip of his drink and replayed the conversation with Jay in his head. The minute he had stepped into STAR Labs, everyone turned his way, surprised to see him there. Not only because he was able to waltz in without an issue, but because of how quickly he revealed to know who each and every person there was.

"Please, just let me explain. I mean you no harm," Jay said, holding up his hands as he stepped further into the room. Barry had been seconds away from racing towards him and shoving him by the shoulder into the wall, and then forced every muscle in his body to stop himself. If it wasn't for the fact that he had said Barry's name he would've been out of there in seconds. "I came here with a warning. Zoom is coming and your world is in danger."

"'Your world'?" Cisco repeated. He closed his eyes for a moment before slowly sticking up his finger. "Do you mean there are other worlds out there?"

Jay nodded. He slowly lowered his hands, seeing that no one was about to attack him. "I promise you, I can explain everything. I'm not here to hurt you or attack you." He turned and looked directly at Barry. "You created the singularity above Central City six months ago and when you did that, you created a breach; a portal between my world and yours."

Caitlin's eyebrow rose. She waited a moment for Jay to continue but he stayed silent, eyes moving around the group. Taking them in now that he was close up to them. "And?" She pressed.

Jay's lips pursed for a moment and Barry's eyes narrowed as he watched him. He seemed a little annoyed for someone who was trying to explain their reasoning of being there. "A week ago you found Al Rothstein dead in your city's power plant; that's not something hard to figure out as it was mentioned in the _Central City Picture News_ due to the nature of his death. But then another Al Rothstein tried to kill you, correct?"

Finally having enough, Barry spoke up once more. "So, Jay, how do you know all this?"

Then Jay explained everything that had happened over the last six months. How he had raced through ' _his_ ' Central City as the Flash and tried to stop Zoom. How the Singularity had opened up in the sky above him and sucked him through, losing his powers in the process. How he had moved through _'this'_ Central City, without his speed, for the last six months trying to get his bearings and understand what was going on. How he came across everyone at STAR Labs through his studies.

"So you've been following us all this entire time?" Harrison commented, crossing his arms.

"Watching!" Cadence suddenly jumped in. All eyes turned to her and she flushed, biting her lower lip, kicking her foot along the ground. "Sorry."

Barry then keyed in on something Jay had said. "Zoom? Atom Smasher said Zoom sent him here to kill me."

"Hydro Hunter said the same thing," Brady piped up.

"Right, Zoom." Jay nodded slowly. His eyes shifted downwards for a long moment, as if going through a painful memory. "He's faster than anything I've ever seen, even faster than me. Probably faster than you, Barry. But he's evil, an unstoppable human with a face of death."

Barry pressed his lips together. He wasn't exactly sure if he believed Jay. What was there to believe? He couldn't completely trust him, despite how honest he seemed. The last time he trusted someone, that trust had been broken in the worst way he had thought imaginable. Still, he wasn't completely heartless, and he was curious to know what else Jay had to say. So he instructed that tests be run on him which Caitlin and Cadence immediately set off to do.

Sitting in CC Jitters the next day, Barry couldn't help but look at every face that came through the door, just in case it was someone who was going to point some sort of a gun in his face or was seconds away from revealing his identity. He became relieved when he saw Iris come through the door and walk over to his table.

"Hey," She greeted him as she sat down, placing her purse aside. Her eyes lit up as she took the cup of The Flash that Barry had ordered for her. "Thanks. I really needed this."

It was then Barry noticed the slight bags under her eyes; and for someone who took meticulous care over her appearance—not to an obsessive point as Iris had told him time and time again—that wasn't normal. "Have you been working all day? It's only nine in the morning."

"I know, but there've been some breaking news that we've been working on," Iris explained. "Mostly with Mayor Bellows and whether or not he's going to run for office again within the next year. And then I was talking to Lois and Clark about some more of the metahuman things that we've experienced over here and what's been going on back in Smallville and Metropolis with things they've been dealing with."

"Oh really?" Barry's eyebrows rose. He didn't have a lot of time to talk to Lois Lane or Clark Kent when they had been around in Central City. As a matter of fact he remembered talking to them briefly while at Eddie's funeral but otherwise there had been so much going on he hadn't really gotten to know them. "Is everything okay back there?"

"Nothing that Superman can't handle, apparently," Iris replied with a warm smile. "There's a story about him nearly every day. Just like someone else I know," she said.

Normally, Barry would've been pleased at Iris's comment. It at least let him know the people of Central City continued to hold him in such high-regard and that his best friend continued to believe in him. But that was before Jay Garrick came to see them. "On please don't start, Iris. I'm trying to avoid attention now, not bring anyone else who could possibly reveal it to everyone else."

Iris's eyebrows came together. "What do you mean?" She asked. "What's happened?" And Barry explained everything to her about Jay, about Zoom, about the long conversation that had added to his anxieties of taking care of the city.

"Wait a minute." Iris brought her fingers up to her temples and started to rub them. "There's another Earth out there?"

"If what Jay is saying is true, then yeah," Barry agreed.

"And on that other Earth this Jay Garrick guy is a different Flash? Not you? So, what are you on that Earth then?"

"Maybe an electrician," Barry said lamely.

"And this Zoom guy? He's from this other Earth, is a Speedster, and wants to kill you because he wants to be the strongest speedster out there." Iris slowly leaned backwards in her seat, crossing her arms. Her eyebrows rose. "Wow, I just…it's all so…"

"I know," Barry agreed.

Then Iris flicked her gaze up towards Barry and he could see something flash in her eyes that he hadn't seen from her in a long time. Anger. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Barry's jaw dropped. That wasn't the reaction he had been expecting. Some concern, maybe, but not anger that she hadn't said anything to her before. He was still working things out himself. "I…you…" Barry lowered his voice to an almost croaking whisper. "I only found out about this yesterday, Iris. It's not like I went to everyone and said 'don't tell you'."

"Really?" Iris's right eyebrow rose. "And I'm supposed to believe that since you took so long to tell me about you being The Flash in the first place. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, there are a lot of things that you don't seem to be telling me lately." Barry continued to look at her in confusion, he was sure he was starting to catch flies from the way his jaw was still dropped. He slowly eased it closed. "Yeah, I know you guys went to the bar, too. Something I wasn't invited to."

Finally, Barry leaned back in his seat and ran his hands over his face. He wondered if that was going to be brought up. He had felt a little bit guilty about it, wondering if she should've been invited. He started to defend himself but Iris kept going.

"All of this Flash stuff…it's like you're purposefully trying to keep me out of that part of your life, Barry. I'm supposed to be your best friend. So the minute I find out your true identity and I'm pissed that you didn't tell me, which I have every right to be angry, it's like I don't matter compared to Caitlin and Cisco and everyone at STAR Labs."

"Iris, that's not true," Barry said.

"Is it?"

"No!" Barry looked around, realizing his outburst had been a bit louder than he wanted. He hunched over, keeping quiet until he was sure no one else was staring at him. "I didn't tell you about being The Flash because I was trying to protect you. You know that; I've explained that to you already. And I know it was a dumb decision to make without your input because you don't _need_ to be protected. I'm sorry. But what's been going on now it's nothing that we're trying to keep you out of. I'm still processing what's going on with Jay and Zoom, I haven't even told Joe yet. And as for going to the bar, that was a last minute thing for my birthday. I spent my birthday with you and Joe and I didn't see the rest of those guys for six months. And our friendship has been weird so we just went out to the bar." Iris continued to stay silent. "It's not like I'm trying to replace you or anything."

"It seems like it, Barry," Iris said honestly. She shook her head. "Sorry, not sorry. It feels like you're trying to replace me."

Barry frowned. "How do you think I felt?"

"What are you talking about?"

"With Eddie." A strong silence hung through the air between the two of them. He could see hurt storm through Iris's eyes. For a moment she closed her eyes and looked away from Barry. "You don't think I felt like I was being replaced when you spent all of your time with him."

"Don't Barry," Iris said quietly. "Please."

He understood how she was feeling. It hadn't been long since he gave himself up to save everyone. Not long since he had been a hero in his own right. It wasn't something that was easy to get over, if there was anyone who understood that, Barry definitely did. However, this was someone she was in love with, who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, not simply a parent. (Not that he was trying to compare).

Still, Barry had to push forward. _Just so she completely understands,_ he motivated himself. "I don't think you get what it was like to come out of the coma, Iris. I was out for nine months."

"I know, Barry, I was there. I saw you in that hospital bed nearly every day."

"No. I was out-out. Waking up, I didn't remember anything and I _still_ don't. All I remember is coming back from Starling City, then going to see it turn on. That's it. Everything after that is black. So then I wake up nine months later. Not just with new powers but in a completely different world." He leaned towards Iris and looked her in the eye. _She has to understand._ "You don't think nine months is a long time but it really is. You know the first thing I did when I woke up…after going to see you and Joe? I went onto Facebook and I saw what happened. There were so many songs released, movies that came out, different things happened in everyone's lives. And then I find out that you had been dating someone for almost a year, for almost the entire time that I had been completely gone…you moved onto someone else."

Throughout his speech Iris's face softened.

Barry took a deep breath and lowered his gaze to his cup of coffee, watching steam rise from the top.

"It's a scary thing to see how much time passed. And I realized it happened again, but this time I did it willingly because of what happened. I went back onto Facebook and I saw how much Cadence, Brady, and Cisco or Cadence, Brady, and Caitlin had been hanging out throughout the time I had been gone. Brady even calls them Uncle Cisco and Aunt Caitlin now and I had no idea. I didn't know Caitlin and Cisco weren't hanging out. I didn't know that Harrison and Tess had started running STAR Labs again. I didn't know any of this. The only person that really gets it is Oliver and he was gone for five years. And it's hard to explain to other people how weird it feels to know that while you were gone they all moved on as if you didn't exist. And it hurts to know that in some ways I'm responsible for Eddie and Ronnie and that since then I can't seem to do anything right."

That was it. He said it. That was everything he had wanted to say since coming out of his coma. How everything he felt had been pushed aside due to his duties of being The Flash. It was harder than he thought it would bet to say.

Iris brought a hand up to her face and dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. He'd never see her cry often, only when things got really bad. He hadn't meant her to start crying now he just wanted to get her to understand.

"I'm sorry," he finally said.

Iris nodded. She placed her napkin back on the table and said, "I'm sorry, too. I never knew…"

"It's okay," Barry reassured her.

Iris got up from her seat and Barry followed her lead, getting up to give her a hug. He could hear her sniffling as he held onto her. But he felt that things were okay between them now. Now that they finally had things out in the open and actually, really talked about it.

Iris looked at her phone as it started to ring and she took a step back from Barry's embrace and glanced at it, a quiet sigh escaping her lips. "That's work; I've got to get going."

"Yeah, I've got to stop by work to pick up some stuff," Barry said.

"I thought you had the day off."

"I do. But I need to get some things in case I'm called in last minute." He lifted his hat and ran a hand through his hair. "Are we okay?"

It took Iris a second to understand what he was talking about. Then she nodded. "Yeah, Barry. We're okay."

"I'll see you later then?"

"If work doesn't kill me first." Iris lifted her Flash in cheers to him before leaving the coffee shop. Barry picked up his and followed her outside, turning to the right instead of the left to go to the CCPD. As soon as he stepped inside Patty came over to him.

"Barry, hi," she said to him.

"Oh, hi, Patty, how's it going?" He asked, coming to a stop.

"Not bad, just, I had a question." Patty bit her lower lip as she took a step closer to him. Then she smiled, glancing over her shoulder before turning back to him. "About Joe. I'm trying to join his anti-metahuman task force but he's not saying anything. But he's sort of your Dad, right. Do you know how to crack his 'no code'?"

A light laugh escaped Barry's lips. "Yeah, I've been trying to crack that since I was eleven and so far have had no luck. But if you ever figure it out let me know."

"Deal." Patty reached out her hand and shook Barry's. He shook her hand and continued towards the staircase. "So, you're the forensic scientist around here, word on the street is that you're really good at what you do."

"I'm not sure about _really_ good, but I do my best," Barry agreed. He looked at her funny. "But you knew that…you…"

"Right, I read all of your files," Patty agreed. "I mean, I really did do that. I wasn't lying when I said I enjoyed them. I'm just…" she bit her lower lip again. Barry then noticed she smiled a lot. "I'm trying to get a handle on this place, on Central City as a whole."

"Oh, well, I think you'll make it just fine considering you clearly don't take 'no' for an answer," Barry agreed with a smile of his own. He found her smile infectious. "That may not work so well with Captain Singh but for everything else that'll bode you well."

"That's what I was hoping." Her eyes shifted behind her and Patty called out to Cadence as she walked by. "Hey, you're Cadence right? We met before."

Cadence turned towards her. "It's—"she immediately stopped in correcting Patty on the pronunciation of her name, eyebrows rising. "Actually, you got it right. I guess I got so used to people calling me Candace it became a habit."

"Or not correcting Captain Singh is starting to get to you," Barry pointed out. "And your kill him with kindness plan isn't working." Cadence elbowed him in the side before reaching out to shake Patty's hand.

"Yeah, I heard about your work here while applying," Patty said to Cadence with a warm smile. "You work as the medical examiner. It must be really cool to look at the bodies and everything to see what's made them tick and what took their life away." She paused for a second. "Not that they're deaths are cool, I mean, it kind of is. But not that they're gone, you know? But it must be a really fulfilling job."

"It is when I can help in solving a case," Cadence replied, resting her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, pushing the bottom of her blazer aside as she did so. "The hardest part is going to court to testify. So far I haven't had to do it, so fingers crossed." She looked at Patty closely. "You're interested in being a medical examiner or…?"

"Oh, no. Being out on the field is for me. You know, getting in on the action and everything." Patty motioned towards the pistol that was attached to her hip, sitting next to her police badge. "But I am interested in the science and everything. I mean, I triple majored at Hudson in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics—"

"Oh god, you're another Barry," Cadence blurted out, making a face. Eyebrows lowering Barry turned to her with an offended expression. "Not that there being another Barry is a bad thing; but it seems like everyone around me is so intensely into science it's actually starting to scare me."

"But you're…" Patty started to say then quickly changed her tactic. "I'm sorry, what's your background?"

"I was working to become a pediatrician but then some things came up and I took this job instead," Cadence explained. She scratched the back of her head. "It's a long story."

"She also teaches some dance classes down at the health center," Barry said.

"Oh, so _that's_ where Twinkle-Toes came from," Patty stated.

Barry's head jerked back for a second. "Excuse me?" He had a sneaking suspicions what it was about but also wasn't entirely sure. He wasn't ashamed of going to different Zumba classes with Iris…or at least had been before they both became too busy to go every morning. He hadn't brought it up but it seemed that _someone_ at the CCPD liked to tease him a bit more than others. But then again the CCPD had been his family since he moved in with Joe and Iris all those years ago and they did rib on each other every now and then.

The smile was immediately wiped form Patty's face. "Nothing. It's nothing. I promise."

"Oh, no. I kind of want to hear the rest of this one," Cadence stated, taking on Patty's bright smile. Even her eyes lit up at the prospect. Patty was then called across the hall by a fellow officer and she motioned to him that she was coming before turning back to them.

"So I guess I'll see you two later," She commented, looking back and forth between them, her eyes resting on Barry a little bit longer. "Maybe we can go out for a drink or something."

"Or something," Barry agreed.

Patty then smiled to the two before turning and heading over to the officer that had called them.

He watched her leave for a moment before Cadence reached out and tapped him on the arm. "I was looking for you before I remembered you had the day off," Cadence said. "And I don't want you to take anymore of your off time here. But you got a sec?"

"For you, I have plenty of secs," Barry replied. Then immediately blanched. _Oh, that was so stupid._ He let out a nervous laugh, running a hand through his hair before resting his hand against his forehead, right above his eyebrows.

Cadence laughed. "That wasn't exactly what I was asking, but I'll keep that in mind."

"I'm trying to think of a way to come back from that one, but I don't think I can," Barry admitted. He gave another nervous laugh.

"Don't worry about it." Cadence motioned for him to follow her to her office. She glanced at him as they went, taking in his hoodie, baseball cap, and basketball shorts. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you dressed in anything but jeans and a cardigan. Nice to know you can be relaxed every once in a while. But you really need to tan your legs."

Barry let out a low snort. "I'm underneath a super suit all the time, it's hard to get any sunlight," he defended himself. "Besides, I've always been naturally pale."

"There's pale and then there'd blinding, Tholly, just thought you'd want to know." Cadence sat down at her desk and Barry stopped in the doorway, looking around at the bouquets of flowers that lined the room.

"Did a flower shop explode in here?" He asked.

"No." Cadence pointed to her left. "Those are from Michael Bloom, thanking me for the help I've given him while he was in the mental hospital and since everything that happened with the Assassination Bureau." Then her eyes shifted over to the flowers on her right. "And those are from Dale."

"Dale from the club, Dale?" Barry repeated. He frowned, feeling his stomach clench.

"Yeah, I have no idea how he managed to figure out where I work," Cadence said. She shook her head. "Anyway, you know that guy that had the heart attack?" Barry nodded. "Well, I haven't found anything yet, because the toxicology reports have only just come through and then I need to test his tissues, but I wanted to let you know that we may be called in as witnesses."

"Witnesses?" Barry repeated. "This is going to court?"

"If it's found to be a homicide, yes. And considering the other pieces of evidence we've found…" she trailed off and Barry nodded in agreement. Then she sighed heavily, tilting her head back. "D'you hear what the news had to say?"

"I…" Barry thought for a moment then shook his head. He wasn't entirely sure what she was talking about. His day consisted of (for him) sleeping in, doing some laundry—which was the only thing he couldn't speed up, and getting some coffee. He hadn't paid too much attention to anything else.

"How the guy whose car I destroyed is saying how he wants to sue Flare and thinks that every other meta should be held accountable for the damage they cause." Lowering her chin, Cadence looked Barry in the eye. "Including the Flash."

Barry pressed his lips together.

He was starting to think that the Flash Day celebration came a little too soon.

* * *

Caitlin pushed herself back from the cabinet that sat in front of her, writing on a clipboard. She looked up as Harrison walked towards her and immediately turned her gaze away from him. _Just focus on inventory. That's what you're working on right now, Caitlin. Inventory._ She ignored him until he finally said, "Looks like you're hard at work."

"Yep, just taking stock of everything we have in here," Caitlin said coldly. Then she winced a little. She hadn't meant for her words to come out like that. A little biting, maybe, but not completely emotionless and biting. "We're running low on some supplies and I want to be sure that we can get a new shipment in before Barry or Cadence manage to get themselves hurt again."

"That's your quick thinking at work," Harrison said with a small, nerdy smile. "One of the reasons I hired you in the first place."

"You sure it wasn't Eobard who hired me?" Caitlin couldn't stop the question before it escaped her lips. The silence stretched between them and she sighed, turning towards him. "Look, Harrison, I didn't mean—"

"No, it's alright. This is hard for everyone and you're justified in the way you feel." Harrison sat down in s nearby chair and leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. "Tess told me it'd be something I should see coming. But she's the one that's studying behavioral sciences and can read people much better than I can." He started to pick at his fingernails. "I tend to be a little more socially awkward. I can't read social cues very easily."

Caitlin smiled a little, but continued to keep her eyes away from him. "Yes, well, that seems to be something that many in our profession have problems with. I've gotten used to it, it's not a big deal." She took in a deep breath then dared to ask, "So Tess hasn't been around here much."

"She said she doesn't feel that her background fits much into what the team needs and will come in when we need help or if I've forgotten my lunch." Harrison managed to let out a small, almost wheezing laugh. "

Yeah, right.

Caitlin knew that wasn't the entire reason why. It was because Tess didn't want to be around and make things confusing for her. Confusing wasn't the best word, torturous might've been better.

Embarrassing.

Mortifying.

Confusing was what Jay had to be feeling, especially since he had been sent directly to the Pipeline once all of their questions had been asked, just in case. Still, she couldn't help but ask a few more once she and Cadence were running some tests on him.

"So, Mr. Garrick, how long have you been the Flash in your world?" Caitlin asked, moving a stethoscope across multiple areas of his back while Cadence wrote down the findings Caitlin called out to her.

"Not long enough to be called mister," Jay replied with a half smile. "It's just Jay. And I've been there for about two years."

"And how did you get your powers?" Caitlin noticed Jay pause for a long moment. His eyebrows twitched a little as if trying to figure out the best way to explain it. Or else the memories might've been too painful for him. His body tensed as she moved the stethoscope and he took short, sharp breaths. Finally, he calmed down and regained his friendly demeanor.

Caitlin looked over at Cadence whose eyes narrowed for a moment over her clipboard. She had noticed it too. Then Caitlin noticed Cadence's eyes change to a light orange color before she lowered her head over the clipboard once more.

"I'm not sure," Jay said. "I was working in my lab; there was a flash of light, and the next thing I know I woke up from a coma."

 _A lab?_ That piqued Caitlin's interest as she moved to Jay's front. "You worked in a lab?"

"Yes, I was a part time chemist, part time physicist."

The conversation had died out after that and shortly afterwards they put him down into the Pipeline. That had been awkward; this current situation was something Caitlin could barely handle. "Look, Harrison, I don't want Tess to feel like I don't want her here. She's just as welcome as anyone on Team Flash is."

"She understands that but she and _I_ also want to help clear the air." Harrison licked his lips. "Because as much of the person I was, was partially Eobard, it was me too. And my wife and I, both, essentially just came back from the dead. This is something that not even any of our greatest studies could predict or teach us how to deal with. But knowing what was shared with you…"

"Please don't," Caitlin interrupted.

She could feel her heart started to clench. It was all too hard. Especially as her mind shifted towards Ronnie was well. If there was anyone who knew what it was like to come back from the dead, she understood that perfectly. She didn't need to be reminded of it again.

Caitlin clenched her hands then immediately let them go once more, immediately noticing the bright blue glow that came over her fingertips, the wisps of cold air that sifted out form her hands. Her heart rammed into her throat and she looked up at Harrison, whose eyes had moved to her hands as well. He definitely noticed.

How much did he remember of her moments of powers that came and go? That she hadn't told the others yet?

If he was going to say something Harrison didn't acknowledge it, he stayed quiet as long as Caitlin needed it. Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "I know the things that happened between us…or a version of you was real. Everything I felt was real. Everything I said was real."

"And the same for me," Harrison said.

"In a way I'm embarrassed about what happened, I probably wouldn't be able to look you in the eye for a long time, but I was hurting. I was hurting about a lot of things. And now that Tess is back and Ronnie is gone still hurts, probably a little bit more than it had before." She forced herself to look him in the eye. "But I love what I do. I love working here, I love my research, and I love being a part of something bigger than me. And whether or not it was you that hired me, you hired me for a reason and you continued to push me because you saw my potential. Just like I always knew if the time ever came to stand up for you."

Caitlin tucked her hair behind her ears. "I'm not going to give up on any of this because it's given me something to focus my life on. I'm not going to lie, it hurts a little when I see you two together but you were married long before I met you. But I respect you more than anything else. Just give me some time."

Harrison nodded. "I will," he promised. "Thank you."

Caitlin nodded back.

And for the first time in a while, she smiled.

* * *

Ryder dropped his tool belt to his desk before sitting down in his office chair. He scratched his forehead, pushing off his construction helmet. It clattered loudly as it fell to the floor, rolling to a stop under his desk. Then he leaned back in his seat, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes.

His office was silent for a moment before there was a knock on his door. "Come in," he called. He lowered his hands from his face and took a look at his co-worker's face as he entered the room, closing the door behind him. "Any sign of him?" He asked.

"No." His co-worker shook his head, holding a helmet out towards Ryder. He took it and rested it on his desk, letting out a heavy sigh. "I've asked around and everyone on the site is saying the same thing; one minute he was there, the next he was gone. No one saw anything."

"They didn't hear anything?" Ryder asked, green eyes flashing.

"Nothing other than his startled scream. That's what had the others go running to find him. That helmet was the only thing they found."

Ryder picked up the helmet and twisted it back and forth in his hands as if the answer was going to jump out at him. Then he flipped it to look at the inside and frowned when something in the light caught his attention. He tilted the helmet towards the light then grabbed the object, watching as it stuck to his fingertips and danced on the air from his air conditioner.

Ryder studied it for a second before lifting his gaze to his co-workers.

"Is that a web?" He asked.

* * *

 **A/N:** You can't imagine how excited I am for what's coming up. Anyway, are you guys watching the Legends of Super Flarrow Crossover? What do you think so far? I think the idea is good but the execution isn't great. It's been three episodes so far and it doesn't really feel like a lot has happened to move the plot forward? But that might just be me.

What are your guys' thoughts? Oh and what about Savitar? I think he's cool.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

Also, if you enjoy the story then recommend to others. I know Barry/OC stories are a bit of a small niche lately but I'm sure others would enjoy it.

Also check out my sister's and my new one-shots _Smile, I'll Be There, Chance Encounters, and Movie Magic._ And don't forget to check out my sister's story _In A Flash_ (this and the one-shots are on this profile) and my other sister's story _The Mark of Sage_ on the FFN profile Crystal Manning. ALSO! Check out the Supergirl story _Supergirl & Diety _by PowerHero432! It's a great story, always keeps on your feet and keeps you guessing.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** I couldn't keep Henry in prison, especially after hating that decision on the show. He had to stick around in this one a little bit.

 **DarkHelm145:** Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy how I continue to change the show as I move through it. As for Mick and Snart (As I told you in a PM) it'll be dealt with by the time their leave for Legends of Tomorrow comes. But it'll work out a bit differently considering the plot of them within this story.

 **yummers:** Haha, thanks! I think Cade really held her own, don't you?

 **PowerHero432:** I always figure the real Harrison wells to be a bit of a private guy even when he's not Eobard/Harry. So it'll be kept quiet for a while but will be brought up again later. I always enjoy Barry's scenes with this father(s) so it's great to have added here.


	8. Broken Peace

**.:08:.**

* * *

"So where do you want your bed? Over here or over here?"

Iris tilted her head to the side, bringing a hand up to her chin as she surveyed the bedroom of her new apartment. It wasn't as big as the last one was, but there was still plenty of space to be able to decorate it the way she wanted. Or at least figure out how to maximize space. That was the key component about down-sizing. Actually, it was the same struggle she had when moving out of her childhood home and into the apartment she shared with Eddie.

It had been so big she had no idea how to decorate with her own things, with Eddie's things, or how to match their different styles together. That had taken long enough, but now to do it on her own?

Almost impossible.

"You could put it over there," Caitlin suggested, carefully dropping a box of clothes to the ground. "By the window. Then you'd get the view of Central City to wake up to every morning. And considering you get the entire view of downtown—"

"—and STAR Labs," Cadence broke in, placing her free hand on her hip.

"It'll be especially beautiful during winter," Caitlin continued. "And at night when all of the lights are shining."

"And blinding me as it comes into my room," Iris continued.

"This is actually starting to get a little heavy," Cadence remarked, motioning towards the bed she precariously balanced on her shoulder. Iris and Caitlin turned towards her with amused smiles and light laughter. "I'm just going to put it over here." She placed it on the floor in the second option that Iris took too long to choose.

"How strong are you?" Iris asked, shaking her head.

"Strong enough to lift a car, but not enough to lift an eighteen wheeler, or Brady, who uses dead-weight to stick to the floor when I'm trying to get him to stop playing video games." Cadence dusted off her hands and looked around the boxes that were scattered throughout the room. "Was there anything else you needed to get from your old place?"

"Yeah, I have a couple more boxes that was left there," Iris replied. She laughed again as Cadence nodded and teleported from the apartment, arriving only a few seconds later with boxes under her arms before doing it once more. Once they were all there, Iris walked the girls to the kitchen to get them something to drink. "Thanks for helping me move in, I didn't think I had so much stuff to move."

"Oh, you'd be surprised the things we manage to accumulate over time," Caitlin said with a laugh. She perched on the edge of Iris's bar stool, crossing her legs at the knee. "You know how many snow globes I completely forgot I had?"

"It can't be any worse than how many shoes Iris managed to shoe into her closet," Cadence remarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Girl, you can never have too many shoes," Iris replied, swatting her on the arm.

"You can when they nearly avalanche on your guest's head when trying to get the rest of your clothes through the door." Tucking her strand of hair behind her ear, Cadence smiled as Iris and Caitlin both laughed. She let out a relieved sigh, lifting her gaze around the spacious kitchen. "So how did your dad take it that you were moving over here?"

"He hated the idea," Iris said, placing her hand on her hip. "Actually, he wanted me to move back in with him."

"And you didn't take it?" Caitlin's eyebrows rose. She held up her hand as Iris turned to her with a curious glance. "I mean…after what happened and everything I figured it might be better to go back there? Maybe have some sense of normalcy in going back there. You know, to have a support system?"

"You're still living in your place," Iris pointed out.

A sad look flashed through Caitlin's eyes as she shrugged. A second later it was covered by a cold one. "My family's never been much of a support system. We put all of our focus, time, and energy into our studies and work with the only 'congratulations' being when you graduated followed by 'when are you getting your next degree?' not long after."

Reaching out her hand, Cadence gripped her best friend's shoulder. She smiled a warm smile, and with sincerity in her voice said, "We're your family now. And you have nothing but support behind you." Then she laughed and added, "But you still need to lighten up sometimes. Hey!"

Now Caitlin swatted her on the arm.

"I'm just saying; you wear high-heels and some of the nicest dresses to work every day."

"So? You only wear jeans and sneakers," Caitlin shot back.

"They're Converses, not sneakers."

"Still, it wouldn't hurt to dress up even a little bit for work sometimes, right?" Iris asked, placing her hand on her hip.

"Not when I spend most of my time flinging body parts left and right," Cadence pointed out. She laughed again when her friends made faces and sounds of disgust. "Hey, I didn't ask for this job, but it's the best I can do at the moment. Besides, I'm sure your dad and Barry had plenty of stories of things they saw in their line of work."

"No, actually, my dad didn't want to give me any nightmares, other than the whole be aware of your surrounding and have a can of mace on you at all times," Iris pointed out. She waved her hand around to say, 'been there, done that'. "And, at first, Barry had such a weak stomach that he wasn't sure he could continue with his studies. But it was for his mom, so…" She shrugged. "If it were me I don't think I'd be able to handle it."

"Handle it?" Caitlin repeated.

"A job in forensics, studying it," Iris explained. She went to the refrigerator and took out three water bottles, handing two to the other women. She watched in amusement as Cadence down half of hers in one gulp. "I mean, I wanted to be a police officer at one point, but dad,"—she made a clicking sound, drawing a line across her neck—"put the kibosh on that. He wanted me to be safe. And I listened to him and went into journalism. But sometimes, I wonder if I would've been able to handle it; you get to help people and bring a sense of safety to Central City. But the other part…having to go on domestic calls, car accidents, bringing bad news to family members…I don't think I could do that. I don't know how my dad does it."

Cadence made a low snorting sound then turned away, busying herself with her water bottle when Caitlin shot her a curious glance. She hadn't meant to react like that but couldn't help it. It was just so…annoying. Annoying and frustrating. Not that he was to know his call to social services wasn't the first time she had them called on her. There were so many people around her that wanted to 'help' and were just 'concerned' as she was dealing with things herself.

That's what she had told them earlier that morning when they stopped by for their recent meeting. "It was just people who thought I wasn't doing 'what they would do'," Cadence pointed out calmly. "Even though I was working, going to school, and raising him all at the same time. Not to mention putting him in daycare when the time was needed. Just because I wasn't spending _all_ my time with him, they thought I was neglecting him."

"We have to check as each call is received," Natalie said with a calm smile, as if she did this one hundred times before. "Our goal here isn't to take Brady away from you. It's very obvious he has a lot of structure living with you, especially now that he's going to see his father every weekend."

"But?"

Natalie had hesitated for a moment and Cadence practically felt her heart stop as she said, "But there are some inconsistencies that can't be ignored. Your employment history has been spotty in some areas—"

"—so I changed jobs a lot. There's only so many times you can work in fast food places, and as a waitress in a restaurant before you realize the pay is lousy and it's not where you want to go for a career. I've been working Zumba classes for over a year and I've been working at the CCPD for nearly as long. I'm settled now."

"And there's the time that you've been missing from the CCPD or have shown up late."

Cadence had caught herself before her jaw dropped completely. How had she known about that? It wasn't too hard to figure, really. If she had gone to the CCPD and asked her boss then he would have no reason but to tell the truth. Too bad she couldn't tell the truth to her; that she was Flare, one of the people who was consistently running around and putting her life in danger to save the city and that's why she was running late or missed shifts all together.

No, that couldn't happen.

Instead, Cadence brought her hand to her forehead and shook her head as Natalie gathered her things together. "There isn't much about this case that concerns us, Cadence, except for your employment history and our reason to believe working at the CCPD may not be as stable. That's the only red flag that we're seeing here at the moment. Unless you can give an explanation as to what's happening."

At that Cadence pressed her lips together and shook her head.

"I see. Ms. Nash—"

"Cadence, please."

"Cadence, I really want to help you. But unless you open up and help yourself first, that's not going to happen. I hope when we meet u next month things are different." Then Natalie had left and Cadence was left with her thoughts.

When Iris called and asked if she could help her move Cadence immediately jumped at the offer, wanting to do something, anything, to take her mind off of things. Too bad it was still in the back of her mind.

"So, how _is_ your reporting job going?" Caitlin asked, finally taking her eyes away from Cadence. "I know you started off only doing stories about The Flash but they have to have you doing some more stuff now."

"Yeah, didn't Lois and Tess help you out a little?" Cadence asked, running her hand through her hair. "I mean, when Tess finally let you write that story about her." It had been a really good article too, focusing more on Tess's comeback into her studies of the sciences and how quickly she became rehabilitated while also using her studies to increase the speed of her recovery. She was thankful it didn't say anything about STAR Labs or Harrison Wells in more than a passing sentence.

Iris couldn't help the grin that slid onto her face. "Things are going great now, actually," She said. Then she bobbed her head back and forth. "Yes, my boss wants to stick me with the Flash stuff every now and then but being able to branch out is pretty cool." She paused for a minute then held up a finger. "Actually, there's something that I've noticed…that I've stared to investigate on, actually," Iris said. "I thought maybe I could get your guys' opinion."

"Of course, what's going on?" Caitlin asked.

Iris walked over to the desk that was set up in the living room where a Mac desktop computer and laptop had been set up. So far it and the internet were the only things she had going other than the utilities. ("As far as I'm concerned the only thing I _really_ need is the internet," Iris explained. "So when I get my work done I can at least watch Netflix"). Pushing a few papers aside, Iris grabbed a notepad filled with scribbles that had a stack of papers printed off the internet pressed into the back.

Holding it out, she walked back to the girls. "Did you hear about this? Some maintenance workers have been going missing."

Leaning together, Cadence and Caitlin looked over the notes Iris had written down as well as looking over the articles printed in the back. They all had similar stories; men and women who had been working in their related fields; repairmen, electricians, plumbers, construction workers, all had gone missing over the last couple of weeks. With the only thing that even had a hint of a clue towards their whereabouts or whom had done it being web that was left behind.

"I heard about the first few, but I didn't know it was this big," Caitlin commented, shaking her head as she continued to turn the pages. Her nose wrinkled for a moment as she looked over the pages. "And web was left at each scene?"

"And unless there's a meta that can shoot web from their arms, I don't understand why it would be there," Iris pointed out.

"Well, last I checked Spider-Man was still only a superhero in a comic," Caitlin said.

Cadence sent her an amused look. "Cisco?"

"Cisco."

Chuckling, Cadence continued to flip through the pages. Then she stopped, slapping her palm down upon a picture so quickly that it ignited at the edges. Lifting her hand, the flames subsided and she blew the smolders away before picking it up again. "This guy…" her eyebrows lowered as she studied the picture. "He works with Ryder."

"Are you sure?" Iris grabbed the article and looked over it herself.

"Yes! I've seen him when I would drop Brady off with him."

"Well, maybe you should ask him if he knows anything," Iris suggested. "He's the latest one to go missing, maybe he knows something."

With a shake of her head, Cadence deferred the suggestion. "I think you should do it."

"Me?"

"Yeah. If I ask he'll immediately worry about metas and all that, but if you ask it'll just be an interview. Besides, you might be able to find out something more than we do." She tapped Caitlin on the arm. "And if this _is_ meta related, we'll need the tech at STAR Labs to track these thing down."

Caitlin nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea. As soon as you find anything out, let us know. And we'll do the same."

"You got it," Iris agreed.

Caitlin reached out her hand and Cadence grabbed onto it, teleporting her to STAR Labs before going off to the CCPD herself. When she arrived she immediately went into her office, pulling off her blazer as she did so. She tucked it onto the back of her chair, feeling the stinging cold air from the AC unit raising goosebumps on her arms.

She sat down in her seat then immediately froze, feeling something was off. Her eyebrows came together as she looked around the room. Everything seemed to be in place and yet it felt unfamiliar, disorienting. Her books were still lined up on her bookshelf the way she had left them, the pictures on her desk hadn't been touched, the dying flowers she had been given were still in the trash and yet it was as if a hole was burning in her cheek, as if someone was watching her.

Getting to her feet, Cadence walked out of her office and looked across the floor of the CCPD, a light gasp escaping her lips when she locked eyes with Mick Rory. As soon as his eyes were on her, Mick's eyebrows rose and he lifted his chin defiantly, despite the cuffs that were resting around his wrists. His eyes became ablaze with a strange light as the seconds passed and they continued to look at each other. A slow grin came to Mick's face; the slight burns from their last encounter restricted his facial movements. Then his eyebrows rose and he stuck out his tongue, gently swiping it along his lips.

Cadence shuddered and turned away, slipping back into her office, rubbing her arms to warm them. As bizarre as the exchange had been she couldn't help but wonder what Mick had done to be brought to the CCPD, how long was he going to be held in custody—she knew it wouldn't be too long, he'd find his way back out—and once again, why he wasn't with Leonard Snart. The two were partners in crime and always worked together as far as she knew, she doubted Snart would've gotten rid of him at some point to work solo. Not without some sort of a plan behind it.

He was that cunning and while Mick wasn't the brightest bulb in the lamp, he had the strength and lack of remorse to help him with whatever he needed.

A knocking sound came from the door and Cadence jumped, turning to find Patty leaning against the doorway, her knuckles still resting on the wood. "Sorry," Patty apologized as she walked into the office. "I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you heard me calling your name. Obviously you didn't or else you wouldn't have jumped like that." She paused and looked closer at Cadence. "Is something wrong? I mean, you looked to be so deep in thought. Not that it's any of my business, but…"

Cadence rubbed her temples, suddenly having a headache before she turned to Patty. She thought for a minute, her eyebrows lowering. She pointed towards the door with her chin. "Do you know why that guy was taken in?"

Patty glanced over her shoulder. "Mick Rory? Yes, my partner and I brought him in. We got him knocking up a bank." She paused, the smile never leaving her face but now turning into a nervous one. "Not 'knocking up' that was a poor choice of words. I mean, considering you had a baby so young and—"

"It's fine. I just need to know what happened. Was he working with someone? Was there someone else that went to the bank with him?"

"No. He was working completely on his own. He allowed himself to be turned in very easily when he was caught as well. Almost as if he was waiting for it in some way."

A light bulb went off in Cadence's head. "Or waiting for someone to stop him," she murmured. She had seen it before; when Captain Cold and HeatWave had been waiting for Barry to arrive and stop them when the time came. So that Captain Cold could take care of The Flash himself, figure out what his real identity was and even the score.

But Mick knew exactly who she was and had made it clear what he wanted.

She didn't put much faith into the CCPD to keep him locked up; especially with everything they knew and how easily he could reveal it. Even more so because he and Snart had been the ones to help them round up the metas that Eobard Thawne had released.

They were stuck in a lose-lose situation and she had no idea how to get out of it.

"If he was looking for a fight with The Flash, he didn't get it," Patty said. She cleared her throat and walked further into Cadence's office. "But I was looking for you. Uh, for Barry actually, I was going to see if he could help me with some testing but he's not in his office?"

"He has the day off," Cadence replied, slowly lowering herself into her chair. She eyed Patty for a moment.

"Oh! Well, it's just…I asked around and some of the people here said that you might know where he is. And you do know, or I guess where he _isn't_."

She knew exactly where he was. The same place she was when she wasn't at work, at STAR Labs. Still that wasn't anything she could say about it that wouldn't give too much away in terms of suspicions as to how and why STAR Labs was still running. The media attention had only just started to move off of him and his failed company, there didn't need to be any other sort of attention they couldn't immediately handle.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help," Cadence said honestly.

"Well, there's something else I wanted to ask," Patty stated. She took another step forward, starting to play with her fingers. "Well, it's obvious to a lot of people around here that you and Barry are pretty close. And, you know, I was just wondering if it was true? Not that I care, I mean, it's your lives you can do whatever you want."

"Barry's one of my best friends," Cadence replied. She knew immediately where Patty was going with this. Not just through her own intuition but she could sense Patty's body temperature rise as a blush started to form on her cheeks. "And we only went on one date."

"Oh. Only one?"

 _Well, it's sort of hard to keep dating after that when your father breaks up the date to kill him,_ Cadence thought. _Before finding out it wasn't actually your dad but a time-traveling murderer who wanted nothing more than to kill everyone. But who's counting?_

"Just the one. We became pretty busy after that."

"Oh. Well, I was just wondering. Again, not like I care." Patty waved her hand.

"Yeah, I got that the first time," Cadence said simply. She leaned back in her seat and gave a small smile, hoping to make Patty feel more at ease, but then felt the smile slowly start to fade. It wasn't like she had staked a claim on Barry or anything. At the moment they were still great friends. Either of them could go out with anyone else if they wanted it was just…Cadence wasn't sure if she really wanted to.

She had been burned by Ryder—no pun intended—and that had kept a lasting effect on her she didn't realize was still there. She wasn't very quick to completely trust people no matter how friendly they were, was dishonest, quick to judge, closed-minded, ruthless, and turned to be very self-centered in self-preservation. Then while working through their muddled feelings as well as the dangers throughout Central City…things with Barry quickly became difficult. She was sure there was something that he wasn't telling her about it…but she had been telling the truth all the same when she said she understood and respected his hesitation on things.

Sometimes, though, she wished it was easier for him to talk about his feelings.

Lifting her gaze, Cadence watched as Patty started to leave the room. She had been friendly—maybe a bit _over_ friendly, since meeting. Maybe she should try harder to open herself to others.

"Hey Patty, do you want to get something to eat?"

"I'd love to, but…" Patty motioned towards Cadence's desk. "Don't you have some work to do?"

"It won't take long, I can get it done later," Cadence replied with a wave of her hand. She tried not to smile, knowing how true it was. She led Patty out of her office and started towards the front doors of the CCPD. She stopped, feeling a chill move over her body as she noticed Mick was still being processed into the system and was still staring at her. She reached out and grasped Patty's arm, turning her around. "Why don't we go out the back?"

As they left, Cadence could feel Mick's eyes continue to bore into her.

* * *

Barry nodded encouragingly at Cisco, who nodded back to him. He turned to the control box that sat in front of him and pressed his thumbs into two joysticks that protruded from the top. The two watched as targets flew up in front of Brady with rapid speed. Brady lifted his slingshot and turned towards each target, taking a few times to knock the targets back.

He kept one eye closed, using his dominant eye to focus on each target as it popped up, moving through his ammo with relative ease. Finally, he ran out and lowered his slingshot to his side, taking off the protective goggles that Cisco had given him before starting practice.

"Was that good?" He asked, turning to Barry and Cisco.

His goggles pushed up against his hair, causing it to stick up in the front, making him appear more innocent and young than his nine years of age. However, the dark bags under his eyes, coupled with the seriousness that had taken over the childish light in his eyes off-set the innocence.

It was a little scary, really.

A reminder of the reality that Brady had powers, knew what was going on with the Flash, and was probably too young to have to deal with it all. Who knew how many other little kids were suffering from the same problems; being hit by the wave of energy from the Particle Accelerator and developing abilities of their own. It had happened to one classmate before, that Barry remembered, the boy who had developed powers suddenly, while in class.

Using his connections through the CCPD, Barry had tracked that boy to see what had happened to him. The last known address of the boy ended up empty when Barry went to visit and he wasn't able to figure out where the boy had moved since then. But it wasn't like they could ignore the fact that Brady had powers now; nor could they ignore his metahuman name (Shadow Hunter), his weapon (The Shadow Shot), or that he had his own vehicle to get around (of which Cisco was still trying to name). And as Barry had questioned; who gave a nine year old an ATV for their birthday, which Cadence responded saying 'someone who was trying to win someone's affection'.

"That was really good," Cisco replied. He set the control box aside and crossed his arms, taking in the targets that Brady had managed to hit and those that he had missed. Multiple targets had been hit on the bulls-eye more than three times.

Barry went up next to Cisco and looked over the targets as well. For someone so young he had a really great shot, but there was definite improvement that could be made. Barry noticed Brady flinch nearly every time one of the targets would move forward before unleashing the metallic attack on the object. There clearly was something going on and he was going to figure out what it was.

"I think some more training would help," Barry said honestly. "You got most of the targets but you don't have a one hundred percent hit rate yet." He noticed Brady's shoulders lump downwards as he frowned. "But don't worry, you'll get it! I wasn't great when I first started out."

"Try horrific," Cisco piped up. Barry turned and glared at him. Cisco smiled sheepishly. "But not everyone can figure out their way around new powers at the beginning. I mean, check out the X-Men, they weren't all able to adjust that fast. I don't Professor X knew how to read everyone's minds when he first started out." He picked up the control box. "I'm going to get the data from this and then we'll figure out where to go from there."

Barry sucked in a breath, wondering if he should say what he had been thinking. It was sort of a crazy idea. But it had worked out for him, so maybe it would for Brady, too. Especially since it would be right up his alley. "What if we contacted Oliver?" He suggested. "To get him to train Brady in his sharpshooter skills."

"Oliver Queen?" Cisco repeated. "The guy who shot arrows into your back?"

"It's just an idea," Barry defended himself. "But I think he could really help." Brady looked at him curiously and he rushed to give his thoughts. "Hear me out. Oliver is the Green Arrow; he uses arrows and has to rely on his ability to shoot targets from far away all the time. I've _never_ seen him miss a shot. It could really help Brady out if someone who had the same abilities trained him. It's not like it's anything we're particularly good at."

"That's true," Cisco agreed. He then crossed his arms, starting to smile. "But I don't know, I think having Oliver train him would be more dangerous than not."

"I don't think he'd think to shoot him in the back, Cisco," Barry pointed out.

"No, I mean because Cade's going to kill you for not telling her first. And when that happens can I watch? I think that'd be pretty funny." Cisco laughed as Barry rolled his eyes. He left to go to his office, leaving Barry and Brady in the training room.

Barry then turned to Brady and grasped his shoulder, motioning for him to sit down. Brady did so and rested his hands in his lap, gently tugging at his shoelaces as Barry sat in front of him, crossing his long legs. Then he let out a low breath, resting his arms on his legs. "So, when are you going to tell your mom that you got suspended from school?"

Brady shrugged. It took a minute before he muttered, "I don't know," under his breath.

"Are you afraid she'll be mad?"

"No," Brady said honestly. "She wouldn't be mad." He lowered his chin even further. "Not when she finds out why."

Barry ran a hand through his hair, watching as the young boy continued to avoid his gaze. He had been surprised when Brady had walked into STAR Labs earlier that morning and very quickly got the story out of him that he had been suspended from school for 'doing something bad' as Brady put it and asked if he could hang out at STAR Labs for the day, afraid to go back to the apartment in case Cadence came back early and found him.

"Don't you think she'd worry when she finds out you never went to school?" Caitlin had asked.

Brady shrugged. "She doesn't know I'm suspended."

"How does she not know? Don't they call the home or email if their kids aren't allowed to go?" Cisco asked.

"I deleted it before she could get it, it wasn't that hard. She doesn't make her passwords that hard to figure out." Then he asked to stay at STAR Labs, promising to stay out of the way and to help them with whatever they needed, just not to tell her. For a minute Barry was hesitant about it, he could see Caitlin's eyebrows rise as she gave him a pointed look, telling him to go ahead and tell Cadence what was going on.

But he knew how Brady felt. When he was younger and consistently getting into fights, trying to stand up for other people he was suspended a lot due to the crappy policies of violence at the school. Not only was he trying to protect himself from bullies but he had been trying to do so for his classmates. Having had punched and kicked on his own free will he had gotten into trouble as well. Despite having been suspended (and knowing that his father wasn't really upset by it) Henry made sure that Barry continued to get his school work sent home so he didn't fall behind. Then on weekends he was to come to Henry's medical practice and work as his assistant.

They were long, grueling hours and Barry felt a little sorry for having done it due to his boredom, but he wasn't sorry at the same time. He had a feeling it was the same thing with Brady, and when getting the full story was correct in his assumptions. So he said he'd let Brady hang out at STAR Labs for a little while. It wasn't until he saw how bored Brady was (if not confused as Caitlin explained the disappearances of the maintenance workers and the web left behind) he quickly offered to help him for target practice. Cisco, who was as excited to see how his Shadow Shot worked out, immediately went to set up the pieces he would be firing at.

Now he sat with a boy who was continuing to change in front of his eyes. From a young boy who was excited about everything the world and metahumans had to offer, to slowly shrinking in on himself day by day as if the weight of the world was pressing on him.

"I don't think she'd mind either," Barry gently offered. Brady lifted his chin and looked at Barr through his fringe but didn't otherwise reply. "But it's probably better that you tell her before someone else does. Might soften the blow."

"I guess."

Okay, maybe that tactic was going to work. He just had to switch to a different one. "So what else is going on? Your mom asked that I talk to you, she's starting to worry about you."

That must've struck a chord for Brady's eyes widened, almost fueled by fear, as he whipped his head upwards. "I don't want her to worry about me! I'm okay! I just want her to be happy!" He lowered his chin once more. "She keeps telling me not to worry about her, but I don't want her to worry about me either."

"So what's going on?" Barry pressed.

"I think my school is haunted."

The sudden change of subject as well as Brady's deadpan delivery made Barry burst out laughing. Brady glared at him and Barry quickly brought his hand up to cover his mouth. He finally choked down the rest of his laughter to ask, "What makes you think the school is haunted?" He didn't ever remember there being any ghost stories when he went to Carmichael Elementary. But as far as Barry was concerned, it was haunted now, now that Tony Woodward had managed to come back as a meta and stalk him there, much as he had when he was young.

Tony was long gone at this point but Barry still couldn't look at the Elementary school without feeling a little bit of dread.

"Every now and then, in my classroom, you see stuff floating. But when you turn to look it stops or drops to the ground. Same thing with other parts of the school; things moving out of place or flying across the room. But no one can explain why it does it."

Okay, that was a start. "Are you having nightmares about that? About the ghost?"

"No." Brady's voice was quiet again. "About the Assassination Bureau and when I was kidnapped. About Eobard Thawne. I don't sleep very well. They're not that bad. I'm getting better. I don't want to talk to mom about it, I don't want her to worry about me."

"You know the point of being a parent is to worry about their kids, right?"

"But my mom has been taking care of me this long; I want to take care of her!"

"And this has to do with why you were suspended?"

"Sort of."

Barry sighed once more. He had a feeling he wasn't going to get any more out of him after that. But at least it was something. Not something that gave him any sort of comfort, but something.

It was funny how much Brady's life echoed his at the moment.

It was starting to become a bit scary, actually.

The two sat together in a long silence before Brady finally said, "You think Oliver could really help me?"

"I think he could," Barry said honestly. "He's a really good guy once you get to know him." _And get past his standoffish attitude, his general dislike of anyone new, everything having to go his way, and that he likes to poke people full of arrows for fun._ Barry smiled a little to himself. His relationship with Oliver had changed a lot since their first encounter. He knew Oliver hadn't really liked him when they first met; there was something in his eyes that showed he really didn't trust Barry to get the job done. But as time went on Barry started to see him as a mentor, a friend, and sort of like a brother.

There was hardly a crisis that went by that they didn't go to each other for help for. Even Barry's latest jaunt to Nanda Parbat when working to stop the Reverse-Flash wasn't something Barry would ignore since Oliver really needed his help.

"Trust me," Barry insisted, still seeing Brady's hesitation.

"Coming from the guy who threw my mom into the Pipeline the first time they met?" Barry made a face as Brady smiled. "I won't mention that anymore if you don't tell my mom about my suspension."

Barry pursed his lips. "Fine. But you have to tell her soon."

"Deal."

* * *

The rest of the day moved uneventfully. For Central City that was as strange as winters where it wouldn't snow. Over the last two years incidents in Central City were a daily occurrence. Not that Barry was complaining, some time away from having to save the city was always helpful. But the times where he felt he had to keep the peace within those whom he cared for was always hard to ignore.

That's what found him racing up the fire escape that led to Cadence's room. He knocked on the window frame, waiting for a 'hey Barry' before ducking his head in the window. Cadence looked up from the book she had been reading, taking a pair of glasses off her nose.

"I didn't know you had glasses," he remarked, swinging his leg in through the window so that he straddled the ledge. He leaned back, resting against the frame.

"Just to read," she replied, carefully taking them off. She folded the arms then set it on her bedside table.

"Oh, me too!" Barry said, a little startled by the small thing they had in common. He stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankle. "But they're not as cool as yours. Mine are pretty dorky."

Cadence closed one of her eyes as she tilted her head. "Uhh, I'm having a little trouble picturing them."

"You ever see those big metal rimmed glasses from, like, the nineties? Those are the ones I have. Trust me; they make me look like a nerd."

"Even more than you already do?"

"Even more than I—"Barry paused and looked at her, raising his eyebrows indignantly. "Are you messing with me?"

A giggle escaped Cadence's lips. "Common sense finally hit you with the clue by four, huh?" She held her thumb and index finger an inch apart." Just a little. But I'll just keep it between you and me." Cadence rolled off her bed and sat down on the little space left on the window sill. "I'll start a list. Something tells me it's going to happen a lot." She laughed, pushing her hair behind her ears. "What's up?"

For a moment Barry looked at Cadence, unsure of what she was talking about. Then she smiled, prompting him to blink hard and look away. Right. The reason why he dropped by. The _real_ reason, anyway. "Oh, right uh." He leaned to the side, as if expecting Brady to walk into the room. He shifted back, focusing his eyes on Cadence's face. "Has Brady talked to you about anything today?"

"No…" Cadence said slowly. "Not anything other than 'fine' in response to my question of how school was."

Barry grimaced then hid it with a smile. "Well, I talked to him like you asked me to." He noticed Cadence's back straighten, her eyes darkening with concern as she waited for Barry's explanation. "And everything's fine, I promise. It's just something that he wants to be able to tell you."

Her hair fell over her face as she leaned forward. "But everything's okay? He's not in trouble or anything?"

"No, he's not in trouble…I, I promised I wouldn't say anything to you until he talked to you. But there's nothing wrong with school or his grades or anything like that." Barry rubbed the back of his neck for a second then dropped his hands to his lap. "He just really needed someone to talk to."

"But not me?"

Barry could hear the hurt in his friend's voice as her eyebrows came together and she lowered her head, gently chewing her lower lip. His stomach clenched as he searched his brain for something to say to cheer her up. "Do you remember always being open and honest with your parents?"

"Not since I got my powers, no." Cadence placed her hand on Barry's shoulder. Barry could feel the warmth of her hand through his shirt. "But thanks for talking to him for me. I'm sure he appreciated it as much as I do."

"Well, I'm not sure how much I really helped," Barry said modestly. "And I'm sort of surprised you wanted me to do it."

"Well, I've grown pretty fond you, Tholly, so the things you say kind of matter to me." Cadence smiled warmly at him and Barry smiled back. The moment was broken when Cadence suddenly frowned and looked out the window. "Did you see that?"

"What?" Barry twisted round and looked out the window as well. He was about to ask once more when a bolt of blue lightning shot across the city street below them. Barry squinted his eyes. He held his breath. He blinked hard. Anything to see if he could re-create that bolt of lightning. But nothing. Then it came again, this time heading in the opposite direction.

The two scrambled onto the fire escape and leaned over, watching as the bolt of lightning flickered in the distance. Going so fast it appeared to be in multiple places at once. Barry swallowed hard. A roaring sound filled his ears. His heart felt as if it sank through his feet and into the ground.

He only knew one thing that could move like that.

A speedster.

"Come on." Barry grasped Cadence's wrist and pulled her onto his back before shooting off of the fire escape, leaving a streak of yellow behind him.

The blue and yellow weaved back and forth along the city streets, mixing into a green hue when crossing paths at certain cross streaks. To those that caught a glimpse of the streaks saw sudden bolts of lightning before they disappeared, as if evidence of static shocks. Cadence tightened her grasp around Barry's neck as he slowly increased his speed, her hair whipped around, stinging her face. Barry continued to pump his arms, willing himself to move faster and faster.

But the blue streak continued to be evasive.

That is until it raced to Petersburg Electrical Substation. Barry skidded to a stop, nearly knocking Cadence off his back from the sudden deceleration. He lowered her to the ground and she turned to the side, moving up a hand to cover her mouth as nausea hit her. As Barry waited for her to recover his eyes shifted around. He had been there before…when he was looking into Faroq Gibran not only after he first became The Flash.

He hadn't thought about Blackout or those early meta fights in a long time.

"It's brave of you to stand out in the open like this."

Barry clenched his jaw. That voice…it was much like the BlackFlash's voice when it had taunted him. This time it was different, it sounded like it was coming straight from Barry's head. He turned to Cadence, who had frozen as soon as the voice started speaking. So she heard it, too.

There was a sudden gust of wind that tugged at Barry's clothes, made his eyes water, accompanied by bright blue streaks. Then the voice came once more, dry and brittle as death. "So much like a hero. Too bad, heroes die!"

Barry and Cadence twisted back and forth as they tried to lock eyes on their antagonist. The second they spotted a shadow it moved away, almost like an afterthought or a hallucination. Finally Cadence splayed her hands out to the sides, her eyes starting to slide from their normal blue-green hue to an orange color.

"How long can you hold your breath?" She asked over the rising wind.

"Long enough," Barry replied.

"Good."

He nodded to her and Cadence clenched her hands into fists. Dust from the dirt ground kicked up and combined with Cadence's smoke cloud, shooting around the area. Barry held his breath, eyes watering from the dirt and smoke that whipped around as quickly as the wind. Barry's lungs started to burn as the seconds passed. The smoke continued to thicken as the seconds passed. Whomever was attacking them had to breathe in the smoke soon, especially after the exertion put on if they were running that fast.

All of a sudden the streaks stopped and a blats of wind came from a darkened part of the clearing. As Barry watched the smoke was blown away in seconds. Everything happened so fast, but from Barry's perspective it took a long time; Cadence's hair blew back from her face, her eyes widened, the flames that surrounded her fists were immediately snuffed, and a strong gust of wind hit her in the stomach, knocking her off her feet and into the metal pole behind her.

Barry winced at the loud 'clang' and Cadence's cry of pain as she collided then hit the ground.

"Cade!"

Then Barry turned and spotted him. A speedster who was dressed exactly like him, but completely covered head to toe in a navy blue speedster suit, slits opened at the front of the mask to breathe, fingers sharpened into clawed points. His arms wind milled faster than Barry could move his, causing the hurricane of wind that had knocked Cadence off her feet.

Then the speedster noticed Barry watching and turned his way, lowering his arms.

Everything sped up once more.

"Who are you?" Barry managed to ask.

His words managed to be choked out as the speedster was suddenly in front of him, its clawed hand grasped around his neck. Its dark, lifeless eyes bore into Barry's as he gasped for air. Strangled gasps ripped from Barry's throat as the speedster squeezed tighter and tighter.

"I'm Zoom," the speedster croaked.

He threw Barry as hard as he could.

Barry flew back through the air, crashing through power lines that shot out sparks as he collided with them.

He was unconscious when he hit the ground.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, I doubt anyone saw that coming. Now that Zoom is (unofficially) here, I've got plenty more with him coming in. This chapter referenced a change to the first chapter of _Flash Fire_ , you'll probably want to go back and read that change. Also, I realized I never described this; if you want to get an idea/image of Cade's teleportation powers then picture Nightcrawler's from X2 or from Xmen: Apocalypse. It's pretty much like that.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

Also, if you enjoy the story then recommend to others. I know Barry/OC stories are a bit of a small niche lately but I'm sure others would enjoy it.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** I couldn't keep Henry in prison, especially after hating that decision on the show. He had to stick around in this one a little bit. Also, thanks for the idea of Oliver training Brady.

 **PowerHero432:** You're very welcome. Part of my issue with Caitlin and Harrison is that we don't know much of _this_ Harrison as it's the normal one; that we only saw a few minutes of. He has the same sort of exuberence as Cisco but can also be a bit awkward so I hope hat played out. With every incarnation of Wells (I've already got a plan with Harry) I think she and him work out very well so it's always something fun for me to write when it gets there. You will find out about the web soon.

 **babyj:** The original plot is working in now, it sort of ties in with Legends, but doesn't all the same. I know it's sort of slow but I really needed to work things out. But thanks for the push to get that going.

 **yummers:** Again, many thanks! Glad you liked it!

 **spinquin142:** I hope this sped up the pace for you. I agree it was starting to slow down a bit, but I hope this helped. I actually did sort of see it as Barry kind of moving on with a different family, but not so far. At least not yet. Great job for noticing it!


	9. Line the Pieces Up

**.:09:.**

* * *

Barry's eyes fluttered open. They fell shut once more. Everything he saw in that split second was so bright, so muddled, that he wondered if he had been slipped some sort of drug rather than being attacked by Zoom.

Zoom.

The fight still played through Barry's head. He could still feel his muscles churning as he rapidly shifted direction to follow after him. How much his lungs burned as he tried to regulate his breathing, using as much effort to keep up. How his desperation continued to drive him forward. Then there was the fear that shot through his body when he heard Zoom's voice, similar to the Black Flash. It had horrified him to be rooted to the spot, where he couldn't move fast enough to stop Zoom from hurting Cadence and himself.

Then everything went black.

For about the next half hour—if Barry had to judge the time—he went in and out of sleep, eyes struggling to stay open. Finally, he found the strength to keep his eyes open. And when they did he thought he was dreaming. Not just because of the ethereal light shining in his face, but because his father was standing above him. As soon as Henry realized his son was awake he smiled, the wrinkles in the planes of his face showing his sincere happiness.

He reached out and gently rested his hand on Barry's forehead as he said, "Welcome back, Mr. Allen."

Barry managed a small smile. It was the same thing Dr. Wells—or Eobard—had said to him when he first woke up in STAR Labs and the others has started to say it as well. Maybe he was getting knocked out too much. Either that or his healing powers weren't working so well on any potential brain injuries he may or may not have received over his tenure as The Flash.

"Dad," Barry managed to say. His voice came out in a croak. He cleared his throat and rolled onto his side. "What are you doing here?"

"I hear my son is hurt and you don't expect me to come down to see how he's doing?" Henry asked. He took a step back and Barry saw he was holding onto a clipboard. "You're doing just fine, by the way. Your healing powers kicked in very quickly. But I can't say that you're not going to feel it later."

Barry started to sit up but winced then lay back down. Oh yeah, he was going to feel it later. "It's interesting to know that you have healing powers that will make even an eighty year old man feel like he's twenty, but there's plenty of scar tissue and muscles issues that you're bound to have."

A chuckle escaped Barry's lips. "Well, you know me. I was never really a sports person except for running. Stretching and everything that comes with it isn't my strong suit." But he was already starting to feel a little better. He sat up fully and brought a hand up to his forehead. There was a splitting pain behind his eyes; he probably smacked his head against something as he went flying through the air.

Zoom.

Barry wasn't entirely sure if that was really what it was or if it was the Black Flash. Dr. Wells had said that the Black Flash didn't really exist, that it was a personification of death for Speedsters. But he had barely done anything to warrant a potential threat of death. Or maybe it was supposed to happen when he was flung through the electrical lines. With that thought, Barry shifted his gaze down and wined when he spotted what looked like imprints of tree roots on his chest and arms, the same that came up when lightning struck someone.

It was already starting to heal, he could see the edges moving away, but the thought was fresh in his mind.

"How long was I out?"

"Long enough." The voice was different from his father's, deeper and more authoritative. Twisting towards the opening of the medical bay, Barry found Jay striding into the room with the rest of his friends trailing along behind him. "I warned you that Zoom was something you've never come up against before. I'm just glad things weren't as bad as they could've been." He walked right up to Barry and looked him in the eye as if trying to find something in him. "It's a good thing you're alright. Things could've been much worse."

"So who is this Zoom?" Caitlin asked, bringing Jay's attention away from Barry.

"Obviously he's a speedster, just as Jay has told us before," Harrison commented. He brought a finger up to push his clear glasses up his face. "But there's the fact that we don't know how fast. The sooner we can come to those measurements of speed the better off we'll be. We've seen that he can move fast if his speed signatures showed he was able to get from place to place scores faster than Barry can."

"And judging from the footage we receive from traffic cams, he knows what he was doing and where he was going," Tess added. "His body language showed confidence but that he was searching as well." She motioned towards Barry. "Specifically, searching for him."

"As I said before, he wants to get The Flash," Jay explained. "No matter where or what Earth that Flash is from."

"So you're telling the truth?" Cisco's eyes lit up at the revelation but he tried to keep his face as neutral as possible. "There are other Earths out there?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "I understand that you're not quick to trust me—"

"—we've had a lot of problems with trust being broken," Cadence pointed out.

Barry's shoulders slumped in relief when he realized she was okay. He must've been the only one who was hurt too badly. As it was, he wasn't entirely sure how long he had been out; being throwing to power lines like that was enough to mess anyone up. But for him…he hoped it hadn't messed up his powers as well. Almost as if reading his mind, Henry placed a comforting hand on his son's shoulder and squeezed it tightly.

Then there was a sudden commotion as footsteps hurried their way and Joe and Iris came barreling through the door. Iris hurried over and grabbed him around the shoulders, hugging him tightly as Joe came over and tightly gripped his neck as well.

Feeling Iris starting to shake, Barry gently rubbed her back. "Hey, I'm okay," he said to her. "I promise, everything's okay."

Iris leaned back, resting her hands on Barry's cheeks, her eyes searching his. "Oh Barry, what happened?"

"I found out I'm not immune to lightning attacks," Barry managed to joke. Iris moved aside so that Joe could get a hug in as well. Barry winced as Iris pinched him on the arm.

"That's not funny," she said seriously.

For a moment, Barry thought Iris was overreacting, seeming to be on the verge of tears. But then he looked over at Joe, noticing how upset he looked, on the brink of tears as well, and it hit him. They were remembering the day he had been stuck by lightning while in the lab. Iris's hand shook as she clutched Barry's arm, leaning into his side, as if wanting to make sure he was still there.

"I'm glad you're okay, son," Joe said to him.

Barry nodded back but not before noticing the look on Joe's face when he took a step back to face Jay. An expression of regret, that he had made a mistake. Barry was confused for a moment then looked over at his father, who immediately turned away, scanning the clipboard that was in his hands, showing Barry's results to numerous tests that had been run.

"You better get your well wishes in now, if Barry goes against Zoom again he might not be as lucky," Jay said. He turned back to the others. "You have a lot of friends here, Barry. I wouldn't want anything to happen to them, but Zoom's not going to spare them just because you want him to."

"You have a lot to say for someone who's not giving us any information on how to stop him," Iris pointed.

"That's because he can't be stopped. I've tried."

"So what do you expect us to do?" Barry gently pushed Iris's arm off him as he got down from the examining table. "He moved so fast it was like I wasn't even moving. Like, I blinked and he was suddenly right there."

"We'll have to figure out how to send him back where he came from," Jay said diplomatically.

Caitlin tilted her head. "Can we do that?"

Jay turned and smiled at her. "If he found a way to get here, we can find a way to send him back. Remember, I told you; he had beaten me, stolen my speed, and I got here because of the Singularity breach opening. If that happened to me, it must've happened to him, too."

"So you're saying you want to open up another breach?" Cisco asked. He then let out a wheezing laugh before shaking his head. "No. _Nomás._ That's not happening. We already saw the fall-out with the singularity; we're not doing it again."

"No one said anything about opening another singularity, Cisco," Cadence pointed out.

"But there's an idea," Harrison commented. He rubbed his chin before walking over to a whiteboard. Picking up a marker he pulled the cap off with his teeth and started to draw different equations on the board. Cadence tilted her head to the side as she watched, suddenly insecure about now being able to understand any of what it was saying.

She glanced over at Iris and Joe. Seeing their confused expressions as well made her relax. Finally, Harrison stopped the equations and drawings, turning to show them to the group.

"Let's say that this is the Singularity," he said. He pointed to what looked like a cyclone in the middle of the board, amongst his drawings and equations. "The Singularity only happened because of Barry's speed, his time traveling, and because of the single dark matter energy we sent out into the Pipeline as he went around. And yet, the energy continued to expand more than previously anticipated and it started to take down the city. What if the energy of the Singularity, of which opened up on Jay's Earth, has dispensed particles of the energy into other parts of the city? Thus creating other portals?"

"You know, I think I understood that," Joe commented.

"There is a sound idea within that theory," Henry agreed. "But you seem to be missing the picture if that's the case."

"Such as?" Tess prompted.

"It's the way Zoom has been bringing over the other metahumans to get to Barry," Jay said, to which Henry nodded. He snapped his fingers and started to pace back and forth. "How did I not see that? Hydro Hunter and Atom Smasher are from the other Earth."

"So you're saying there's a leak or some sort?" Cadence asked.

"Yes! And not only that, but that means that we can figure out where the leak is coming from, how Zoom has been going back and forth, getting the others to come with him. If we can figure out where it is, then we can use it to our advantage to send him back before he finds and kills Barry."

"Well," Caitlin said slowly, stretching out the word into five syllables. "You seem to be forgetting the fact that he's incredibly fast and know what Barry and Cade look like. That can't be good for wanting to have the element of 'surprise'."

"Honestly, Caitlin, I think the element of surprise went out the window a long time ago," Tess pointed out. Caitlin shrugged and nodded.

Barry ran his hand over his face. All of this was starting to make his head hurt. First the Black Flash was consistently trying to kill him—he still remembered how badly his body hurt after facing him numerous times, The Reverse-Flash tried to kill him, and now there was _another_ Speedster that was trying to take him down. But this one was being from a different Earth…he wasn't sure he could completely wrap his mind about that one.

"So we're going to be looking for a breach?" He finally asked.

Caitlin shook her head. _"We're_ going to look for a breach; you're going to get some rest. Your father and I ran the tests and while nothing within your abilities has been compromised, you were put through the wringer."

"Yeah, it's like you decided to go and piss off Storm or something," Cisco remarked.

"Well, I feel fine," Barry insisted. It was then he noticed the expressions that crossed everyone's faces. They were suddenly somber. "What? What happened?"

Joe gently patted him on the shoulder. "You've been out for two days, Bare. And I know you tend to get stir-crazy when you're not able to do anything. But as much as you can heal yourself, you need to be all-over healthy, okay?"

Barry was about to protest but changed his mind. Maybe they were right. It was so much information to handle. Henry grasped him once more. "He's right, Slugger. You need some time to rest and get your head in the game. Besides, I want to check out these burns you got."

Shifting his head, Barry looked over his shoulder. "They're almost gone," he pointed out. He smiled as Henry's eyebrows rose, watching as the last of Barry's burns disappeared. "Cool, huh?"

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this," Henry admitted.

Barry looked around at everyone in the room. Caitlin was deep in conversation with Jay as they had moved to the cortex, their hands moving animatedly as it continued. Every few seconds Caitlin would smile, but then it would fade, almost as if she realized she was doing it. Cisco, Harrison, and Tess were in a deep conversation, all with markers in their hands, swiping them over the equations that had been written down while Cadence stood aside, adding her two-cents to the conversation when she could. And Joe and Iris were conversing with each other as well.

Then he looked back at his father once more. The man that had rotted away in jail much longer than Barry would've liked. The man who gave him calming words and positivity when _he_ was the one behind bars waiting for the day he would be released back to the public. Now that he was out he was taking things slowly.

All Barry wanted was to move in with him and to start their lives over again but Henry wanted to take things slow. He wanted to become accustomed to Central City once more, wanted to be able to be something other than 'the man who killed his wife' without having to completely rely on Barry to help him.

Henry smiled to his son and reached out, grasping Barry's face in his hands as his eyes roved over the planes of Barry's face.

"Dad, I'm okay," Barry reassured him.

"I know." Henry's smile widened. "I know."

Barry smiled back, reaching up to grasp his father's wrist. Just to make sure he was really there.

Yeah, Barry didn't think he was going to get used to it either.

* * *

Iris sighed heavily as she arrived back at Central City Picture News, ready to get to work. Now that Barry was okay, there was work that needed to be done. Since her conversation with Cadence and Caitlin she had become very interested to know what was going on with those maintenance workers that started to go missing. The news was starting to peter out as there wasn't much direction to go with for the investigation.

So far there hasn't been much that she's found out and she still had to get to Ryder to interview him about the disappearance of his co-workers. She had the questions ready to go; she just needed to get the time to go visit him. Once she heard about Barry she immediately left work to see how he was doing. It was hard to remain as calm as she had; knowing he had been struck by lightning again—or in this case throwing into a power line—the fear she felt was real. So real it drained her of everything until she knew he was okay.

But now it was time to get back to work. If they could figure out what was going on with the disappearances soon, they'd know if it was a meta they needed to handle or a very smart kidnapper. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the man that had to skirt around the door of CCPN lest she jerk the door right into his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Iris quickly apologized, dropping the door handle. She turned to face the young African-American man, who side-stepped so fast and so smoothly it was like he was doing a dance move. "Did I get you?"

"No worries," the boy replied. "No harm done." He lifted his arms, opening his jacket, as if to prove it. Then he nodded and turned, continuing down the sidewalk. Iris bit her lip, wondering whether to call after him to apologize again but turned when she heard a voice say, "Getting off to a rough start?"

Whirling around Iris saw he co-workers, Linda Park smirking at her. She leaned out the door of CCPN, holding the door open for her. "Hey Linda," Iris greeted her, stepping by her to go inside. "How's it going?"

"It goes," Linda replied. She had her hands clasped around a mug of coffee that steamed in front of her. Iris was a little jealous; she missed all of the free coffee she got form working at Jitters. Well, not so much, her teeth started to turn yellow and she was sure she was becoming addicted, but it was so good. "As many article assignments as people give me."

"Yeah, I get it," Iris agreed. "I've got some important work to do, too." The two women went over to their desk and got ready for the day. "You know about those disappearances going on?"

"Yeah, everyone I know is talking about it. It's so weird, they disappear so fast. Almost like they were ghosts or something."

"Or something."

Linda leaned back at her desk and crossed her leg at the knee. "So, is Barry okay? I heard that he was struck by lightning or something?"

Iris froze for a moment, briefly wondering how she knew that. But then she realized it couldn't have been so strange; he had been at a power plant, the same one that Blackout had been at, and there was nothing but electricity everywhere. Once he found out Joe had put out a story for the press that he and Cadence had been working on a case for the CCPD when they had gotten too close to some live lines. Still, the panic had immediately taken over Iris and she flew to see that her best friend was okay.

"Right, actually, he just had a little shock. He was working on a case and got too close to a live wire." Iris flashed a smile. "He's totally okay. Just embarrassed."

"Well, that's normal for Barry isn't it?" Linda teased.

Iris's eyebrows rose. Oh yeah. She had dated Barry for a short time. Linda had even gone to her to ask for her advice about dating him, as he seemed closed off. And Iris had given her some good advice, tough if she knew at the time that the thing Barry was holding back was his identity of The Flash, she would've given some other advice.

Then Iris noticed Linda's grin and she found herself laughing along with her. "You're definitely right. Embarrassed and Barry go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly."

"Yeah, but it's cute." Linda took a sip of her coffee and lowered the mug to her desk. She leaned back in her seat and crossed her leg at the knee. Her eyes glinted with a mischievous light. "Speaking of cute, do you know that guy that you ran into today?"

"What guy? Oh! No, I have no idea who he is."

"Too bad. I wouldn't mind having a date with him."

The girls laughed again and Iris turned to her office phone, realizing there was a red blinking light on it. She leaned forward and pressed her finger into the light. The tape rolled a second then Ryder's voice came out saying, "I'm calling to respond to Iris West's message left to request an interview. I have time at eleven if that's okay with you. Call me back and we can set something up. My number is…"

Iris quickly scribble down the confirmation and glanced at the clock. Ten-thirty, plenty of time to get to his office. Iris turned to Linda. "Are you doing anything right now?"

"Other than drinking my coffee, I'm free as a bird," Linda replied. Her lips started to curl up in the corner. "Why would you like some company on your investigative shoot?"

"Only if you'd like to join me."

"Of course, lady! Let's go!"

Iris laughed again. She couldn't help it; Linda was fun and always one of her favorite co-workers. "Don't you have articles to write?"

"It's sports. The game I'm covering isn't until tonight and the paper for this morning has already run. I'm free for you to drag me around wherever you need to go and if there's any breaking news that's what a Smartphone is for."

And with that the girls gathered their things and Iris led the way to her car before heading off to the building that held Ryder's office. He was waiting for them at the door as the girls arrived. Iris walked to him and shook his hand firmly. "Thanks for meeting with me. This is Linda Park; she works for the CCPN as well."

"It's nice to meet you," Ryder said. He shook Linda's hand as well then led them to the office. "So I guess what happened is the same thing everyone else has said." He explained how they had been working on a project and broken off for lunch. Everything had been fine but there were those that commented their things were being moved or disappearing. Then when they started working again more complaints came up of things being moved. Then as the day winded down one of them disappeared.

"And you said there was a rope left where the guy was?" Linda asked.

Iris waited for Ryder's response. It did sound ridiculous but judging from the expression on his face he was definitely telling the truth.

"Not a rope, more like a web," Ryder said. He thought for a moment, shaking his blonde hair out of his green eyes. That along with the Southern lilt to his voice and Iris could understand why Cadence had dated him when in high school. "I know it sounds strange, but that's exactly what I would describe it as."

"Do you still have it?"

"No, I don't."

Iris lowered her pen and turned her attention to Linda, who looked back at her out of the corner of her eye. She probably looked as skeptical as Iris did.

Ryder noticed and gave a huff of frustration. He sat up straight, resting pressing his fingertips into his desk top. "I know it sounds weird but I have no idea what's going on. I have nothing to do with this guy disappearing. I _want_ to know what happened."

"Okay, no need to get aggressive about it," Linda said, holding up her hands.

"You try not being aggressive about it when you're consistently accused of being up to something or being a meta."

"What?"

Ryder brought up his hands and steepled his fingers. He rested his chin atop them and let out a long breath. Iris looked at him for a moment knowing exactly what he meant. Once she and Ryder found out about Barry's identity they were asked whether or not they had any powers they knew about. However Ryder, wanting to take a step back from it and not be as invested, seemed to bring more suspicion onto him.

Iris then turned to Linda. "It's just that, with the metas being what they are now, people are starting to become really paranoid about people they know having powers."

"Oh." Linda nodded. "With the whole metahuman rights thing going on, you mean."

"Yeah…"

Iris hated what was going on with that. Metahumans were people too, but at the same time she understood what they meant. It was probably good for a lot of people to know who exactly was a metahuman in terms of safety. But on the other hand it wasn't like _all_ of them were going out and attacking people and committing crimes, it was the ones who were criminals to begin with. Having others think there was something going on with you had to be tough.

She would hate it if anyone started to question if she were The Flash because she knew everything about him and the heroics he went to do.

"You don't think it's a meta that's doing this do you?" Linda then asked.

Iris pressed her lips together. She crossed her legs at the knee and rested her hands in her lap. It had to be a meta, she knew that for sure. But what sort of a meta would leave a web behind? As she said with the girls there wasn't a metahuman like Spider-Man. Or else there would've been some tip for her blog or future articles to look into. Still…

"Wait a minute!" Iris pulled out her cell phone and started to scroll through different screens.

"What's up?" Linda asked.

"I think I might've seen something in my notes about this. But I wasn't thinking much of it at the time because I was still talking about the effects the Singularity had on the city." Iris continued to move through pages then nodded. "A-ha! Right here, there are some people saying that they've seen random pieces of web floating through the air. Like on the wind and stuff, like real spider webs."

"So you're saying there are actually Meta-Spiders in Central City?" Linda's eyebrows rose up even further.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Ryder agreed. "There were plenty of people that that were affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion, why not animals, too?"

"But the question is how could they move fast enough that you wouldn't be able to see them?" Iris pressed.

The three were silent for a long moment. Then Ryder turned his head aside and got up from his seat. He crossed the room in a few long strides and picked up a rolled up blueprint. Motioning to the girls to join him he unraveled the blueprints. "This is a map of sewage lines of the current block we're constructing on. If there are such things as Meta-Spiders, they have to be using the sewers to get around."

"And how they're able to get out of sight so quickly," Iris added. It all made sense.

"But what would they want with the maintenance workers?" Linda asked.

Iris whipped her cell-phone out of her pocket, quickly dialing Barry's phone. "We'll have to figure that out."

* * *

In the basement of STAR Labs, a blue glow emitted from a very dark room. The glow continued to brighten until it twisted and twirled, swirling around until it became a solid mass. Then it stopped moving, frozen in time as the light continued to pulse.

Then there was a brilliant flash and a figure shot through, landing on the ground in a low crouch. The figure stood, adjusting the rifle that was strapped to his back. Then he took stock of the room around him. It appeared to be the one he was aiming for, the easiest breach to travel through from his Earth to whatever one this was.

With that, he reached for a device in his pocket that unveiled a holographic map of the building. After looking over it for a moment he nodded, yes, he was in the right place.

He was on the right Earth.

Now he just had to find Zoom.

* * *

 **A/N:** I really need to bring Ryder in a bit more. But hey, Iris is being really pro-active. Especially since she figured out the whole Meta-spider thing. I know this was a filler chapter (as it seems to be every other one so far, though not on purpose) things are coming in at high speed. Pun intended, haha.

But I do have a question for you all; as romance is the second genre of the story would you want that mentioned more often or do you think the pacing is good so far?

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.'

Also, if you want to see Barry and Cade in the Supergirl crossover ep (or just read a good Supergirl story) head over to _PowerHero432's_ story Supergirl and Deity and read chapter 16. I do plan on working on the crossover in this story as well so you'll see how that completely ends up when I (finally) get to it.

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	10. Running a Little Cold

**.:10:.**

* * *

Caitlin gave her hair a light toss as she walked into her bathroom, ready to start the day. There was so much that needed to be done now that Zoom was in the picture and there were breaches that were, apparently, opening up for him to get there.

 _If what Jay was saying was true_ , Caitlin reminded herself. She stared at her reflection, slowly moving a brush through her hair to knock out any tangles. _It's not like we can completely trust him yet. Though there's no reason to believe anything he's said isn't true._

Caitlin continued to move her brush through her hair, and then stopped. Her hair was becoming tougher to move the brush through with each pass. Frowning, Caitlin reached up her hand and lightly touched her hair. It was almost rock solid, she started to freeze her hair as she brushed. "Ugh!" Caitlin stood up and walked over to her shower. Reaching in with one hand she flipped on the faucet before sticking her head underneath the warm water. Her hair loosened and fell around her face.

The mixture of warm water running over her hair and cold water leaving her body made goosebumps pop up on her arms. She had to get used to that, too. The constant change in temperatures around her. Her body always ran a little bit cold but it became more apparent when more warmth was added around her. And now that she had powers, it was really starting to make things harder.

 _And yet you still haven't told anyone but Harrison yet,_ Caitlin thought. At least now she could think about him without feeling sick about it. He had promised to help her, emphatically stating it was him and not Eobard that had done so, and he kept that promise. Every now and then he checked in on her abilities and made sure they weren't starting to overtake her in any way. Yet he gently pushed her to tell the others about it, unsure of why she was keeping it quiet. _Because I don't want to be out on the field, I don't want to be different, I don't want this to distance me from people more than I already am._

In many ways she lived vicariously thought what Barry and Cadence could do. But she and Cisco were the eyes and ears, the back-end support of the team for a reason. It was where they worked and they worked well there. Plus, she was never much of a fighter, didn't really have the fighting spirit. So there wasn't much that she could do to help out on the field.

Caitlin continued to muse about her powers, watching as her fingertips—which actually looked more like her nail—glowed blue and swirled it through the air, watching as the cold air followed. She was startled out of her thoughts by a knock at the door and quickly went to answer it.

Opening the door, Caitlin noticed Cadence looking over her shoulder before turning back to her. "Hey!"

"Hey," Cadence replied. She held out a cup of iced coffee from Jitters that had Caitlin's name scribbled on it. "I seriously don't know how you can drink this stuff, it's freaking disgusting."

Caitlin took the cup and smiled her thanks. Then she took a sip. "It's not as bad as Iced Tea."

"That's my problem then, I don't even like Iced Tea." Cadence stepped forward and gave Caitlin a hug before entering her apartment. "It's too watered down and blegh! But my Zumba class was cancelled this morning and I stopped by Jitters."

"It was cancelled?" Caitlin closed the door behind her then sat down on her couch.

"A water pipe burst. I fixed it, but I didn't want to have to call everyone in again, so." Cadence sat on the arm of the couch. "And I hadn't come by your apartment in a while so I figured I'd see how your day was going so far."

Caitlin smiled over the rim of her cup. She knew that wasn't' entirely the truth. "Does your back still hurt?"

"Not as much as it did before but if I turn the wrong way it kills," Cadence said. She gently rubbed her lower back with the palm of her hand. A glow came from underneath her palm, letting Caitlin know she was using warmth to speed up her healing process. "I was just wondering if there was anything else you could give me."

"Unless you want a very strong narcotic, I don't think so," Caitlin said. She eyed Cadence warily. "And something tells me that CPS won't look on that too kindly." Cadence looked at her sharply. "You haven't mentioned anything about it in a while so I can't help but assume it's not a good thing."

"Well, they're now trying to figure out if I'm going to stay at the CCPD long enough for my employment history not to be an issue and why I'm consistently leaving from there." Cadence's eyebrows ticked upwards for a second. "I mean, if I could mention I'm Flare that'd make things one hundred times easier, at least give them an explanation. But on the other hand, since people forget about me anyway, that probably won't do anything." She crossed her arms. "Yes, I can be that bitter."

"Don't worry, I noticed that when we first met," Caitlin said. She patted Cadence on the leg. "You should've mentioned it when you gave me your age, star sign, and the rest of your dating profile."

"Well, I had to lower your defenses somehow. I don't know if you know, but you can be pretty cold to people you just meet. It almost turned me off."

Caitlin laughed and carefully set her drink on a coaster on her coffee table. "Let me get dressed and then we can head over to STAR Labs." Up until Cadence had arrived at her door she had forgotten that she asked her over to talk more about what had happened with Zoom. Barry wasn't available as he had passed out as soon as he was hit, but Cadence had been awake after she had been thrown and seen what happened afterwards.

She quickly dried her hair and put on her makeup. Then she got dressed and was putting on a pair of earrings when she walked back into the living room and found Cadence holding onto her drink, staring at it. Caitlin glanced at the contents inside and froze as much as the drink had. _How could I be so stupid?_ She thought, watching as Cadence continued to look at it.

"I've seen some strange things before but I've never seen this," Cadence remarked, slowly turning the now completely frozen drink back and forth.

"Oh, that's very common," Caitlin explained. "With iced drinks. You see, when the temperature of the liquid becomes very cold, especially with the instances of many pieces of ice as we have here, a simple smack against a table or even by a fork causes immediate, spontaneous freeze. There has to be a nucleation point for the crystals to form so the chain reaction of a sudden shock, or my placing it very hard on the table, created a disturbance within its environment and caused a chain reaction of ice crystals to form."

Cadence looked at her, her face screwing up.

"It's called supercooling," Caitlin said helpfully.

"It's called you know way too much about a lot of stuff."

Caitlin laughed at Cadence's tease. She turned to get her purse off of the chair she had tossed it on, then whirled back around at a sudden, shrill, scream. She looked over to find Cadence quickly back away from the table, shaking out her hands. Caitlin followed her line of sight, watching as a spider scuttled across the table.

"Kill it! Kill it! Get it away from me!" Cadence cried.

"It's just a tiny spider." Caitlin cupped her hands around the tiny insect and walked over to the window. She pushed it open and carefully dropped the spider out onto the ledge. "I didn't know you were afraid of them."

"Of all bugs. They're just so gross and blegh!" Cadence pointed to the coffee table. "You're lucky I didn't turn that into a pile of ash."

"You're overreacting. Let's go."

Caitlin drove the two to STAR Labs and immediately went to her station. Cisco, who was watching a daytime talk show on his own computer, stuck out his hand and handed Caitlin a Pizza Pocket. Caitlin took it then gave him a disapproving glance.

"Cisco!"

"What? They're, like, the best things in the world, they're like crack," he mumbled, keeping his eyes on the screen in front of him. "Not that I know what crack tastes like, but you get my sentiments."

"And unless you want to pay me back for it, which individually would be five dollars by the way, stop eating my Pizza Pockets!" Caitlin snapped. She reached over and snatched the steaming food from Cisco's hand. She winced as her fingers burned and dropped the food onto her desk.

"Rude!" Cisco declared, still chewing his bite. "You don't just reach over a steal a man's source of sustenance. Especially when that sustenance is so addicting."

"Which makes it even weirder that they're _yours,_ Cait," Cadence said. She stood across the floor of the Cortex, looking over her suit. "Considering you're the one who's so prim and proper in every other faction of your life."

A blush came to Caitlin's cheeks. "I'm not that bad." She sat up in her seat. "And anyway, they're a pretty good snack when you're busy or have a lot of studying to do." She noticed Cisco inching her way, holding his mouth open to take a bite from the pizza pocket in her hand. Caitlin pulled it out of his way and he fell to the floor.

"For real?" He asked, scrambling to his feet.

Caitlin laughed and popped the rest of the bite into her mouth. She dusted off her fingers and turned to her computer, opening the file she had started since the very first metahuman appeared in Central City. It was starting to become very comprehensive, almost like an encyclopedia for each one. Names, ages, locations, powers, strengths, weaknesses, previous criminal activity, backgrounds, everything she, Cisco, and Harrison could think of to add to the document.

Zoom was the latest entry and the most bare. There was nothing other than his name and the fact that he was a Speedster added on there.

 _Name: ?_

 _Alias: Zoom_

 _Background: ?_

 _Power and Abilities: Speedster_

 _Top Speed: ?_

And there wasn't much to go on after that.

"So with Zoom, can you tell us what happened again?" Caitlin asked.

She typed as Cadence explained everything that had to do with hers and Barry's encounter with Zoom. How they had seen the bright bursts of light across the city before chasing after him, how he led them around the city in a massive game of cat and mouse, how he stopped them at the power plant. That part gave Caitlin pause. Being a speedster, it meant Zoom's power had to come from the speed force as well and that he had abilities with electricity and lightning.

From that point of view, whomever Zoom was probably meant he would be able to use it to his advantage in some way. Though his speed was certainly the biggest catalyst; he moved faster than Cadence could blink before he had thrown her into that pole. And fast enough that Barry had seen it all in slow motion before he was throw into the power lines.

"So Zoom must've been trying to overload his body with power then," Cisco said slowly. He tapped his chin. "You know, like supercharging a battery or overloading a transformer. Next thing you know…" he made an explosion sound with his mouth as he wiggled his fingers around.

"Exactly," Cadence explained. "Because as soon as Barry was out, Zoom ran around a few more times, throwing lightning at him. If what you're saying is true, Cisco, then he was definitely trying to get rid of him."

"Or maybe take his powers," Caitlin said slowly. "Like Jay said." She looked over at Cisco and found him already looking at her.

His eyes shifted and he quickly looked away, busying himself with his computer. She removed her fingers from her keyboard. Or at least tried to, finding her fingers were stuck. Startled, Caitlin looked down at her keyboard and saw a thin layer of frost over her keys. Wincing, Caitlin pulled her fingers away, trying to ignore the sting of her fingertips from the cold and stretch. She dropped her hands to her lap and started to rub them over each other, warming them back up.

"Do you really think we can trust Jay?" Cadence asked, taking Caitlin's attention to her. "I mean, we have him in the Pipeline for a reason."

"As much as we can trust Harrison," Caitlin pointed out.

The room suddenly became very quiet and Caitlin realized her mistake. She and Cadence might've trusted Harrison now that he was split apart from Eobard, but that didn't mean that Cisco and Barry were ready to do it. Cisco especially. Caitlin glanced at him to find him lost in thought.

Finally, he sat up in his seat. "Hey Cade?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Well, I've been thinking. About Dr. Wells." Caitlin twisted in her seat to watch Cisco, noticing his face was empty, despite speaking slowly. As if afraid he'd reveal too much if he did. "I was thinking…he said that Eobard had been in control of his body for a long time. Or at least mostly in control, that there were times where he managed to get back to the forefront." Cadence nodded. "But…something about that happening confuses me. Eobard went back in time to kill Barry's mother and he got trapped here. And shortly after that he attacked the _real_ Dr. Wells and Tess so he could take over Harrison's body and make sure that the Particle Accelerator was built earlier than it was supposed to be."

"Yeah?" Cadence nodded for him to continue.

"So I've been thinking." Cisco licked his lips. "…How did you become a meta before Barry did? You said you got sick when you were eight and after being in the hospital you had your powers and that you remembered, before the ambulance got there, that Harrison injected you with something."

Cadence nodded again.

"Have you ever thought—"

"I've thought about it," she interrupted. "That _that_ Harrison may have been Eobard."

"And?"

Caitlin perked up. She really wanted to know the answer to this, too. To figure out what it truly meant to be a metahuman. If she was one, she got her powers from being there when the Particle Accelerator blew. So did Barry, so did a lot of other people. But then there was Deathbolt, who had powers despite not being in Central City at the time. And Cadence had her powers before then, too.

 _If we can figure this out, maybe we can figure out a way to reverse them, too,_ Caitlin thought. _Give those we've captured a normal life back, keep others from going down into the Pipeline._ The thought of being put in one of those cells made a shier run down her spine.

Cadence waved a hand dismissively. "You said so yourself, he was around when Barry's mom died, when he was eleven. It couldn't have been him."

"But there's a chance…that if he went back in time before…he might've gone back in time to make you—"

"I don't want to know, Cisco!" Cadence interrupted. Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment, voice lowered to the faintest whisper as if divulging a scary, closely guarded secret. "I don't want to know what happened. I don't want to know if the man that I knew as my friend from the time I was born to when he left for Central City wasn't actually him. It hurt so badly to know that getting to know him again…it may not have even been him that I was getting to know."

Caitlin nodded to herself. She knew that feeling well.

"But to think he might know something about my future...enough for Eobard to go back and _make_ me a meta before I was meant to be one, if I even was at all…I don't want to know."

"But—"

"And please don't ask him, Cisco. Don't ask him or Tess…don't ask me again. Because I don't want to think about it." Her face softened. "I know you want answers but I can't…I can't think about that."

Cisco nodded. "Yeah. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"Don't worry about it, Cisco. I'm still going to share my winnings from trivia night with you." Cadence then smiled sweetly and rested her hands on her hips. "You guys are still coming tonight right? Proceeds go to the CCPD."

"And miss the chance to beat Captain Singh at pop culture trivia? I don't think so," Cisco declared. He blew on his fingers and buffed them against his chest. "I'm the master and everyone is going to bow down to my genius!" Caitlin cleared her throat. "I mean, _our_ genius. Caitlin and I are going to dominate." He held up his hand and Caitlin high-fived him.

"Sure, sure." Cadence looked at her watch. "I have to get to work. So I'll see you guys later."

"Bye."

Cadence teleported out of the Cortex and Cisco turned back to his TV screen, turning up the volume. Caitlin leaned over to look. "Are you seriously watching The Real?"

"Hey, we're free to do whatever we want until Dr. Wells gets here for work. And I like to take my time to catch up on what my sistas are saying about what's going on in the world." Cisco lifted his feet and placed them on the counter, crossing them at the ankle. "And today they're giving DIY tips about shampoo so I need to listen." He flipped his long hair. "You can't expect me to have such luxurious hair without working at it."

Caitlin laughed and continued rubbing her hands together.

"Are you cold?" Cisco motioned for Caitlin to move her chair next to his. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, just a little," Caitlin replied. "You know I always run a little cold."

"And we've all been meaning to talk to you about that," Cisco teased.

* * *

Barry pulled open the door to Jitters and was immediately bombarded by one of the biggest crowds he had ever seen there. It was definitely more crowded than the last time Jitters hosted the game. Barry smiled a little to himself, thinking about how that night had gone. Him and Felicity and Eddie and Iris. It had been more fun than he thought it would be, having to watch Eddie and Iris together. But he had Felicity there to even things out and he didn't feel as much like a dork when the more scientific questions came up.

And this time all of his friends were there. There weren't any secrets between them and they could sit back and have a good time. Plus, it was always good to see the older members of the Central City Police Force up in arms over games like this. Joe sat with Captain Singh, Officer Wiere, and Officer Anderson, all of whom joined the police force around the same time but taking different paths between them. Every now and then the four would get together after work for drinks.

Barry wasn't supposed to know that as Captain Singh liked to keep his private and personal lives separate. But it didn't seem to be so much of an issue now, especially as it was an event for the CCPD and the community. His boyfriend was at their table as well, laughing at something Joe was saying.

Barry caught Joe's eye and nodded before heading over to the table where his friends were sitting.

"Barry! Sit here!" Brady called, waving his hand towards the empty seat across from him, standing up on his own chair. He held a large Pixie-Stick tube in his hand, with a cup of soda in front of him.

Barry laughed as he sat down in the seat. "Looks like he got started on the sugar high early," he commented.

"They've even got bags of gummi sharks!" Conner added, holding up a large bag of candy. His lips and tongue were painted blue compared to Brady's purple.

"Sometimes I think they should call candy more addictive to drugs than drugs are," Cadence remarked with a laugh.

"Add Pizza Pockets to that list and I'll agree with you," Cisco said, causing Caitlin to elbow him in the side. The two shared a smile before laughing.

Barry glanced around the table. "I thought Iris was supposed to be coming," he said. A bell dinged over the door and Barry twisted around to find Iris walking through the door. She waved to Joe before heading to the table. "Speak of the devil," Barry said.

"We were just talking about you," Brady said. He abandoned his tube of pixie stick and opened a lollipop, jamming it into his mouth. Then he pulled it out and waved it towards her. "You're late!"

"I know, I had some things I needed to finish up at work," Iris said, sitting down in an empty seat. She put her purse to the ground. "Actually, I ran into my dad's new partner, Patty Spivot, on the way over. I invited her to play with us if you don't mind."

"Just as long as you don't mind that I invited Ryder, too," Cadence said.

"No. The more the merrier," Barry replied.

"I'm so glad you said that," Patty said as she moved to fill the last empty seat next to Barry while Ryder took the one on the other side of the table with Cisco and Caitlin. "Because I didn't want to just intrude or anything. But as long as it's okay I guess I can't miss out." She finally took a breath and smiled at Barry. "Hi."

"Hi, yourself," he replied with a smile of his own. Then he turned to Ryder and nodded. "Hey man, how's it going?"

"Not bad," Ryder replied with a nod of his own and a friendly smile. "Just working through each project that comes my way. Thankfully with the metas being around I'm not going to be out of a job for a while."

"I think we can safely say that a lot of us would be out of a job if the metahumans weren't around," Iris agreed. "Let's just hope that tonight they'll at least take a break to have some fun. We don't get it so often."

"I know what you mean," Patty agreed. "A police officer's job is never done. Even if it's something as small as writing up a traffic ticket, right?"

"Thankfully I don't have much experience in that, but I think I get the idea," Barry said.

He looked around the room, watching as it continued to fill up with people from the CCPD and their family and friends, all eager and excited to play. He snapped back to attention when he heard Ryder asked Brady, "So how was school today?"

Brady caught Barry's eye, widening for a second, before he said to Ryder, "It was okay," in a mumble.

"So what's this about a PTA back to school night thing?" Ryder asked Cadence, eyebrows lowering in confusion. Cadence gave a confused look at him as well. "I got a message on my machine to remind me about it."

"I didn't know there was one," Cadence replied.

Barry tried not to smile, despite feeling badly for the young boy who was obviously trying not to look either of his parents in the eye. Brady looked at him again and Barry made a cross motion against his chest. He still hadn't said anything and wouldn't unless Brady told him it was okay. Brady gave a grateful smile in response. Conner sat quietly as well, suddenly interested in the pile of sugar cookies he had on his plate.

"Um, I got a letter to bring home from school. I guess I forgot to give it to you. Sorry, mom."

"Hey, as long as I have someone to come suffer with me, I'm fine," Cadence said with a light roll of her eyes, making Ryder laugh. Barry frowned, suddenly feeling his stomach clench in annoyance.

He shifted in his seat, accidentally bumping into Patty, causing the two to burst out into apologies. They rapidly tried to talk over each other before laughing, realizing it wasn't going to end. Then Barry's eyebrows rose as he nodded towards Brady. "Oh, Patty, have you met Cade's son? This is Patty Spivot; she's working with Joe now."

"HI!" Patty greeted him with her ever present smile. "It's so nice to meet you."

"Hi," Brady said flatly in response, not bothering to muster up a smile.

Thankfully, the awkward response was passed over by the runners of the event, the front desk admins of the CCPD, went around collecting the names for the teams. Cisco and Caitlin were _Trivia Newton John,_ which was Cisco's idea for his latest idea of what to watch at Cisco Cinema. Barry, Iris, and Patty were _Are You Smarter Than a Third Grader? Because We Bought One!_ And Cadence and Ryder—with Brady and Conner saying they'd help—were _Better Late Than Pregnant_ which Cadence coined much to the laughter of everyone.

Barry watched as she laughed at her own team name, glad to see that she was finally able to get over her past a bit more. And he was glad that she and Ryder were getting along if not for Brady's sake. But still, it really made him realize how much he had missed during the six months apart. All of a sudden, watching the two he felt like a third wheel.

Soon the game started and questions were bring thrown out left and right. Despite there being many other teams in the game, the teams at their table were taking on a lot of the points.

"What famous Bronze animal sculpture sits on Broadway near Wall Street in New York City?"

Iris slapped her hand out to reach the buzzer. "Charging Bull!" She blurted out then cheered and high-fived Barry and Patty when she got it right.

"How did you know that?" Conner asked.

"One time dad took us on a trip to New York," Iris started to explain. She caught Barry's eye and the two started to laugh. "And it's the only thing we really remember from the trip because he was trying to make it educational—"

"—But we kept pestering him to take us to the Rockefeller Center to go ice skating—" Barry interrupted.

"And by the time we were leaving dad got _so_ mad and yelled, 'if there's anything you're going to remember from this trip, it's what this statue is'!"

Patty laughed along with the two. "Wow, it sounds like you two were a handful growing up," she remarked.

Barry placed a hand on his chest. "Me? Not so much. Iris was the troublemaker. She kept dragging me into everything."

"Oh, I beg to differ," Iris said. She tossed a cookie at him, where it bounced off his chest and landed on the table. They laughed as Brady scooped it up and added it to his pile of sweets.

"Coconut water is a sterile and has an idea ph level. It can be used in emergencies as a substitute for blood…?"

Patty and Caitlin both moved to ring their buzzers but Caitlin got to it first. She practically jolted out of her seat as she yelled, "Plasma!" Getting the right answer. She and Cisco cheered, with Cisco yelling 'that's my girl!' before high-fiving.

And the questions moved on and on, the point going around the room to many teams.

"The loudest sound that can be produced by a living animal is up to 188 decibels and detectable as far away as 530 miles. The sound is produced by…?"

Barry and Patty lunged for the buzzer and got it at the same time, saying, "The Blue Whale!" To get the point. Patty beamed at him. "And did you also know that their tongues can weigh as much as an elephant?"

" _And_ that their hearts weigh as much as a car," Barry said.

"Boring," Conner declared. His statement immediately ruined the moment that was happening between Barry and Patty.

"I hate science," Brady added. He rolled his eyes and made a face, upper lip curling. Barry laughed, realizing it was the same face Cadence made to him in passing at the CCPD if Captain Singh was bagging on one of them. "Almost as much as I hate math."

"Oh, but science and math are really fun," Patty said. "There's so many cool things that can be done with science and math."

"Not as cool as the Green Arrow," Conner denied. He smirked at Brady who rolled his eyes in response before the two got into a play-shoving match.

"I hate it when people add a color in front of their names," Cisco remarked.

"Really? Because I thought you _really_ liked the name Black Canary," Caitlin teased. He pointed a finger at her but didn't say anything in response.

"Which Los Angeles Clipper, the son of a Hall of Famer, won the 1996 NBA Slam Dunk Contest?"

Ryder reached out and nudged Cadence on the arm. "You know this one; it's your favorite team!"

Barry looked at her in surprise. Apart from the Central City team, the LA Clippers were his absolute favorite basketball team to watch. He and his dad never missed a game before he was sent to jail. _Now that he's out, we can start doing that again,_ Barry realized.

It took him a second to figure out who it was, ironically, but Cadence beat him to the buzzer a second before he could. If he could use his powers he would've gotten it, he realized with a wry smile.

"John Barry?" Cadence asked, then beamed when she got it right.

"I had that," Barry protested.

Cadence's eyes shone teasingly. "You did not. But if it makes you feel better, keep thinking that."

Patty reached out and grasped his wrist. "It's okay; you'll get the next one." She squeezed it gently before replacing her hand to her lap. The night soon came to a close with Caitlin and Cisco beating out the other teams a by a few points, coming from Cisco's almost encyclopedia like knowledge of movies, TV, film, and books from the last thirty years combined with Caitlin's science and technology background.

"And as the winners I declare that we get bragging rights until the turn of the century," Cisco said in a regal voice.

"Just wait until next time. I'm sure my backlog of eighties films is bound to trump yours," Ryder said. He brushed his hair from his face. "Though, of course, it's a good excuse just to watch some John Hughes."

"Dude, read my brainwaves!"Cisco declared, giving him a high-five.

"Oh right, those _are_ your favorite movies," Cadence said.

"Which is your favorite?" Cisco asked her.

She smirked at him. "I never said we actually _watched_ them." Brady mimed sticking his finger down his throat and Cadence ruffled his hair, pushing his bangs into his eyes. He laughed and leaned out of the way, tossing a handful of candy at her.

Barry rested his elbows on the table and his chin atop his fists. He started to say something then looked over at the doors to Jitters as there was a sudden commotion. Screams started to fill the room. Barry quickly got to his feet and strained to see what was going on. He saw Joe raise his pistol and start to shoot at something, just as a web line shot out and struck Captain Singh in the center of the chest.

The web continued to roll around Captain Singh until his arms were pinned by his sides. Barry looked over at Cadence, who was already moving away from the table, handing Brady and Conner off to Ryder. She looked over at him and Barry nodded as they hurried to the back of Jitters.

"Did you see what it was?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, they were definitely spiders," Cadence said with a tremor to her voice. "Pretty big ones, too."

"They've got Captain Singh," Barry said.

"And we need to go, now!"

Cadence put her arm around Barry's shoulders and allowed herself to be picked up before Barry raced out of the coffee house.

* * *

 **A/N:** Plots that I know I need to bring up again; Harrison and Tess, Brady and school, Mick and the Rogues, and more Zoom of course. All are coming. I promise. I've got the next couple of chapters planned out for it. For those wondering, the original plot that I'm working into this story has to do with Mick. You'll see more as it's expanded but if anyone is really curious just PM me here or on Twitter or something and I'll explain further. Not to mention other metas coming in starting off with Sand Demon from the show (after the meta-spiders) and others.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** Your questions about Harry will be answered, soon.

 **Ethan:** Brady's suspension is going to be brought up again. It hasn't been too long since he was suspended and revealed it to Barry.

 **Yummers:** I'll work to put in more romance for ya!

 **Spinquin142:** Yes, Harry is starting to come into the story. I do have some things planned with him and Harrison so we'll see how that turns out. I think you are the only one who noticed. I have plenty more with Henry and Joe in terms of Barry as the story goes on.

 **PowerHero432:** I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I wanted to give Iris something more to do and that's when I got that idea. As for Linda, she actually didn't show up in the last two stories. At the time I hadn't seen her plot with Barry as something that would work with what I had going at the time. So I used a throwaway line of Barry having dated her while Cadence was out in Starling. Just goes along with some of the other things I change with the show as well as other changes that are coming up. And yeah, Meta-Spiders! I can't wait for you to see what goes on with them in the next chapter!

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	11. The (Not So) Itsy-Bitsy Spider

**.:11:.**

* * *

Barry came to a stop, sloshing sewer water in all directions. He lowered Cadence from his back and looked around the dripping sewer lines. The two stood at a crossroads with four tunnels branching off each other, including the opening they came through.

"You sure they're supposed to be down here?" Cadence asked, bringing her finger up to her ear, where her comm. link sat.

 _"That's the readings we're getting,"_ Iris replied.

"Any ideas of where they are?" Barry asked. He strained, trying to see through the darkness. When that didn't work he tried listening as hard as he could, but could only hear dripping and running water. "There's not a lot to see down here."

 _"The sewage system runs all over the city, there's a lot of places they can be and unless we know the sort of power output they have we're not going to get to them anytime soon,"_ Caitlin pointed out. _"We didn't even see it before we left Trivia Night. As it is, we're in a STAR Labs van and it doesn't have as much equipment as we need."_

 _"But we called Dr. Wells, he should have a more detailed map for us soon,"_ Cisco added.

 _"I'm working on it,"_ Harrison said. " _As they said there's not much of an energy output we're getting from the Meta-Spiders. As it is, we don't have any indications of what sort of power they really have. As we've seen so far they've acted like regular spiders and nothing more."_

"What if I just ran and checked through all of the tunnels?" Barry suggested.

 _"You can move fast, Barry, but even then it's not going to help you if you get lost. And I think we all know the worst thing that can happen other than finding out where the Meta-Spiders are is if Grodd comes back or we find out that the New York sewer gators have all migrated here."_

"Thanks for that, Cisco," Cadence said.

Barry nodded and started to take a few steps forward. "Looks like we don't have a choice but to start walking and hope we come across something until they can help." He moved a few more steps then realized that Cadence wasn't following him. He turned around and found Cadence continuing to stand at the opening to the sewer. "What?"

"I mean, I can just send a blast of fire down there can't I?" She asked. She pulled at the ends of the gloves on her hands and adjusted her goggles around her eyes. "I'm bound to take them all out with one blow."

Eyebrow rising, Barry turned toward her. "You read that article about the man that bunt his house down to kill a spider right?"

"Yeah."

"And you think that's a good idea?"

"It's a _sewer._ Chances are the water is going to blow out anything I try to do anyway!" Still, she moved to follow after him as the two sloshed through the water, walking down a tunnel. She shuddered. "Ugh, why does it have to be spiders."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let anything happen to you," Barry reassured her.

"My hero," Cadence replied.

Barry smiled under his cowl and thought for a moment. He didn't think she would let her fear get in the way of catching and fighting the Meta-Spiders. Still, he should probably get her mind off of it, it was the best he could do considering she tried the same when the Reverse-Flash revealed himself to be back in Central City.

"It's too bad Oliver isn't here to help," Barry said. "He probably would have an idea to figure out these Meta-Spiders."

"Oliver would probably do the same thing I would and drop an exploding arrow down a manhole," Cadence commented. She thought for a moment. "You know, if he wasn't just punching them all in the face."

"Yeah, but at least he gets things done," Barry said.

He let out a low sigh. He really did like Oliver but sometimes he couldn't help but feel inferior to the vigilante from time to time. He didn't have many people question his abilities and he got things done when he needed them done. But there was also the fact that he managed to have people as bad as the League of Assassins on his tale and didn't ever seem to have any real relationships due to his vigilante work. And Barry tried hard to keep all of his relationships no matter how strained they got with his secret keeping.

"But speaking of Oliver," Barry started. "Cisco and I were thinking that it might be a good idea for Oliver to train Brady. To work on his sharpshooting skills and stuff." He glanced over at Cadence, finding she was staring at him in surprise. To the point that she removed her goggles up to her forehead to make sure he wasn't joking."

"Oliver?" She repeated. "You want him to train with that arrow-wielding-maniac?"

Barry's mouth dropped open for a second. _Arrow-wielding maniac?_ Yeah, Oliver could be…difficult at times, but he wasn't _that_ bad. As if his body was proving a point he felt a twinge in his back, where he had been shot by arrows the last time Oliver had arrived in Starling City to train him. It still hurt when it rained.

Still. "Cade, it's Oliver," Barry reminded her.

"I know its Oliver, Tholly. Hence my calling him an arrow-wielding-maniac. Not to mention this is the guy who aggressively works out for hours on end because he's trying to blow off some steam. Why doesn't he just read a book?"

Barry laughed at that. He wondered the same thing sometimes. Even after trying out Oliver's salmon ladder down in the Arrow Cave he wondered how Oliver could do it and other forms of training for hours on end. Oliver did deal with his anger and frustration by working out and training and it certainly did help out on the field. Barry, on the other hand, talked to people and let it out as much as possible. With his mother's death and father being a big reason for his frustration there were plenty of people to talk to. His worries about being the Flash made it harder before being able to tell Iris.

Now…now his mind was preoccupied with Zoom and the Black Flash. The Black Flash had been a tough opponent; a speedster that had the possibility of killing him just by grabbing him. To know it was around for all speedsters but that it was a sign of death? It made him more paranoid than he thought. Looking over his shoulder every now and then when there was a sudden gust of wind or he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. And now Zoom, if Zoom was actually a new Speedster and not the Black Flash…he could move faster than Barry even thought was possible, there were breaches that were opening to another Earth, he didn't know if he could truly trust Jay, and there were metas from said other Earths that were trying to kill him.

The Meta-Spiders were the least of his worries and he was glad for the distraction.

Cadence bobbed his head back and forth. "Mm, it's probably a good idea. Despite having gun training from the CCPD he somehow got all of the talent for sharpshooting. Harrison, Cisco, and Caitlin have the means of studying your speed and the heat output of my powers but they don't really have anything in terms of making him better than some speed tests. Nothing that helps his phasing or his blending in…and besides, Oliver owes me a favor."

"Why's that?"

Cadence smiled at him but didn't respond.

Barry let out a sigh of relief. That was good, she responded to that secret well, hopefully her finding out he knew about Brady's suspension wouldn't be so bad. They had problems with trust before, where he had trouble believing everything she said after finding out that the Assassination Bureau used her for their crimes, one of which being to kill him. Or just to capture him, he still wasn't sure and she refused to talk about it whenever asked.

All of a sudden, Barry felt Cadence fling out her arm, catching him across the chest. Barry took a step back and watched as Cadence narrowed her eyes. He watched as they shifted back and forth. "What?" He asked, deducing she was using thermal vision. "What do you see?"

"I'm not sure," She replied slowly. "It looks like…larva wiggling around."

"Larva?" Barry repeated.

He knew enough about spiders from his studies to know they laid eggs and when those eggs hatched they were still spiders. They never laid larva and they didn't metamorphose into spiders. Then it hit him. "It must be the maintenance workers."

"Which means Captain Singh is down there, too," Cadence agreed.

The two hurried down the tunnel that lead to an open space much like Grodd's sanctuary when he lived down there. The two followed the sound of grunting and tilted their heads back almost 90-degrees o find the missing maintenance workers strung up in spider webs. Barry looked around until he found Captain Singh hanging from the ceiling on a thin line of webbing. His eyes landed on Barry and Cadence and widened pleadingly.

"Don't worry Captain Singh," Barry called, vibrating his vocal chords so Captain Singh couldn't recognize him. "We'll get you and the others out of here." He reached out to grab onto the web then stopped, bringing his hand back as he cried out in pain.

His palm stung with a burning pain he had never experienced before. A long cry escaped his lips as he curled his trembling fingers into his palm them opened them again. He opened his hand once more and looked at it, finding that his suit had been eaten away and down to his palm. Blood started to congeal on his palm but healed a second later.

"Don't touch the web," he managed to gasp. "There's something…I think it's poisonous."

"Then how come it hasn't affected any of the maintenance workers?" Cadence leaned closer to Captain Singh to get a good look ,being careful not to touch the webs.

 _"Maybe it only affects metahumans,"_ Caitlin said.

Barry then heard a low hissing sound and he felt Cadence freeze next to him. She slowly turned her head and let out a low whimper before reaching out and grabbing onto Barry's shoulder, painfully digging her fingers into the joint. Ignoring the pain, he turned and followed her gaze, his lower jaw dropping. Above him was the largest spider he had ever seen. Mammoth in size it covered the entire ceiling of the chamber, mouth wide open. Its eight eyes glowed a bright green as it focused on the two metahumans. Barry swallowed hard.

If he wasn't afraid of spiders before, he might have a healthy sense of fear now. With a shaking hand, he brought his finger to his Comm. Link. "Uh, you guys aren't going to believe this. I'm not even sure I believe it," he said, hearing his voice tremble painfully.

The spider screeched and scuttled along the wall. It reached the floor and screeched at the two metahumans once more, before leaping forward, spitting something out of its mouth. Barry zipped backward as Cadence teleported out of the way. They turned and watched as the sludge that came flying from its mouth hit the concrete started to smoke.

 _"So the sludge it's spewing out is poisonous, too,"_ Iris said.

 _"Giant spiders in Central City?"_ Cisco asked. Barry could hear the barely hidden glee in his voice. _"This is so awesome!"_

"Yeah, not quite awesome, Cisco," Barry called back.

"Do you have any visualization on this yet?" Cadence asked.

 _"You're in sewer 52-A, similar to the area of the sewage system that Grodd used to hide under the city,"_ Harrison explained. _"It's about fifteen feet underground. No wonder they were able to get through the city so easily, it's almost as if every sewage line comes back to this area. They were able to come to the surface and go back underground within seconds if they were able to shoot their webs far around."_

 _"These spiders are Argiope Aurantia, better known as the yellow garden spider. They're normally not aggressive unless attacked."_

"It doesn't seem like they're very aware of that, Cait," Cadence pointed out. She jumped out of the way as the spider sent out another blast of whatever slime came from its mouth.

"So they were affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion, the reach must've been further than we thought," Barry said. "But what do they want with the maintenance workers and Captain Singh?" He dodged out of the way along with Cadence. There wasn't much space around the clearing they could move without falling into the webs. "What else are you getting?"

 _"They're known for rapidly producing huge webs. So try not to get stuck in any of them,"_ Iris said.

There was another scuttling sound and Barry turned around just in time to find a smaller spider scurrying on the wall behind it. It screeched and Barry reached up to clasp his hands over his ears. There had to be more than the one in front of him if the sound was that loud. He looked over at Cadence and found her clasping her hands over her ears as well.

Then Barry felt his arms and legs being jerked in two different directions before they were spun into his side. Then he felt a jerk at his back and found himself spinning in a circle as his arms were latched to his sides. A groan escaped his lips as the web started to burn through his suit. It wasn't getting to the skin yet, but he could already feel the burning heat from the poison as it warmed closer to his skin.

"It's a little too late for that," Barry grunted.

There was a sudden blast of light and Barry looked over to see Cadence using her heat vision to blast the web away from his arms and legs. The strings dropped to the ground and Barry ripped away the ones that clung to his shoulders and top of his head. Then he checked his suit, finding spots that started to burn through. Not much longer before it got to his skin once more.

"Thanks," he said to her.

"Still don't think my fire bomb idea is a good one?" Cadence shot back. She turned and sent a blazing fist into the body of the spider that leapt towards her. She screamed as the spider became frantic, racing around with its body set ablaze. She sent out another burst of flame, increasing the one already on the spider, until it stopped running and fell onto its back, legs curling in on itself.

Barry turned around and used his speed to punch the spiders that acme his way. They seemed to come in waves, one after another. No matter how many Barry would sent through the wall or splashing into the water below, there would be another to take its place.

"Guys, there's too many of them!" Cadence called. "And we have to get Captain Singh and the others out of here! Who knows what the spider web will do to them after some time."

 _"Or what'll happen if they get bitten,"_ Cisco said. _"If they're bitten, they might turn into metas too. If their webs are their poisonous and the slime they spit out is poisonous as well, if its injected into someone it can do irreversible damage."_

 _" Would it turn them into a meta, too?"_ Iris asked.

Harrison made a humming noise. _"There's no way to know. Though we can't say what the ramifications will be if that happens. As far as we know the dark energy from the particle accelerator that turned them into metas will affect those that are bitten in numerous ways."_

 _"Like turn them into Spider-Man,"_ Cisco said.

 _"Or zombies,"_ Caitlin teased.

 _"Or spider-zombies!"_

"You know, its comments like that that make me understand how you and Brady are friends," Cadence commented. She grunted, punching a spider in the face before twisting around and teleported out of the way of another, striking it with a kick.

Barry shook his head. There were too many spiders running around to get a good response in. And there was the matter of the giant one at the top of the chamber they had to deal with. Every now and then it would send out shots of spider web and poison, trying to trap the two metahumans as they ran around to take down the smaller spiders.

At one point two spiders leapt at him at the same time. Barry wind milled his arms as fast as he could; creating a vacuum that pushed the spiders back before they could land on him. The wind continued to increase in size, pushing even more spiders away from the clearing. Some flew off, with webs trailing after them. Barry then vibrated his arms and cut through the webs before they could land on him or Cadence.

Finally, once his area was cleared, he turned back around in time to find Cadence continuing to use her fire powers to kill the meta-spiders. But then she got overpowered by one of them and landed hard on her stomach on the ground, the meta spider starting to roll her in the web, causing her to scream in pain. Barry hurried over and shot the spiders off her and pulled her back to her feet.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." Cadence shuddered; rubbing her hands up and down her arms then rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm fine. I'll be even better once we get these spiders out of here."

"Yeah, but it doesn't look like we're going to have it done anytime soon," Barry said. As soon as the words left his mouth there was another loud screech. The two turned around in time to find the mammoth spider scuttling their way with determination.

Barry took a step forward to take down the spider but stopped. A sudden blast of blue-white light shot across his field of vision, removing the spiders in seconds. Then it shot through the tunnels once more, removing the maintenance workers and Captain Singh from the walls. Then it returned once more and shot a bright bolt of lightning into the spider's side, knocking it onto its back. Time slowed down for Barry. He watched Zoom in surprise, noticing how he didn't hesitate before slashing through the spider's stomach with a vibrating hand. The meta-spider curled up and died seconds before Zoom cut it in half.

Then Zoom turned and struck Cadence hard in the chest with an uppercut, sending her flying up into the ceiling where she crashed hard before falling to the ground once more. Then Zoom raced up to Barry and grabbed him around the throat.

"If anything is going to kill you, it's going to be me," Zoom croaked. He threw Barry as hard as he could and Barry flew through the air before landing in sewer water. He sat up, hearing the worried cries of his friends starting to fizzle out as his comm. link short circuited. Grimacing, Barry pulled his cowl off his head to keep from being shocked and found Zoom's hand around his throat once more.

He managed to bring in a gasp of air before Zoom dunked him under water. Barry immediately closed his eyes against the murky water. He felt Zoom's grasp tighten around his neck as he was held underwater. He tried to hold his breath as long as he could; bringing up his legs attempting to kick Zoom off him. But Zoom knelt to his side, using the strength from his back and his arms to continue pushing Barry down.

His lungs started to burn, chest started to ache, body started to convulse. Anything for him to take in that sweet release of fresh air. His movements started to come slower and slower. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at Zoom's shimmering face through the murky water. Zoom…or the Black Flash? In the darkness of the sewer it was hard to tell. Their intention all too clear no matter the circumstance. Silvery bubbles escaped Barry's lips as some of his precious air escaped his body. He watched in dismay, knowing he didn't have much time left. The edges of his vision started to darken and tunnel until finally, he opened his mouth and let out a scream.

Barry's scream echoed around the sewer as he sat up, the weight on his body finally gone. He coughed and sputtered, sucking in precious a lungful of air. He looked over to find Cadence standing up, hand outstretched, flickering flames slowly burning out from her fingertips. She must've done something to ward off Zoom.

"Thanks," Barry gasped.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah." Barry ran his hands through his hair, grimacing as he plucked a piece of sludge out of his hair. "Promise." Barry moved to run back to STAR Labs, then stopped noticing a few of the spiders were still moving. Swallowing his nausea, Barry grabbed the two and raced them straight to the Pipeline, throwing them into a pod.

Then he removed his suit, with Cisco berated him for soaking it with sewer water, having holes burned into it, and completely frying the comm. link and went to the Pipeline as Harrison fit them inside their pod.

"You sure these cells are going to hold them?" Iris asked, leaning over to watch as the meta-spiders that Barry and Cadence managed to capture scuttled back and forth inside. One of them climbed up onto the window and spat poison towards them. It hit the glass window with a splat and harmlessly dribbled down. "Ugh, never mind, I think it's best if I didn't think about it."

"So we're keeping them because…?" Cadence asked, letting out a sigh of relief when Harrison pressed a button on the control panel that slid the door to the cell closed.

"We need to see how the particle accelerator explosion affected animals," Harrison explained. "If we can figure out the way they were affected we can track down any other animals around the city that were as well. Rats, mice, dogs, cats…we didn't think about it before but we shouldn't have ruled out that humans were the only ones who could be affected."

"We're going to run tests on them," Caitlin explained.

"Better you than me," Cadence said. The group left the pod that held the metahumans. She looked down the row of cells, some of them being filled while others were still empty. Snart and Mick had done as they were asked and recaptured most of the metas they had before, but Hartley was still at large, somehow able to get away, no matter how hard the two criminals tracked them down.

And the Assassination Bureau was still down there. She hadn't seen them since she tricked them into their own capture. Even when it was her turn to feed their captives she stayed away from them. Not because there was even a slight chance of their powers being used despite the fortification of the cells—Cisco continuously updated the technology to keep their powers from being used. But because she knew Breathtaker wasn't easy to take down. Part of her wondered if there was something he was planning with how easily he, Mindboggler, Stratos, and Incognito were taken. Especially as her friends didn't seem to understand the strength of Breathtaker's powers.

Cadence shook her head, running her hands through her hair. Her eyes shifted to the side as she noticed Barry had paused in his steps, looking contemplative. Before she could ask what was going on he went to another pod and opened it. Jay looked up at Barry as he opened the pod and stood back.

Jay looked at Barry curiously as he left the pod, taking cautious steps as he did so. He eyed Barry up and down as Barry crossed his arms.

He took a deep breath and stepped towards Jay. "Okay," he said. "I'll trust you." He looked around at his friends. _"We'll_ trust you. If there's anything we can do to stop Zoom…then you'll know how to do it."

A smile came to Jay's face. He nodded. "I'm glad you finally realized it. I'll do everything in my power to help. To save your Earth and mine."

He held out his hand.

Barry held his out and grasped it, shaking it firmly.

* * *

Cadence walked out of STAR Labs, looking at her cell phone and the text Ryder had sent her.

 **Ryder:** Took Brady to my place as things went down. He's still here if you want to come get him.

 **Cade:** I'll be there in a few minutes. Thanks.

She put her phone away just as there was a gust of wind and a yellow streak that blew by and disappeared into Central City. Cadence started to teleport, only stopping when a familiar whirring sound reached her ears. Cadence turned around and used her heat vision at the same time that Mick sent a fire blast towards her.

The flames connected in a low implosion, sending her off her feet and crashed into the side of the building. Mick then charged at her. Cadence pressed her hands against the wall behind her and lifted her body upwards and back in a flip until she was holding her weight on her hands and feet against the wall. Pushing herself forward, she flipped over Mick's head and landed on the ground behind him. He turned around and tried to strike her in the face with his heat gun but Cadence lifted her foot in a high split and kicked it up out of the way. She teleported when Mick swung his fist around and she appeared behind him. Cadence grabbed his free arm and pulled it around behind his back, making him cry out and fall to his knees. Cadence pressed her weight against his back to push him down even further. Then she flipped over his back and kicked him in the face.

Mick's head snapped to the side from the force of the kick and he reached out, grabbing her ankle to pull her to the ground. Cadence's foot slipped out from underneath her and she fell to the ground in a low split. She twisted her body up and kicked him in the face once more and teleported. Mick used that time to scramble for the heat gun as it fell to the ground and picked it up. He turned around and smacked her in the face with it, sending her head jerking back to strike the wall behind her.

She let out a low groan, bringing her hand up to her head. Cadence started towards Mick once more then stopped when he pointed the heat gun directly at her chest. There was a lot she could handle and even absorb but the absolute hot temperatures that the gun could emit she wasn't sure she could handle.

"How'd you get out of jail this time?" Cadence asked, lifting her gaze to his. His eyebrows furrowed as if unable to understand her question. "I saw you at the CCPD…you were getting arrested for robbing a bank. Where's Snart and why are you doing this alone?"

Mick snorted. "Snart's been too busy for me lately." He lowered the heat gun, but not by a lot. With his free hand, he pulled at a strand of her hair and brought it up to his nose, sniffing it. "The moment his daddy says 'jump' Snart says 'how high' and tends to forget about everyone around him." He shrugged. "And I started to get bored; the life of a criminal is never easy. It can be pretty addicting." He dropped her hair and stepped closer into her space.

Cadence winced, feeling his breath hit her face. It was stale and smelled like smoke; she wouldn't doubt he enjoyed cigarettes as much as he did beer and women.

"It's a nice place you got at the precinct," Mick commented. "Never thought it'd be on the first floor, though. What with the secret you're keeping from them and everything can be too easy to be caught off-guard. The flowers were a bit much but—"

 _Flowers? What flowers?_ Cadence thought for a moment then her eyes widened in horror. "You sent…you were the one that got Dale to send flowers to my office."

Mick grinned a maniacal smile. "Men are suckers when it comes to money. I haven't met many that don't take more than fifty dollars to get them to do something. Even less when they're already drunk."

Cadence's hands clenched into fists. So he was admitting it now, he was stalking her. He stalked her at the club and to her office at the CCPD. A chill ran down her spine but she continued to hold up her strong façade despite feeling herself freeze inside. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"And people call me the dumb one." Mick flicked her hair off her shoulder, resting his hand on her skin. It felt rough and calloused, Cadence was sure he set his hand on fire a lot for entertainment. The burns that she had inflicted on him had already scarred. To him it was probably a badge of honor. "You. Your flame. The only person in this city that has the same sort of output as this heat gun is you."

"What do you want from me?"

"I've got this super computer thingamajig from STAR Labs; it has the information of everything all you science geeks have inside there. And the information of all of the metahumans you've come across." He started to rub her neck, gently brushing his fingers over her skin almost in a tender motion. "I know everything about you and how you got your powers. I want the same deal. I want what made you a meta."

It took Cadence a minute to understand what he was hinting at. He wanted her to find a way to create the same mixture that Harrison had used to make her a metahuman. That is, if it was even Harrison and not Eobard that had done so. She glared.

"Why would I do that?"

Mick slowly started to tighten his grasp along her neck, pressing his fingers into the side. Then he slid his hand toward the front, pressing his thumb into her neck. Cadence swallowed hard, her pulse starting to quicken and he brought his face close to hers, brushing the tip of his nose over hers.

Silence stretched between the two of them as Mick's eyes burned into his with the crazed flame that seemed to spur him every moment of every day. A smirk came to his face as he let out a low, rumbling chuckle. "I get it," he said. "You want to stay on the good side of the tracks. I hate to break it to you, but considering everything you've done before you've met this merry band of high horses…it's not like you have any space to talk about what's right and wrong."

Cadence clenched her muscles, ready to attack him, then stopped when the heat gun painfully jammed into her stomach and Mick snapped his grip around her neck. She gasped for air and forced herself to look at him again.

"Reality check princess," Mick growled. "You're not better than any of the rest of us. You've stolen and you've murdered just as many people as we have for your own personal gain. I'm sure you've felt the same way, watching the light leave from your victim's eyes. It's always a rush; I know you've felt it as well. But you continue to think of yourself as a good person, above those who continue to commit crimes, as a hero for the people of his city." His eyes flickered over her face. "Are you sure about that?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Ah! While writing this chapter I figured out something to help me with my writing of Harrison! So now I can move forward with that. Yes, honestly, my issues with writing him and Tess more or the story was because I was having issues with them.

Anywho, who expected that appearance by Zoom? I thought it'd spice things up a bit as well as give him a bit more of his intention around the city. Also, I think it makes him a bit scarier that he can easily take down Barry if he wanted, but hasn't done it yet.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** I think I've decided what I'm going to do with that, but on nearly a daily basis I go back and forth with what works better. Depending on the one I choose I'll probably do a short story or a one-shot to show the other one so people can see both of my ideas.

 **Ethan:** Supercooling is actually a thing but in terms of the chapter, she was using it as an excuse for what she did to it. There isn't anyone controlling the meta-spiders, they're just animals/insects that just so happened to be caught in the blast. Who says that humans are the only ones who can be affected?

 **Yummers:** I hope you liked it! Though they're not done yet.

 **Spinquin142:** Yes, it's a real thing. I'm glad you like their interactions together, I'm trying to show how they work as best friends despite their opposite personalities and powers (sort of taking on what Ronnie and Caitlin could've been if Ronnie was around longer). I didn't really notice that I missed introducing Patty to Ryder, thanks for that catch. I'll definitely have a scene with them soon. Not to mention having to do some scenes with just Barry and Ryder as well. Thanks!

 **PowerHero432:** Caitlin's powers are really cool and I wish we could see her use them as a hero rather than continuing to angst over whether or not she'd be a villain. Honestly, I think they would've had it where she broke the control of 'evil' Killer Frost from her not being able to kill Barry and then have her be able to use them on her own. Then again the extended promo proves that didn't happen but I'd like to see it. Caitlin and Cisco's friendship is one of my favorite parts of the show so I knew I had to show it again. And yes, Brady was really flat to Patty because of Barry. He may only be nine years old but he definitely knows what he wants.

 **Also, for those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	12. Drawing A Line in The Sand

**.:12:.**

* * *

Brady poked his head around the school building before turning back to Conner and opened his backpack. He grabbed the sheets of paper that Conner was handing to him and shoved them into his bag.

"Thanks," Brady said helpfully. "I think mom would start to become suspicious if I didn't bring any of my homework home."

" _My_ mom is becoming suspicious," Conner said. He rolled his eyes a little. "She's started to notice that I've been using her copier a lot lately. I just keep telling her that our art projects need us to make copies of a lot of things."

"Does she believe you?"

"I don't think so. But she's been working a lot lately so she's been too tired to pay attention." Conner brought up a hand and rubbed his nose. "The Parent Teacher Conference is tonight, what are you going to do?"

Brady shrugged into his backpack. "I'll have to tell my mom, she's going to find out anyway. I just hope that me doing my homework softens the blow a little bit."

"I don't think she'll be mad when you tell her _why_ you got suspended."

Brady shrugged again. He reached up to run a hand through his hair, stopping when he remembered the hair gel it took to make his Mohawk, then lowered it again. He looked over his shoulder, careful that no teachers spotted him as the two and their classmates milled around the front of the school before classes started.

"So what else has been going on?" Conner asked. "I mean, with the meta-spiders."

"Nothing other than Zoom apparently saved Barry and my Mom," Brady replied. He frowned, remembering as he was told about it. He had been bummed to miss out on the action, but knew now to push the subject either. It had been pushed into his head over and over now, that he was to help when he could but not get in the way or put himself into danger. Barry as the one who broke it to him gently, when they had talked about his suspension and the things he continued to be afraid of, robbing him of sleep and his normal energy. "I don't know why. But I'm going to get some more training in so that's cool."

"Do you have a good grasp of your powers now?" Conner asked.

"I guess. I can phase better than I used to, but now that I can camouflage myself at times, that's even harder." Brady reached up and rubbed his nose. His eyes narrowed and he turned to Conner with question in his eyes. "Were you here when the Particle Accelerator blew?" Conner nodded.

"Yeah, me and my mom were here."

"I wonder if you'll eventually get powers."

"Maybe. Don't you have to be doing something special when you get them?"

"Ummm." Brady thought long and hard about it.

He wasn't sure if that was really how it worked. He had been in his dark bedroom, awakened by the sound of the explosion when the wave went through, sure. But his mom had already been a metahuman by that time, so if what Caitlin and Cisco said was true, her DNA would've already made sure that he had a good chance of being one. But then again, Barry had been struck by lightning when he got his powers and all of the evil metas they've come across had gotten their powers from it as well.

"I was just eating cake for dessert, so unless I turn into a meta that defeats people by throwing cake layers, I don't think that's going to happen." The boys laughed. "Are you going to be on Minecraft later?"

"Only if my mom doesn't ground me from my computer. But I could probably find it when she's at work or busy hanging out with Barry or something. She stops paying attention when he and her friends are around."

"My mom, too. Especially with her friends."

The two laughed again before turning at the sound of screaming. Brady and Conner hurried around the side of the school building and watched as the bikes attached to the bike rack levitated into the air and shot towards the students. Teachers started to run over to the kids, yelling for them to get inside as they kids ran around in the chaos. Brady exchanged a glance with Conner before he turned back to the crowd, trying to see what was making the bikes fly through the air. It was difficult to see through the sprinting kids but Conner eventually tapped him on the shoulder then pointed.

"Look!"

Brady followed Conner's point and saw a girl from their class standing towards the side of the group, watching the bikes swirl through the air and shoot towards students with wide, horror filled eyes. Brady recognized her as their new classmate, especially how she had introduced herself at the beginning of the year with her full name "Leah Nicole Brooklyn" and how Conner had instantly been interested to know where she came from—Gotham, but before that Quebec—when they were allowed to ask questions.

Brady strained to see what she would do, but felt Conner grab onto his arm and pull him back. "Some teachers are coming our way! You need to leave now!"

"Okay, but let me know what goes on with this." Brady stepped back behind the building and concentrated hard on becoming invisible. Once he realized that he was—Conner twisted his head and his eyes darted around, trying to find Brady amongst the chaos—he turned and ran away.

* * *

"So I'm coming along on this field trip because?" Cadence carefully stepped over the police tape that the police had put up around a crime scene that Barry pulled down to keep her from tripping.

Barry replaced it and the two walked across the crime scene. He moved the coffee mug in front of him in a quiet gesture. "I figured you didn't want Captain Singh breathing down your neck anymore?"

A light snort escaped Cadence's lips. "You'd think after saving his life he'd be a bit less…"

"Of a dick?" Barry broke in.

"Exactly."

Barry nodded but otherwise didn't respond. He had had an interesting run-in with Captain Singh that morning as it was. Barry had arrived at his lab, only ten minutes late that time, surprised to find Captain Singh already waiting for him. He was standing at the window, back turned to Barry, and addressed him as soon as Barry came through the door, stopping short at the sight of his boss.

"Don't be so surprised, Allen. I do like to see how my co-workers are doing from time to time," Captain Singh remarked. He finally turned to face him, eyes as flinty as ever. "Especially after something like what happened at the Trivia Night happens. I need to be sure that all of my men and women are on the up and up as time with these metas goes on." His eyebrows rose. "Though I can't say I was expecting to see a bunch of spiders."

"Yeah, no, I guess no one thought it was possible either," Barry said quickly. He cleared his throat and walked closer to Captain Singh, grabbing hold of the strap of his bag. If he managed to distract his hands enough, Captain Singh wouldn't see his hands shaking of nerves. Heat pinpricked his pits and he started to sweat lightly. He hated how easily Captain Singh could throw off his confidence just by being near. Even when he was working as The Flash or had saved his life. "I-I mean there's a lot of things we don't _know_ about metas b-but this was especially weird."

"And you'd know everything about the weird things going on around here in Central City, right?" Captain Singh asked.

Barry blinked rapidly. His eyes shifted back and forth, trying to find something else to focus his attention on. Was he that much of an expert? He _did_ go to Starling City to figure out what was going on with the metas there, which made him first meet Oliver and Felicity, but he would never say he was an _expert_ at it. Then Barry remembered and he briefly closed his eyes. Yes, he would. He _had_ said that to Captain Singh before, when explaining his long nights of researching cases that weren't the ones he was already assigned to. Barry never thought it would come back to bite him, but now that he was The Flash…

"I wouldn't say I know everything about it," Barry said slowly.

"But you know enough. Like how you would figure out how to save people from meta-spiders," Captain Singh continued. He walked over to the shelves of chemicals in beakers and glass jars and gently tapped on with his finger tip. "Maybe with one of these chemicals you've got here. Couldn't be too difficult for a mind like yours." Barry made a non-committal noise in response, unsure of what to say. "But then again, The Flash can easily go through and just rip everyone down so easily."

"I'm sure he could," Barry said slowly.

"I guess that's what sets us apart from metas," Captain Singh continued. He turned away from the chemicals and looked Barry in the eye. "Normal humans like us are the ones who go through with plans and figuring out solutions to the problems before execution and The Flash just does it. It doesn't make him any less brave, but more of a hero than I've originally thought."

"I'm sure he'd be glad to hear that," Barry said. _I'm sure he'd be surprised to know it's me, too,_ Barry reminded himself.

Captain Singh nodded. Then he walked over to Barry and patted him on the shoulder with a statement of 'keep up the good work' and a nod towards the work leftover on Barry's desk before leaving the lab. And for most of the morning Barry found himself wondering whether or not Captain Singh knew he was The Flash. It was a silly question, really. How could he know? Despite his excuses to leave being flimsy at times, he was careful enough not to let anyone else know. There was already so many people he had to remember who did know than who didn't. And as far as Captain Singh knew, he had a long list of medical maladies that would be harder to clarify than not.

"Well, it's not like he'd know," Barry reminded her. He took a sip of his coffee and licked his lips. "But trust me, sometimes I want to tell him, too. Just so he'd, I don't know—"

"—Pull the stick out a little?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Cadence held out her cup of hot chocolate and Barry followed suit, tapping the side of his coffee against hers. Then the two came up to Joe and Patty, who were already on the scene. "So the origin of the fire was created by arson, but it was used to cover up this," Patty said. She motioned to a wire that was completely cut in half. "But I don't know a sandblaster that can cut things like this so I think it may have been a meta. I've got a sand sample and some finger prints off the back of the transformer." She handed it over to Barry as they came to a stop by her. "Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey," Barry replied.

Patty smiled at him for a moment then her eyes shifted over to Cadence. "And, hi, Cadence."

"Hey," Cadence replied. Her eyebrows lowered as she looked around the warehouse. "Looks like the fire really did a number on this place?" She tilted her head to the side and looked at Patty for a minute. "Why would a meta want to take down an empty warehouse?"

"That's the part that we have to figure out," Joe pointed out. He rested his hands on his hips. "From the reports we've gotten there was nothing but squatters here. And, unfortunately, there's one that didn't make it out in time."

Cadence nodded and made a movement with her hand. "No problem, I've got it."

Barry took the sample that Patty had given him and continued to twist it back and forth between his fingers, squinting to look through the glass at the pieces inside. "And you're sure this is sand?" He asked Patty.

"Not unless it's some pretty particular looking dust," Patty replied. She shrugged modestly. "There was a light dusting around the floors; I managed to get some up before the crime scene was cleaned." She took a step closer to him, resting her hand on his wrist as she did so. Her fingers brushed over his skin before she tapped the glass beaker. "See, if you look close enough you can see what looks to be shells inside."

"Sort of like what you'd see at the beach," Barry agreed.

Joe laughed. "A meta that can bring the beach to you? Get me in contact with him and maybe I can take that vacation I've always wanted."

Barry lowered the tube from his eye line and smiled at Joe. "You know you could've taken that vacation anytime you wanted."

"And come back to you and Iris throwing another party at the house? I don't think so."

"You threw a party?" Cadence looked amused. Barry couldn't tell whether or not she believed Joe but judging from the amused twinkle in her eye she wanted to hear the story nevertheless.

"They thought they were being slick by telling me that they were going to be staying at their friends' places while I was gone," Joe said. Then he turned his grin back to Barry, who flushed with embarrassment. "But they didn't seem to remember that their excuses weren't going to work. Why was that again?"

"Because Iris's friend was known for throwing unsupervised parties and I wouldn't be able to relax, thinking we'd get caught," Barry explained.

"Exactly," Joe agreed. "So the moment something went wrong, the first call that came over the airwaves was Barry trying to call the police to get people out of the house."

Cadence and Patty laughed as Barry continued to flush in embarrassment. "In my defense, enough people had passed out in the yard that the neighbors were going to call it in anyway."

"Oh, no, I'm sure you're right," Cadence agreed. Barry glared at her as she pressed her lips together and moved her cup to cover her mouth, giggles escaping her lips.

"No, it's very responsible," Patty agreed. "Very cute. I'm sure all of those guys were happy that someone cared enough about them to call for medical attention." Barry rolled his eyes, waiting for the laughter to subside. When it did, Joe and Patty went to their cruises to put in some paperwork while Barry and Cadence went to look over the body of the squatter. "Bye Barry," Patty said before leaving.

"Bye, Patty," Barry replied.

He had made it only a few steps before Cadence started to sing beside him. "B-U-STED, you can't pull one over me. You're busted, hell yeah, you're busted!" She reached out and poked Barry in the cheek, twisting her finger this way and that as she did so, to accompany her singing.

Barry nudged her hand away. "You've been waiting a long time to do that, haven't you?" He asked.

"Not really. The inspiration suddenly struck me."

"Ha ha."

"So…?" Cadence glanced over her shoulder before the two moved to the secluded corner where the body lay.

"So what?" Barry replied.

Cadence gave Barry a funny look as she knelt down over the blanket. Shaking her hair behind her shoulders she reached out and pinched a corner of the white sheet, carefully pulling it back. "So, nothing," she replied. "Just that Patty seems to smile a lot when she's around you."

"She just…I…she's just being nice," Barry insisted.

"Okay, Barry." Cadence lowered her gaze, frowning when she noticed there weren't any burns on his body or scorch marks nearby. Nothing but a small pile of sand beneath his head. "They said this guy was still here when the fire was going on, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think the fire got to him. Whatever it was that meta could do…this guy probably got in his way." She reached out and carefully pried the squatters' mouth open, watching as a small pile of sand dropped to the ground. "The same stuff that's in that beaker."

"Then we should get it to STAR Labs," Barry suggested. "Get the others to run some tests on it to see what it is."

"You ready my mind."

Barry and Cadence went to STAR Labs and found Caitlin and Cisco watching as Jay ran on Barry's cosmic treadmill, looking at his vitals as he did so. Jay was the first one to notice their arrival and stepped off the treadmill, grabbing his shirt as he went. "What's going on?" He asked, immediately getting to the point.

"We went to a crime scene and got this sample," Barry explained. Cisco walked over and plucked it out of his fingertips. He held it up to the light, slowly turning it back and forth to study the contents inside. "The power of that sand was able to blast clean through some wires. I think it's a meta."

"Huh," Cisco muttered. He rubbed his chin with his free hand. "It doesn't look like any kind of sand I've seen before." He opened it up and poured some into his palm. He dabbed at it and placed it to the tip of his tongue.

"Cisco!" Caitlin cried, eyes growing wide with disgust and confusion. Cisco shrugged and continued to lick his lips.

"That's not sand," Jay said. He came up to the group, crossing his arms. "It's human cells that have the ability to rearrange and harden into the appearance of sand." Caitlin jumped back, smiling smugly as Cisco's eyes grew wide and he immediately started to sputter. Cadence laughed loudly before recoiling when Cisco grabbed her arm and started to run his tongue against her arm, only letting go when Cadence tightened her hand into a fist and made a flame erupt around her fingers, making him back away.

Barry ignored the spectacle going on around him to ask Jay, "How do you know that?"

"They belong to a metahuman I've fought before, named Sand Demon," Jay explained.

"Sand Demon?" Cadence repeated.

Cisco made a face for a second. "I'm not mad at that one. That's actually a really cool name. But don't think I'm going to let you get away with that. Naming the metahumans is my jam, okay?" Jay's eyes widened for a second before he nodded. "So, Sand Demon, huh? How are we going to track him down?"

"I don't know his real name," Jay replied. "But it can't be that hard to find him."

"In this city? I don't think so," Caitlin agreed. She smiled at Barry, making him smile, too. It faded after a second. Not because he was worried about finding the true identity of Sand Demon, but because of the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that Jay may be leading them into a trap. He did trust Jay, a majority of himself did, but there was a _tiny_ part of him that wondered if things were going to blow up in their faces.

It couldn't have been a coincidence that Zoom had figured out where they were, but then again, Jay hadn't known either. He was stuck inside his cell in the Pipeline. But he knew so much about Zoom and everything he wanted so there was no room for questioning it.

His attention was brought to the opening of the Cortex as rapid footsteps headed their way. He felt himself pale when Brady came through the doorway at nearly top speed. "Hi!" He greeted the group, before coming to an immediate halt, seeing his mother staring at him with wide eyes. "Oh." Brady looked over at Barry before taking a few steps closer. "Hi, Mom."

"What are you doing here?" Cadence immediately blurted. "You should be in school! Why aren't you in school?" She didn't give him a chance to answer before crossing her arms and said, "This better be good."

"Uh…" Brady glanced over at Barry again, who looked back at him meaningfully. It was time to tell the truth. Brady realized it and sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Um. You see, I sort of…kind of…got…suspended…from school." He hemmed and hawed so much that the volume of his words got lower and lower until he whispered the last few words, making Barry strain to hear. Then he looked over at Cadence, whose eyebrows then rose along with her widening eyes.

"You got suspended?" She repeated.

"Yeah…" Brady nodded.

"It's for a good reason though," Barry quickly broke in. Cadence sent a glare his way and he stepped forward to explain. "Brady told us that he had been suspended from school but was worried about telling you."

"He was never in any danger or anything," Caitlin said, once Cadence realized that everyone apart from her knew. She shot Barry a frustrated glance, making him give an offended look in response. "Every time he's supposed to have been in school he's been here or with Harrison."

"I've been learning a lot," Brady added. "Cisco's been helping me with my training."

"And I'm assuming this is where the idea of him working with Oliver came from, right?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah, sort of," Cisco said.

Cadence let out a long breath through her nose, rubbing her forehead. Barry tried not to grimace. He recognized that look; it was the universal parent look. His mother and father had done it when he had gotten in trouble, and he'd seen it multiple times from Joe as he was growing up. This could either go well or very badly.

"It's what I was telling you about," Barry said, hoping his explanation would soften the blow. "The night that Zoom attacked. Something that Brady wanted to talk about but wasn't sure he could talk to you." Cadence dropped her hand from her forehead, a hurt look flashing through her eyes. "Not that he doesn't trust you or doesn't _want_ to talk to you. He just didn't want to make you upset."

Brady nodded quickly.

Cadence took another breath through her nose. "How did I not know you were suspended?"

"Um." Brady kicked at the ground. "I erased the phone messages off your phone and the emails from your computer." Cadence's eyes widened in disbelief and Brady placed his hands on his hips indignantly. "You don't make it that hard to figure out what your passwords are!"

"What about homework? I've been checking it every night."

"Just because I'm suspended doesn't mean they want me to fall behind in school." Cadence looked like she didn't know what to say to that. "But there's something else," he added, now looking at everyone around the room. "You know how I was saying my school is haunted? I think it might be a meta."

"You think one of the teachers at your school is a meta?" Caitlin asked. She slowly lowered herself down into her seat. With a few motions of her fingers she opened the file that held information of all of the meta humans and started to type. Cisco came up to her side, to get a good look as well.

Brady shook his head. "Not a teacher, Aunt Caitlin. A student. One of my classmates."

Barry's eyes widened in surprise and he instinctively looked over at Jay. Jay looked back at him with hooded eyes then lowered his gaze. _So it's not just something that's a problem on our Earth,_ Barry thought. Kids with metahuman powers. He thought Brady's powers were a bit of a fluke, due to being in Central City when the accident happened. He had thought the same thing about the Meta-Spiders. But now that he knew the explosion and resulting energies and particles had traveled so far down into the Pipeline and below the city…who knows what else it could've done. But even more kids with powers? There was already enough chatter on the news about the adult metahumans that kept him up at night. So far nothing big had been said, the lawsuit against him and Flare for damaging his car against Hydro Hunter had been dropped as there had been no criminal intention found, but the frequency upon the news reports of metas versus humans were starting to worry him.

What would happen to children if they were found out?

"I think I saw her using her powers at the bike rack this morning. But I don't think she can control them. Just like my other classmate, the one who could control light." Brady looked earnestly at the faces around him. "We need to help her."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Cisco asked. "It's not like we can just roll up to the school and say 'hey, we want to know the identity of one of your students who may or may not be a metahuman, and maybe take her to STAR Labs to do some tests. Do you think we could get a permission slip signed'?"

Brady glared at Cisco, suddenly looking very much like his mother. "There's the PTA meeting tonight…"

"So. You, somehow, want us to stake-out your parents night at school for a girl in your class who may or may not be a metahuman?" Cadence asked.

"Yep," Brady said simply.

"Cool, just checking."

"Okay, but how are all the rest of us going to get in there when we're not parents?" Caitlin asked. "Not that I'm saying this is a good idea. But just for hypothetical reasons?"

"Ever since the janitor was attacked the school is amping up on their security," Barry said with a shrug. "I'm sure there's going to be some police presence there. We just have to flash our badges and we can be there," Barry added to Cisco, which made the mechanical engineer smile. Ever since receiving the CCPD badge from Captain Singh after helping save the city from Atom Smasher's Flash Day attack, he'd always wanted an excuse to show it off.

"And you two could just do the age old ploy," Cadence said with a light toss of her hand between Caitlin and Jay. "Just pretend you're a couple. Act like you belong. I doubt anyone's going to be asking you anything as long as you stay out of the way."

Caitlin faltered for a moment, looking over at Jay. He looked back at her then nodded. "If this is going to help us figure out whether this metahuman is a threat, then I'll help the best I can," he said.

"Great," Barry agreed. He let out a long, relieved, sigh as his cell phone rang. Cadence's rang as well and the two pulled their phones out to read the text Joe had sent them. "Hey, we've got to go. But look into that sand sample would ya?"

"And keep it out of your mouth," Cadence added with a teasing smile to Cisco. She then grasped her son firmly on the shoulder. "Stay here."

Brady nodded and sank into a chair beside Caitlin.

* * *

Cadence ran her hands over her hair as she and Barry walked through the front doors of the CCPD and bee lined to the interrogation room.

"Are you mad?"

She glanced at Barry as he kept stride with her. "At you? About you not telling me that Brady got suspended form school? Why would I be mad at you, Tholly?" She didn't mean to sound so sarcastic in her answer but couldn't help it. There were things that she didn't mind other people doing with Brady; if she told them not to give him chocolate she fully expected him to come back on a sugar high. If she said not to let him stay up to watch movies, she expected Brady to practically be falling asleep in his Cheerios the next morning. It was to be expected. She _detested_ it when someone overstepped their boundaries with him, however.

"Look, I get it. It's just, I mean…he asked me not to tell you," Barry continued.

Cadence continued walking and he grabbed onto her arm, pulling her around. A light gasp of fear escaped Cadence's lips. It was then immediately replaced with warm security when she looked up into Barry's face. For a moment Cadence felt butterflies erupt in her stomach, remembering the last time he had done that had been when he kissed her. But he wasn't going to kiss her now, she knew that for sure. She didn't think knowing that would cause her so much momentary sadness.

"If it was something that was putting him in danger I would've told you in a second, Cade! You know that. But…I'm his friend and I want him to know there's someone he can talk to when he can't talk to you." Cadence didn't reply. "He's getting older. He's almost 10. You can't expect him to come to you for everything."

"I don't," Cadence said honestly. "I expect him to, maybe, go to Ryder. Or you, Cisco, or Caitlin. I just never thought it'd hurt so bad when he finally got to the point of not coming to me first."

"You're his mom, Cade," Barry gently pointed out.

"I know, and we already pointed out that I never really went to _my_ mom about everything either. But I at least thought I was cooler than her." She started walking again.

"I, no, yeah, much cooler," Barry agreed.

"You hesitated. But that's okay." Cadence playfully elbowed him in the side. "I know your life has gotten much better since I came along." The two laughed and walked into the interrogation room. Patty was already there, watching as Joe interrogated a small shifty looking man that sat in a chair at the desk on the other side of the mirror.

"Name's Eddie Slick," Patty explained as the door closed behind them. "Fingerprints came back as a match for his DNA. We chased him down not too far from the crime scene."

Cadence's eyebrows came together but she didn't say anything. Not too many criminals would go back to the scene of their crime. But if he really was a metahuman, then he wasn't a normal criminal. She watched for a few seconds as Joe continued to berate Eddie, grabbing the back of his neck to look at pictures of the crime scenes, their voices coming from the speaker that connected the rooms.

 _"I didn't do this. I always start a fire with something that's hard to trace. Like acetone or something,"_ Slick said, rustling the handcuffs that sat around his wrists, the chain keeping him stuck to the table.

 _"Maybe you don't need accelerants anymore,"_ Joe growled, walking around the table. He kept his eyes on Slick as he did so. Finally, he came to a stop and rested his hands on the edge of the table, curling his fingers over the top. Slick's eyes shifted down towards the pistol that sat hooked to Joe's belt as Joe said, " _Iron Heights has cells for people like you now."_

"The first wasn't made from an accelerant," Cadence murmured to Barry, low enough so Barry couldn't hear. Barry nodded imperceptibly but said out of the corner of his mouth, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she replied. "Looking it over from the scene, it came from the frayed wires. Or else we would've found a spot where the fire originated."

Patty glanced at the two as Barry nodded.

Mounting offense tore through Slick's face. He lifted his chin and glared at Joe, starting to pull together on the handcuffs, willing them to break so that he could go free. " _You think I'm one of those metahuman freaks? If I had powers, you think I wouldn't use them to get away from you?"_

Joe's nostrils flared as the realization tore through him. _"December 13th, 2013, where were you?"_

 _"Why?"_ Slick suddenly became off-balance, thrown by the change in subject.

 _"Answer the damn question!"_

 _"Black Gate Penitentiary. Check your records if you don't believe me!"_

Cadence continued to concentrate as she watched Joe pull out a cell phone and call a co-worker in the records department of the CCPD to determine Slick's validity. But it was hard to do so when she could hear Barry and Patty talking beside her. Frustrated, Cadence reached up and rubbed the back of her neck, pressing her fingers into her pressure points.

"So you took Slick down yourself?" Barry asked her. Patty managed a modest smile as Barry said, "Joe told us before we came over. I'm impressed."

"Not so impressive," Patty said to match her modest smile. "Just took the print off the electrical pipe and tracked Slick down from there." She then nodded over to Joe. "I may be working with him now, but he didn't seem so happy to see what I did. I guess I'm still not close to cracking him. He's like the permission sphinx. Or a magic 8 ball that gives you one answer." Barry's smile widened and she continued. "Or, like, you know, the bridge keeper protecting the Holy Grail."

Now Barry laughed. Adopting a British accent he asked. "What is your quest?"

"To join your task force," Patty quickly shot back, adopting the accent as well.

"No."

"Ahhh!" The two cried in unison before bursting out into loud laughter.

Cadence frowned, her concentration broken. Closing her eyes, she turned her gaze away from the mirror, glad it was a two-way, glad Slick couldn't see her eyes glowing as she used her powers, glad Patty was preoccupied with Barry to notice she was using them. Sort of.

"Well, knowing Joe he'll come around, but I can put in a good word for you," Barry offered.

Cadence didn't have to look at Patty to know she was smiling a dewy smile at Barry as she said, "That'd mean a lot to me." She looked up when Joe tapped on the glass and motioned for Barry and Cadence to join him outside. The three left the room and Joe immediately explained his findings.

"Slick wasn't in Central City when the Particle Accelerator exploded."

Barry immediately faltered, sure that had been it. He stuttered over his words for a few second before saying, "He's lying."

"No, he's not," Cadence broke in. She slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and explained. "I was watching him, sensing him the whole time. He was telling the truth. I'd be able to tell if he was lying."

"I know, you can sense body heat," Barry said.

Cadence shook her head. "Not just because of that. You know how you've been accusing me of having stalked you?" Barry nodded but Joe looked confused. Cadence quickly caught him up to speed with what she had to do while in the Assassination Bureau. "Well, from all of the times I _watched_ you—" she gave Barry a pointed look and he rolled his eyes, "—and the others, not only does it make it easy for me to track people, I can see their mannerisms too. I can tell when people lie just from a quick movement of their eyes, or a rub of their nose, little nervous habits you can't help. This guy never did it. He was telling the truth."

"So, you think he may be one of those…" Joe waved his hand as he tried to figure out the best word for it. Finally, he found the answer and snapped his fingers. "Doubles that Zoom's bringing over?" Joe asked. "If it's not him, that he has one?"

Barry sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know," he said honestly.

"And that's what we have to figure out," Cadence agreed.

* * *

Cisco smiled as he flashed his CCPD badge to anyone within distance as they looked at him. Of course he was a little bit too young to be a parent at the PTA meeting. But with the trusty badge he got nods of respect and some smiles as the parents and their children walked by. Then Cisco replaced his badge and placed his hands on his hips as he looked around the room, watching as parents were brought by with their children to look at their classrooms and what they worked on in school.

It wasn't like he wanted to have any children anytime soon, he was only22. But not being in a relationship, even a fake one, was hard. There were so many people around that looked so happy and proud of their children. Even some of the women he saw were holding their husband's hands, gently running her free hand over her stomach. He wanted that eventually, wanted to be able to go home to his apartment and have a girlfriend waiting for him with a bright smile and maybe some Pizza Pockets—if Caitlin made good on her promise to cut him off if he kept eating them.

 _But in this case I think I'm happy single,_ Cisco thought with a smirk as he looked over his shoulder. Caitlin and Jay walked behind him with Caitlin pulling at the neck of her conservative sweater and Jay looking equally uncomfortable in his sweater vest and flannel shirt. Of course Jay's clothes were actually Barry's and they looked a little _too_ snug on Jay's muscular body. (Something that Cadence couldn't help but point out to her amusement and Barry's chagrin. Though Cisco also couldn't help but notice the little smile the two exchanged). _Just as long as I don't have to be as obvious as them._

With a patient sigh, Cisco faced them. "You know, for two people who are supposed to have some kids here, you don't look very much like a couple." He had seen some moments where it looked like Jay was about to put his arm around Caitlin or Caitlin was going to hold his hand, but then they'd quickly back off. He was sure of it. No one was buying them as a couple.

"As far as everyone here is concerned we're just looking at the school," Caitlin said. She reached up to pull her hair down around her shoulder. "In case you've forgotten, we're supposed to be seeing if this girl is a meta."

Cisco smirked at Caitlin. He looked at Jay as his green eyes moved methodically over the people surging around them. As if he was readying himself to start making his fists fly. He already was a fish out of water on their Earth, it must've been worse being in a room filled with people that could've been doppelgangers of people he knew.

"I don't know, I'm just saying you seem to be really into this ruse," Cisco teased her. Like anyone couldn't have seen it. She had been particularly interested in Ja and getting his tests done ever since he arrived. She could play it off as much as she wanted, but Cisco was smarter than that.

"I'm just trying to help."

"Surrre."

"Guys, we're trying to be normal, not bring attention to ourselves," Cadence hissed as she and Brady nudged her way through the large crowd pressing around them. Ryder was on her other side with Barry following a little behind Cisco, Caitlin, and Jay.

"We're not the ones who brought an entourage," Cisco pointed out to her.

"Well, maybe if you didn't stand so close, Uncle Cisco," Brady said helpfully.

Cisco narrowed his eyes at him and Brady smiled, sticking his tongue out in response.

For the next half hour the group continued to move through the school as Cisco mindlessly listened to the teachers as they explained to the parents what their students had been doing in some of their classes. It wasn't until they made it to their classroom that something interesting happened. An older couple walked into the room with their son and Brady immediately turned away.

"What?" Ryder asked, immediately noticing his son's change in demeanor. "What's wrong?"

"Uhhh," Brady said slowly.

"Wait, is he why you were suspended?" Cadence asked.

Brady nodded. "He'd been picking on this girl in my class, calling her weird. And he's been bullying me. I, uh, I punched him."

He couldn't help it. Cisco laughed loudly at the admission. It wasn't a laugh to tease but a laugh of pride. He felt like Brady was his little brother and knowing that he was able to beat up a bully, it was like living vicariously through him. Except he'd never be able to get a solid punch on Hartley Rathaway unless he showed his face back in Central City again. Caitlin elbowed him on the arm to shush him but it was too late. Cisco's laughter had caught the attention of the older couple and the woman looked at Cadence and walked over to her.

"Why does that woman look so familiar?" Barry murmured.

"You remember that woman that said I was a terrible person for being a teen mom last year?" Cadence replied out of the side of her mouth. She plastered on a fake smile which Cisco was sure she had done numerous times before. "May I help you?" She asked.

"Your son got my son suspended form school!" The woman cried.

"I'm sorry," Ryder said politely as he took a step forward. "What happened?"

"Who are you?" The woman eyed him warily.

"He's my dad," Brady piped up.

The woman then sneered. "I'm surprised you could find the father, considering how you didn't have enough sense to keep your legs closed. It's obvious your son is taking after your bad habits because he's assaulted my son."

"From what _my_ son has said, _he_ was the one being bullied," Ryder said. His eyes flashed and his accent thickened, a vein popping up by his temple as his jaws clenched together. "And I'd be obliged if you didn't insult either of them like that."

"Must've been a mistake if you left them. I don't remember you being here last year."

"Okay, that's enough," Barry said, taking a step in front of Cadence, as if she shield her from the verbal barrage. "It doesn't need to go that far."

All of a sudden, Cisco felt incredibly hot. He looked over at and saw Cadence's eyes flash dangerously. Almost as if a fire flickered through them. Then he looked at Caitlin and the two stepped aside, knowing what was coming next.

"You know what?" Cadence hissed. "Yes, I'm a teen mom. Everyone by now knows I'm a teen mom and they don't care. But its people like _you_ that make me dwell on it, that make me think it was some sort of a stigma that I'd never break." She stepped in front of the woman and jabbed a finger at her. "So for the last ten years I've focused on that, as if it was a shortcoming and it's made me very self-centered. I'm tired of talking about it. But I'm not going to let you make me feel that way anymore."

She took a step closer to the woman, making her take a step back. "You know what _you_ could for me? Stop taking your frustration out on me because you're a prude and your husband hasn't banged you for the last twenty years. I may have been a teen mom but I'm not lazy; I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and a great job at the CCPD. If you don't believe me, here's my badge!" She reached to the side of her jeans and flashed it in front of her. "Now, your son has been bullying my son for the last year and instead of complaining my son just takes it and is nice back to him until he had no reason but to punch him. You know why? Because I taught him that. Maybe you should learn a lesson from him and _stop_ being such a stuck up, rich-ass, dick!"

Caitlin gasped.

Cisco covered his mouth with his hands to keep from laughing. He wanted to do nothing more than grab Cadence in a tight hug and sing her praises—partially for standing up to the woman and partially for allowing him to watch.

Barry pressed his lips together and turned away.

Ryder grinned.

The woman flushed and grabbed her son's hand before barking at her husband to follow them out of the room.

Brady smiled and hugged his mother around the waist. "My mom's awesome," he declared. Realizing he didn't get a response he turned back to his parents and looked at them through his eyelashes. "Am I still in trouble?"

"Oh yeah," Ryder said.

"Supersize trouble," Cadence agreed.

Cisco started to say something but suddenly found himself floating off the ground. He looked around to find everyone in their group was floating as well all with startled expressions on their faces. Then seconds later they were all slammed to the ground along with the rest of the furniture in the room, resulting in an almighty crash. The teacher hurried out of the room and Cisco got to his feet and practically threw himself out the door. Just like earlier in the day everyone started to run in all directions, trying to get away from the attack.

Brady wiggled out beside Cisco and pointed down the hallway. "Her! Leah! I think it's her!" He started to run towards her as she stood in the corner of the hallway, eyes wide and holding her hands to her chest. "Leah!"

Leah turned towards Brady and held her hands out towards him, as if warning him to stay away.

"Brady! Wait!" Caitlin called after him.

Cadence and Barry hurried after him and the three were suddenly lifted into the air once more. Cisco looked down as Leah lifted her hands, turning her head away, and the three lifted higher off the ground before she turned and ran, allowing the three to drop again.

"Are you guys okay?" Cisco hurried over to Barry and grasped his arm, pulling him to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Barry replied.

"Looks like we know who the ghost is," Cadence added. She nodded her thanks to Caitlin as she helped her up.

"What sort of powers was that?" Caitlin asked. "She didn't even touch them."

"Invisibility, maybe," Jay remarked, rubbing his chin. "A long tethered grasp that no one else can see."

"But Barry can perceive things really fast," Ryder reminded them. "Wouldn't that mean he'd be able to see it?"

"Different frequencies. Just because something is invisible it doesn't necessarily mean that it's moving at a certain speed. Down to the elemental level things are working different, and if its meta related…chances are it's been enhanced with the explosion."

"We have to find her before she hurts someone," Caitlin said.

Barry pulled out his cell phone as it started to ring. His mouth dropped open when he read the text. "Patty's been taken by Sand Demon. She and Joe had just released the original Eddie Slick but, I guess hid doppelganger found him. We have to go."

"And leave this little girl to suffer like this?" Cadence asked. She shook her head. "I know what it's like to suddenly develop powers, to be scared by them. I can handle this. You go and help Patty. I'll be there as soon as I can to help."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Promise."

The group then split up; Barry took Jay and Caitlin to STAR Labs while Ryder, Cisco, and Brady stuck with Cadence. Cadence lead the way as they raced after Leah. The little girl certainly knew her way around the school, every few minutes she would duck around a corner and run through a classroom, throwing desks and chairs at them as they went. At one point Cisco started to poke his head around the corner but suddenly jerked his head back as a desk went flying by. It moved so closely that Cisco felt it scrape against his nose, the wind pushing his hair aside.

"Cisco, are you okay?" Ryder asked him.

"For real? That girl always gave me a nose job! Almost messed up this masterpiece." Cisco moved his hand around his face. "Not cool, man." He reached out to push Ryder's hand off his shoulder then stopped, gasping as everything suddenly faded around them.

Things flashed and flickered until everything became still, but with a gray hue. Cisco slowly turned around, noticing he was still in the school. No. It wasn't the school, it was a hospital. He could hear cries of pain, screaming. Slowly walking down the hallway, Cisco followed the screams. He looked up as an orderly and a doctor ran by.

"I'm in a hospital," he whispered.

Cisco continued to follow the frantic motions until he reached an room where the doors hung open. He walked inside and glanced at the bed, gasping when he saw a little girl who couldn't be older than eight laying in the bed. Her eyes were closed but she continued to thrash back and forth, screams coming out of her mouth. The doctors raced around her, barking orders, one calling out numbers as the seconds passed.

"103, 104, 105…her body temperature's rising too high."

"Be prepared, any higher and there's brain injury."

Cisco gasped and stepped back a few paces, bumping into something solid. He turned and gasped once more, finding Harrison standing behind him.

"Cisco!" Opening his eyes, Cisco found Ryder grasping hard onto his shoulders, keeping him steady as his knees buckled underneath him. "Cisco, are you okay? What's going on?"

With his shoulder, Cisco brushed Ryder's hands away. Afraid to touch him again. "I'm fine. Just a close call, you know? C'mon." He pushed past Ryder and continued after Cadence and Brady, who still followed the girl out onto the playground. He thought it was a good place to go, not many other things to throw around. But he was wrong.

Leah stopped running and turned back to the group, tears falling down her cheeks. "Stop it! Leave me alone!"

"Leah, we don't want to hurt you," Cadence said, holding up her hands. Brady nodded at her side. "My son, Brady, he's been saying that tings have been happening around here. It's because of you, isn't it?"

Leah gulped down mouthfuls of air but didn't reply.

"I know things are scary for you. I know that having powers is so scary and lonely, but we're not going to hurt you. We just want to get you somewhere safe."

"Back to your mom and dad," Brady added.

"My mom and dad will be scared," Leah said. She continued to take small steps backwards, away from the group. "They're afraid of the metahumans. We moved from Gotham because they were afraid. They're afraid of me!"

"Do they know you have powers?" Cisco asked.

Leah swallowed hard and shook her head. Another sob escaped her lips.

"So how do you know they won't still love you?"

With her distracted, Cisco slowly pulled out his cell phone and turned it to its side. He pulled up the security camera around the school and pointed them towards the playground. There might not have been much he could do physically, but at least he could do this. Survey the area and see what could be used to their advantage. So far Leah he noticed Leah wouldn't use her powers unless her back was clear.

"That's it…" Cisco whispered. "We have to back her into a corner."

Ryder nodded.

"Leah, let us help you." Cadence took another step forward. Leah screamed and brought up her hands. This time the swings ripped apart from the swing set and shot towards Cadence. She bent out of the way of one, turning back in time to find the chain whipping back towards her. Brady reached out his hand and grabbed onto his mother's arm, using his powers to let the swing phase through the two of them. Then he darted forward and did a somersault, picking up rocks off the ground. As another swing came towards them he lifted his slingshot and knocked it out of the air with a blast of ammo.

With the last two swings coming for them Cadence melted one with a blast of fire then teleported out of the way. She appeared near Leah, causing her to scream and hold her hands out once more. Cadence struggled to move her arms and legs as she was lifted into the air once more.

"Cade, teleport!" Ryder called to her.

"Don't you think I would if I could?" She called back, twisting back and forth.

"It doesn't make sense," Cisco said, continuing to look through the security feed. He looked at the field form all sides. "She's not even touching them it's just like there's…" He and Ryder looked at each other. "No gravity," they said in unison.

"She's not using invisible hands to touch them, she's putting them in Zero Gravity," Ryder said.

"Which, by the way, isn't a terribly bad name," Cisco admitted.

"Cisco!" Cadence cried.

"I'm on it, I'm on it! She has a small range of motion to reduce the gravity. She needs to have space behind her to be able to continue using her powers. Back her into a corner and her field becomes much smaller."

Leah's hands shook with the effort of her powers and Cadence fell back to the ground once more. Brady hurried towards her and pulled his slingshot out once more, pointing it towards Leah. He then faltered when he saw her still crying, pulling her arms into her chest as she continued to walk backwards.

Cadence held up her hand towards Cisco and Ryder, then ruffled Brady's hair, before walking over to her. Leah squealed and held out her hands towards Cadence. Her eyes widened when nothing happened and she brought her hands back once more. She walked herself into the corner of the fence and brought her hands around her knees, crouching low to the ground.

"Don't hurt me," she whimpered.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Cadence said. She knelt down in front of Leah and pressed a hand to her chest. "I promise. I just want to talk. You see Brady over there?" Leah nodded but didn't open her eyes. "I'm his mommy, I'm not going to hurt his friend." It took a few seconds for Leah to open her eyes. "I know how it would feel if he got hurt, I don't want your parents to be afraid, too."

"They're afraid of me," Leah whispered.

"No, they love you. And they're always going to love you, even if you have your powers. They'll want to help." Cadence swallowed hard. "I understand what it's like. I got my powers when I was young and at the beginning I was scared. But now, I know how to control them. I've met a lot of people that can help. And Brady, he has powers too, but I still love him and I'm not going to push him away."

"I'm scared," Leah repeated.

"I know, sweetie. I know. But I'm going to help you. My friends, they're going to help you too. You see, we work with The Flash."

"The Flash?"

Cadence nodded. "Mhm. He's one of our best friends. And I'll let you in on a secret. I can trust you with my secret right? That I have powers?" Leah nodded. Cadence smiled and leaned closer to her. "What if I told you I was Flare?"

"Flare?" Leah whispered.

Cadence nodded and held her hand out to the little girl, showing the fire that surrounded her hand. She let it dance around her fingers like a magic trick before snuffing it out again. "But I need you to keep that secret, okay? You can't let anyone else know." Leah nodded. Cadence held out her hand. "So what do you say we help you figure out what's going on?" Leah shied away from her hand for a moment then placed it in Cadence's. Cadence smiled and brought Leah into her arms in a tight hug, only letting go when the girl stopped trembling.

"Good job, Cade," Cisco said when she joined them again.

Now if only _he_ could stop shaking.

* * *

Barry held his breath as he arrived at the abandoned warehouse. It had taken some time since Joe had left him know about Patty's disappearance due to Sand Demon and he, Jay, and Caitlin worked hard to find her as soon as they got to STAR Labs. And it had taken a lot until Caitlin figured out a way to track him down, using the same parameters of the warehouse that he had set on fire before.

Then he and Jay had come up with a plan. But now he wasn't sure how well it was going to work. Everything always seemed easy when it was a plan being laid out. Putting it into execution was something entirely different. Still, he couldn't help but feel good about it once he finally put his worries aside and accepted Jay, calling each other Flash as if to prove it. Now he waited for the signal for himself to go out. Around the wall he crouched behind he could hear Sand Demon continuing to walk around without a care in the world. He could also hear Patty's grunts as she tried to wiggle out of her restraints—Barry had seen it when he first arrived in the warehouse.

"Okay, I've got eyes on you," Caitlin said into his Comm. Link. "Go!"

Barry nodded and raced across the room then crouched down once more as Jay walked out into the open. Sand Demon turned around and widened his eyes at Jay. "I thought you were dead," he growled.

"You were wrong," Jay replied in a deep, heroic voice. "Like usual." He glanced at Patty then back to Sand Demon, starting to pace. Barry watched, silently urging him to go. The further away he moved from Patty, the better their plan was. Then they could capture him and figure out what it was that Zoom was planning on.

 _He said he wanted to kill me himself,_ Barry thought. _So he's not going to let Sand Demon do it for him,_ he reasoned. _If we can get him, we can figure out what we're up against._

"Let the girl go," Jay declared.

Sand Demon shrugged and wafted his arms towards Patty. She continued to struggle against her binds, wincing as bits of sand flew off his arms, flicking her in the face and eyes. "Have at it." Sand Demon's smile faded and a crazed look replaced it. He took confident steps towards Jay, who stepped back. "Unless you want her death on your hands. I don't think you're fast enough to save her." With that he started to throw a few punches. Jay reacted as quickly as he could, deflecting a few with his arms, and quick jerks of his head from side to side. But Sand Demon continued to be a formidable foe, stricking him hard in the face and chest with punches of massive sand fists.

Sand Demon chuckled as he continued to rain blows upon Jay, sending a solid hit to the jaw that knocked him onto his back. "A bit slower here, aren't you Flash?" Jay coughed, blowing sand out of his mouth and struggled to get back to his feet. Sand Demon reached down and grabbed Jay around the collar, hefting him to his feet. Jay's helmet flipped off his head and clattered to the ground. "You don't have your speed do you?"

"Go, Barry! Go!" Caitlin cried.

Barry nodded. He raced out from behind the wall and over to Patty. He watched as her eyes moved towards him in slow motion, pleading, begging for him to save her. Even though he knew she couldn't see him, Barry nodded back. His eyes darted down to an object at the bottom of her seat and quickly deduced it was a bomb. Much like what had happened when Caitlin was held hostage by Captain Cold and HeatWave. _An easy way to get rid of the hostage,_ Barry thought. _With no consequences._

He grabbed Patty out of her restraints and moved away just as there was an implosion from the bomb beneath her. The two flew through the air, riding the shockwave and Barry landed hard on the ground, groaning as he felt to his back. He got back to his feet as Sand Demon turned to face him.

"Nice try, Slick!" He cried. "But you're just not fast enough."

"Must be my lucky day," Sand Demon taunted. "Zoom sent me here to kill you. Now I can kill two flashes before I go home." He turned around and shot out a sand covered arm, it stretching out and grasping Jay around the throat. He gasped in surprise and brought up a hand, punching and flailing at the hand wrapped around him.

"Jay!" Barry and Caitlin cried at the same time.

He hesitated, trying to figure out what to do. If he went after Sand Demon directly he would just turn use another fist to grab him. Waving air in his direction wouldn't help much either. He had no choice but to go with the original plan, to do what Jay suggested but he wasn't sure he could do. But he couldn't hesitate anymore; Barry had to make that decision.

Barry ran around and around and around, creating lighting in the room as he went. Finally, when he moved fast enough, he swung his arm forward and with a scream of effort, threw lightning into Sand Demon. Sand Demon's eyes widened as he was struck, seconds before turning into glass and flew back against the ground.

Barry watched in horror as Slick crashed to the ground, shattering into a thousand pieces.

 _No._

Barry's jaw dropped, a choking sound escaping his lips. He had wanted to stop Sand Demon…wanted to save Patty, wanted to capture him, but didn't want to kill him. He hadn't meant to…now information about Zoom was gone. Just like that.

Just like dust.

Barry felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Jay nodding at him.

"You did good, Kid."

* * *

 **A/N:** You know what? I had a lot of fun thinking up/writing this chapter. Though I know there's a distinct lack of Harrison and Tess in the story so far and will remedy that with the next chapter.

Also, I'm going to try and amp up the pacing a bit more. It's chapter 12 and we're only at episode 2 still (though that's technically episodes 2 and 3). I'm not saying I'm going to race through the episodes, but things will move a bit faster. Some episodes I may skip if it doesn't help the story much but it'll probably be mentioned in a passing paragraph or explained in some other way, like how Linda Park appears in this story but didn't in _Flash Fire_ and _Crossfire._

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** The rest of the Rogues are going to be addressed soon, especially Captain Cold. Them getting powers or not really does have to go with them becoming 'redeemed' in a sense for Legends.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you so much. Your reviews are always motivating.

 **Ethan:** Oliver reading a book would either be him reading about weaponry or be a bit worrying as it would mean things are okay. And in Oliver's world things are never okay. The suits are Cisco's babies, I don't think he finds much logic when he's worrying over them. Lol. As for Mick and Snart, things will be worked on them soon.

 **Babyj:** I am working on the pacing. I hope things were faster in this one. I feel it was really dialogue based and didn't go much into their thoughts, but I think there was a good balance as the chapter went on. I'm glad you like that he has her questioning it, it's not going to be the last of that thought. I'll be sure to move BarryCade on a bit faster, too. I'm sure a lot of people are becoming impatient. ;)

 **Yummers:** More BarryCade coming in soon, I know you've been wondering. Though maybe not in a way you'd expect.

 **Guest:** You'll have to see to find out.

 **Spinquin142:** I wasn't sure how it would work out but I'm glad it worked out well for you to like it. His wanting to be the only one to take down Barry does have an obsessive quality to it. So maybe he's a bit more deranged than he had been on the show? I hope the rest of the plot for Mick/the original plot works out in a way you like.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	13. Good vs Evil

**Veronica Viewer:** Hey! Thanks for the review! I'm glad that you're super happy with the story. I hope the wait wasn't too long for you. Buuut, you just needed to wait one more chapter for BarryCade (aka this one) so I hope the wait was worth it. ;)

* * *

 **.:13:.**

* * *

The streets of Central City were empty, enough so that Barry's gasps for air echoed. Zoom's taloned grasp tightened around his neck. The evil speedster's breathing was a horrific rumble as he pulled Barry close to him. Close enough for the stale, rancid breath to swirl around Barry's face, to shoot down his nose and throat, choking him even further. Close enough so that as Barry looked into the eye pieces of Zoom's mask he saw nothing but wild, crazy green eyes glaring back at him.

A strangled 'ulp' sound escaped Barry's lips. His fingers fluttered at his sides, arms pressed down against his body. Too tired to lift and defend himself against the speedster.

Cadence came to a stop in the street, sending pebbles scattering in all directions. She looked up at Zoom, watching as he held Barry over the side of the tall building. The chase had moved them through most of Central City, starting from STAR Labs and going all the way to the harbor district, where the buildings were tall but came few and far between. Even from where she stood she could hear the bell of a boat coming into the harbor, the occupants not knowing the danger they were about to put themselves into, not knowing how the city's hero was currently dangling above the ground.

Gasping for air, having taken a lot of effort and energy to come back from her own encounter with Zoom she scanned the area around her. It took a few moments for her to figure out the path she needed to take, but not too long before she bounded over to a nearby fire escape where with grace and speed she quickly pulled herself up.

Barry feebly kicked his legs as Zoom slowly bent his arm, bringing Barry's face even closer to his. He had to break free. Had to do anything that would allow himself a second to get the upper hand. But then his eyes widened as pain erupted through his stomach. It was the worst, most blinding pain he had ever felt as Zoom's claws raked through his sweater and into his skin, peeling back layer upon layer. " _Aaaagghhhh!"_

Clenching his jaws together, Barry rapidly sucked in shallow breaths. His body turned cold as sweat poured down his forehead. All of the energy he had used to fight off Zoom had been depleted and here Zoom was, standing in front of him as if he had only just gotten winded for a few seconds. He truly was faster, truly was strong, and knew how to defeat The Flash. Now he was just biding his time before going in for the kill.

Hearing Barry's anguished scream Cadence moved faster as she reached the roof of the building. She started to run, coming to the ledge and leapt off, pointing herself towards the building next to her. It was a little taller than the one she had been on before, but with her timed push and knowing to jump up rather than out, she angled herself to grab onto the ledge of the roof. With a grunt of strength, she lifted herself up and continued to climb higher and higher, leaping and running from roof to roof until she came adjacent to the one Zoom as holding Barry over.

Zoom turned her way, caught her eye. There was an evil glint that she couldn't miss.

Zoom was going to throw him.

Barry had the time to see the look in Zoom's eye, to recognize his thought process before he felt himself falling rapidly. Wind whistled around him, cold air sweeping him down as he fell. Then his arm jerked up over his head as something clamped down on his wrist. Barry came to a sudden stop, pain erupting in his shoulder.

 _It's better than the pain of hitting the ground,_ he reminded himself.

Tilting is head, Barry looked up to find Cadence holding his wrist in a vice grip the other holding onto a flag pole that protruded from the side of the building. Her knuckles were white as she dug her fingertips into his skin to deepen her grasp. She had to have leapt across the street from the building across the street at just the right time to grab him from the air. Despite the strain that shuddered through her body Cadence managed to give Barry a smile.

"Good timing," Barry said.

"Not all of us are slow," she replied.

Barry twisted around to see if he could find Zoom but there was no one in sight. Cadence shifted her grip on Barry's hand, sweat starting to loosen her grip on him. That, combined with the force of trying to hold the two of them up was starting to become increasingly difficult. She closed her eyes, taking in a sharp breath between clenched teeth.

"Hate to tell you this, Tholly, but for someone so lanky, you're _really_ heavy."

"I'll worry about working out more later. We need to get out of here," Barry said.

Cadence lifted her chin and nodded over to the fire escape that sat nearby. "If I swing you over there you think you can grab it?" She groaned as Barry started to slip out of her fingers. "Don't bother answering, you don't really have a choice."

Slowly, Barry helped Cadence as he shimmied his arm up into her hand, keeping their sweating palms from loosening their grip. Then Cadence slowly swung her arm back and forth until they created enough momentum that she could throw Barry forward. When she let go he turned, twisting his body so that his front faced the fire escape and grabbed onto the ladder.

He let out a sigh of relief, hugging his body close to the bars before lowering himself down. Then he looked up in time to find Cadence leap onto the ladder above him. The two quickly climbed back to the ground.

"C'mon, we have to get out of here before he gets back." Barry led the way through the streets at a light jog. Ever sound that came around them he would jerk his head around o determine where it was coming from. Zoom was so fast he could've hit Barry in the back of the head with a punch and be halfway to China before Barry could even blink.

Getting caught off-guard now was not something they needed.

"We need to get out of the streets, Barry," Cadence said, keeping up with his slow pace. "Otherwise, we're sitting ducks."

"You're right." He nodded and turned, immediately going over to the nearby stores and pulling on the handles. Most of them were locked, until they finally managed to find one that was open. How ironic it being one of the biggest finance buildings in the city. "There are so many people that want to rob banks around here, they should just come in here and steal information they leave lying around."

"May as well wave a neon sign, too," Cadence agreed.

They continued through the building coming up to a long hallway with a large door at the end. The silence that stretched around them started to press in on all sides. Barry could feel his paranoia starting to rise, the feeling they were being watched. It couldn't be safe. They had to get out. Suddenly Barry was blinded as the lights flipped on. The darkness that had been their cover was gone; they were sitting ducks. Barry started to say something but stopped when there was a gust of wind and Zoom suddenly appeared at the end of the hall.

He stood stock still, hands clenched at his sides, nearly akimbo. Zoom didn't say anything, just glared at the two. Barry's jaw dropped and he struggled to make a sound, but nothing came out. He felt Cadence's hand brush against his arm, reaching out towards him and he reached out, grabbing onto it. Zoom took a step towards them, then another then another. For every step he took forward Barry and Cadence would take one back. Until Zoom was moving at a steady, walking pace.

"Go," Barry said, starting to back away.

"Now," Cadence said.

At the same time they rapidly backed away before turning around and sprinted up the hall as fast as they could. Their held hands swung between them as they continued to run, kicking up their feet as they went. No matter how fast they ran, Zoom's steady walking pace was faster. Once they turned a corner and started down another hallway, one glance over their shoulders proved Zoom's speed as he continued to keep pace with them.

Finally Barry and Cadence ducked into a room and slammed the door shut behind them. The two rested their backs against it, sliding down to the floor. Barry tilted his head back against the door and let out a long breath.

 _"Okay, I think you're done."_

Barry closed his eyes as he heard mechanics shifting and sliding around, to move everything back to its original place. He used his free hand to grab the bottom of his shirt to wipe sweat off his forehead then rapidly pulled it from his chest to fan himself. He opened his eyes to find Oliver Queen standing across the room from him and Cadence, having come from the control room where he had been watching them.

"So," Barry finally said. "You've done a lot of work since the last time we were here."

Oliver smiled as he came to a stop. "There's always work to be done, training to do. I couldn't have this place to use as a resource and just have it sitting there." He turned his gaze around the room for a few moments. "So...I might've thrown some more of my investments into it."

"What investments?" Cadence asked, finally able to speak once more.

Oliver just smiled at her and reached out his hand to pull Barry to his feet. Barry looked down, finally noticing that he and Cadence were still holding hands, and quickly pulled it back, blushing. "Oh! Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Cadence grinned mischievously and stood up. "That's the most action I've gotten in a long time. She made a show of batting her eyelashes then nudged his arm with hers. "I've got bask in moments like these."

Oliver gave the two a knowing smile before changing the subject back to their training. "And now you know why I'm always saying that you need to take some time to look things over, case the area, and…?"

"And don't rush." Barry completed Oliver's advice.

Oliver nodded.

"We brought you here," Barry noticed Oliver's look and quickly corrected himself, " _I_ brought you here to train Brady at the Superhero Fight Club. Not us." He couldn't get over how real everything felt. Zoom wasn't real, that Central City wasn't real, being stabbed in the stomach wasn't real. Oliver certainly had put in a lot of work and money into making sure the technology was up to date.

"Well, it's your lucky day; I got a two for one deal." Oliver started to turn away then turned back, giving Barry a pointed look. "And we're _not_ calling it the Superhero Fight Club."

Barry smiled back, running his hands through his hair as he followed Oliver up to the control room where their results were going to be printed. He dropped down into one of the empty chairs and looked over as Brady looked away from his tablet and up at his mother and friend.

"You guys did a good job," he said to them. "For not being able to use your powers."

"You have to learn how to fight your battles without powers," Oliver explained. "Otherwise you'll rely on them too much to be able to think with a clear head when the time comes." He stood by a large computer, frowning as he looked over the results. "Though with what you've been telling me about this Zoom…I honestly wonder what this training'll do. He's incredibly fast judging on these readings."

"And incredibly strong," Cadence agreed. "He's able to pick us up and throw us like we're a bunch of rag dolls. Barry's speed can't match and it and it's like my fire attacks doesn't do anything to even try to slow him down. Most of the time the smoke inhalation does even a _little_ bit, but if his speed is that fast, his healing must be off the charts."

"The body can do some strange things," Oliver commented. He brought up his hand and rested it on his side, where he had been stabbed fighting Ra's al Guhl.

Barry nodded. He was glad Oliver was talking about it, even a little bit. With what he had been explained to, there was so much with the League of Assassins he didn't understand. Especially what it meant now that he was the Ra's al Guhl and presided over those that followed him. But there was only so much they could catch each other up on when they were in each other's company. They had too much going on to consistently be in contact.

"Why do I suddenly feel like I'm being lectured by my dad?" Cadence asked. She paused, thinking for a minute. "Actually, I don't know what that feels like. My dad spoiled me and Harrison rarely ever gets mad."

"I'm just making sure you understand the seriousness of the situation," Oliver said. He turned from the computer. "You're going to have to get faster, Barry."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Barry brought his hands up and rested them atop his head, letting out a log breath through his nose. Only because he knew it was the only situation. He had to go fast, much faster than he ever thought possible if he would even come close to Zoom's speed. Then there was trying to figure out the breaches and how he was getting metahumans from other Earths to theirs. "I don't know if I can."

"You can do it, Barry," Brady said helpfully. "If there's anyone that's going to stop Zoom, it's you."

Cadence smiled. She tilted her head towards her son. "You've got his stamp of approval."

"I mean, he wants to kill you and everything. So if you die _that's_ not going to be good."

Oliver smiled in amusement as Cadence shook her head and said, "And clearly he doesn't know when to stop talking." She reached out and placed her hand on Oliver's shoulder. "Don't be surprised if you suddenly find people showing up here for pictures. Chances are Conner's going to be hearing about this in a few days."

"Sorry? Who's Conner?"

"Conner Hawke," Brady explained. "My best friend."

Barry expected Oliver to brush off the comment, or to say something about having to keep the location and functions of the buildings a secret. It was hard enough having to keep it a secret from Caitlin and Cisco, but Oliver—after Barry ran to Starling City And forcibly took him there—made Barry swear on his life—with an arrow to his throat—that he wouldn't tell them about it. And considering Barry still felt his back muscles seize and twinge every now and then from the last time he had been shot by a couple of arrows. But instead he saw Oliver stumble for a second before turning to Cadence, looking so tensely at her that she leaned away from him.

"Conner Hawke?" He repeated. "Is he Brady's age?"

"Yeah," Cadence said slowly. "Just about nine or ten years old. I think his birthday is close." She looked at Brady for clarification, who nodded. "Why?"

Oliver took a deep breath then shook his head. "Nothing." His eyes shifted. "The company you keep is as important as the work we're doing for our cities. I just wanted to be sure that Conner is someone Brady would want to have around."

"You don't plan on shoving an arrow through him do you?" Cadence asked.

"No." Oliver shot a smirk her way. "Not today." Then he turned to Brady and his face softened. "So, I heard that you want to get some practice in with your sharp shooting." Brady nodded, eyeing Oliver warily. Oliver must've noticed his look for he lowered himself down to Brady's level and looked him in the eye. "Back when we were faced with the Assassination Bureau and the Suicide Squad there were a lot of hard choices to make. I made a choice that you didn't agree with and you stood up to me about it. If that's not someone who has strength of character easily translated into his powers, I don't know what is."

Brady then smiled at the praise and followed Oliver out of the control room.

Barry waited until the door closed before saying, "Am I the only one that's a _little_ worried that Oliver's going to kill him?"

"If he can even touch him," Cadence reminded him. "Not only that but if he does, I'll capture Oliver myself and use the reward money to throw in his face and torture him for the rest of his life." She sat down and crossed her legs at the knee. "That is if I don't kill him first."

Barry laughed.

"Speaking of, how're you doing?"

"Huh?" Eyebrows coming together, Barry turned from watching Oliver set up the targets Brady would be shooting at and found Cadence staring at him. "What do you mean?"

"With Sand Demon. How're you doing?"

"Oh. That."

Cadence nodded. "Right. That."

Barry sighed. He crossed his arms and thought, trying to come up with the right words. But what _were_ the right words to say. Not only did they lose a link to Zoom but Barry had actually killed someone. It was an accident but he did it. It wasn't the first time, not since Multiplex and that had been an accident, too. Multiplex had grew another arm and grabbed onto Barry's, forcing him to let go until he fell to his death. But this was different. Barry just wanted to slow Sand Demon down enough so that he turned to glass where they'd transport him to STAR Labs to get him to return to normal. Then they'd get the chance to ask him as many questions as they could about Zoom.

But they couldn't do that anymore. All because Barry had thrown lightning at him, turned him to glass, and sent him shattering into a million pieces on the ground. A million pieces that had been a person. He had a direct link to killing— _murdering—_ someone. In a way it was why he had gotten Oliver to the Fight Club. For some peace of mind. Oliver started out his vigilante career killing and torturing everyone he could get his hand on from his list. Barry had been the one to start talking sense into Oliver about the torture he gave to his enemies. He was proud to see that Oliver had turned a new leaf, but to suddenly become the one to do it.

And he remembered the desperation and anger he felt when throwing that bolt of lightning to kill Sand Demon. How badly he wanted to take him down so that he could protect Patty, Joe, the people of Central City, and he killed someone instead. The gut-wrenching feeling of horror continued to roll through him when he thought he had a minute alone, it disrupted his sleep and flashed before his eyes.

Jay had said he'd done a good job but he wasn't so sure.

"If it helps, I know how you feel," Cadence continued through Barry's silence. "Even if it was an accident, even if in no way it was your fault, you think it is. And it's something you think you can forget about as time goes on but you can't." She started to wring her hands together. "It becomes permanently engrained. You start to wonder what the rest of their lives would've been like? What their life actually _was_ whether or not they were good or bad people." Reaching up, she tucked her hair behind her ear. "That _constantly_ went through my head when I was working with the Assassination Bureau, it's part of the reason why I worked hard in my studies. To give back. It's why I decided to take the job at the CCPD…being able to give answers or a sort of justice to those that have passed…it's a way to make amends. And while I can do that I still know it'll never be enough.

"And you're going to start questioning whether or not it was worth it. Whether or not you're a good person because of it."

She hit the nail on the head and Barry couldn't keep it from his face. Couldn't keep it from his head. Couldn't keep it quiet anymore. "I'm supposed to be a hero to Central City," he said.

"You are," Cadence insisted.

"But I wanted to go about it a different way. I wanted to be different from Oliver, to be a beacon of hope for this city so I didn't give in to maiming and torturing and killing people. That was the _last_ thing I wanted because I know how that feels!" He slapped his hands against his thighs before leaning forward and resting his face in his hands. He took a deep breath. "I…I wanted to be like my dad. No matter the people that came into his office, good or bad, he would do his best to help them. Because they were still people. I wanted to do the same thing, it's why I would take the metas to Iron Heights instead of…instead of taking them down as I knew I could…and yet Zoom and Eobard, they have no problems doing it. I don't want to be like them."

"You're not. " Cadence moved closer to Barry and reached out, grabbing his hands. "But you're a good person, Barry. You want to do nothing but make sure everyone in your life is safe. I don't know anyone else that can do that." She thought for a moment. "Maybe except Oliver. But he can be really persuasive when he wants to be, considering he's now the _Green_ Arrow and all."

Barry found himself chuckling.

"If you continue to keep things in like that it's not going to help. Trust me, I could write a book on it. Even if you can't talk to me about it, I'd suggest talking to him. He probably deals with the same thing."

"I just wish I knew what to do," Barry said.

Cadence smiled and pulled her hands from his. She ran her fingers through his hair before resting her hand on the back of his head. She leaned in and rested her forehead against his, giving him a warm smile. Barry looked into her eyes, his eyebrows furrowing when he noticed something strange in them; sadness, guilt, he wasn't quite sure.

"Just believe in yourself, Barry. I do."

* * *

"Ms. Morgan, we're ready for you."

Tess looked up from her pamphlet of papers and nodded. With a smile, she closed her pocket book, made sure her pantsuit was in place, and followed the security personnel out from the back room and to the conference room that was holding one of the biggest, yet most secret meeting of the political figures of Central City. There was to be no press involved but once even a little inkling of it got out, it would run over every news media outlet known to man.

Tess just hoped she would be able to soften the blow a little, maybe even change some minds. She smiled to the security personnel as she was finally brought into the conference room and stood before Mayor Anthony Bellows, the five members of the city council, and the police chief, Matthew Paulson. They all watched her as she moved through the doorway and to the last seat set up at the end of the table. It was an impromptu meeting but was to be a very serious one.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Morgan," Mayor Bellows greeted her. He stood up from his seat and held out his hand, shaking hers firmly. "We're glad you were able to meet with us on such short notice."

"Thank you for asking me to speak," Tess replied. She shook everyone else's hand before taking Mayor Bellows's offer to sit down. "This is something that has really become a big part of my life as of late."

Chief Paulson nodded. "With your background in behavioral sciences this is something that we thought you would be a good person to choose to give an idea of the other side of the meta-human problem this city is having."

Tess tried not to wince at the word. Not just because of her daughter being one of those that saved Central City on nearly a daily basis, but by the dismissive tone of Chief Paulson's voice. Not that she blamed him. There were those who were starting to become so used to the meta-human presence that they made jokes about it all the time or rolled their eyes and wanted to know when they would go away.

"I'm sorry," she finally said. "But Flash and Flare are some of the biggest roles we have in the protection of Central City. How can you say we have a meta-human problem?"

"Now that there are those who continue to show up with new powers by the day, we have to think of the big picture," Chief Paulson insisted. He cleared his throat, sitting up in his seat. "Through CSI Barry Allen as well as Detective Joe West's meta-human task force we've all started to understand the threat of the metas. Iron Heights continues to deal with constant construction to add new cells specifically for metahumans and the city doesn't have that much money to budget. Not to mention once that inevitably falls apart—"

"Iron Height is shared by Starling City, what is it that's keep them from giving more money to aid in the construction?" Tess asked. She flipped open her pocketbook to a blank stage and started to take notes on what was being told to her.

"That is something that Mayor Castle and I will be having a conversation about soon," Mayor Bellows replied.

Tess glanced at the city council members but they continued to stay silent. She understood why they were there now, to get the minutes, to make sure everything was recorded, so that there were witnesses. She was going to be fighting a losing battle and she need to work hard to make sure things didn't continue to go south.

"As for what we decided to congregate about today, things would move much smoother if we got straight to the point," Mayor Bellows continued.

"Of course." Tess cleared her throat and gathered her pamphlets together, handing them out. "As you know, before my accident my studies were engrained mostly in behavioral sciences. I have degrees in psychology and psychobiology and I prefer to study humans. Their natures, their habits, understanding what it is that make us humans tick. Upon my return to Central City that has become even more so of my focus."

"And what, may I ask, have you found out?" Mayor Bellows pressed.

Tess ignored his question, continuing to move forward with her explanation. But she did it all with a smile that proved she knew what she was talking about and was going to use that to her advantage. "Continuing with my studies since my return to Central City I've changed my topics more towards meta-humans and how they may or may not differ to those that consider themselves 'normal'."

"Honestly, I find being 'normal' to be vastly overrated," Harrison stated as he came through the back door of the conference room. Mayor Bellows's eyebrows came together as Harrison sauntered to the table, hands in the pockets of his suit. "But what is 'normal' really?" He held out his hand towards the men and women around the table. "Harrison Wells, nice to meet you."

"We all know who you are, Harrison," Mayor Bellows commented stiffly.

Harrison pulled his hand back, sliding it into his pocket once more. "Oh, do you?"

"CEO and creator of STAR Labs."

"Actually, I'm just the CEO. I would give the title of creator to my lovely wife, Tess over there. But that's neither here nor there. It's not why we've decided to meet up." Harrison's eyebrows twitched upwards. "We're here to talk about the meta-humans that you feel are destroying our city. Something that you managed to neglect talking about during your Flash Day speech. Yes, the both of us were there."

Tess clasped her hands together on the table. "If you'd look through the pamphlets I've handed out you'd see over the past six or seven months I've been studying each of the meta-humans that have show themselves as well as going back to the ones that had been encountered by The Flash before. And through my studies it has been shown that there is no reason to believe that those that carry the metahuman gene are a threat to this city."

"What can you say about Captain Cold and HeatWave?" Chief Paulson demanded. "They're two metahumans that we haven't been able to catch no matter how many times they continue to show their faces through our city."

"Technically, they're not metahumans," Harrison pointed out. He reached out and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "They're people who have managed to get metahuman like powers due to the heat and cold guns that are in their possession. Of which have been created from some of the highest grade of technology."

Tess glanced at her husband with a pointed look. One she had used many times before. Despite how much she enjoyed his passion for life and the sciences, sometimes he managed to become a big smug and go a bit too far. In this case it wasn't going to help much, not when they were giving their reasons to explain why metahumans deserved their full rights.

"Which goes on to prove the point I'm making," Tess spoke up. "Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, or as we know them as, Captain Cold and HeatWave, are criminals that Central City has been focusing on for years. However, it should be noted that they both have a history of hardships. Leonard Snart has a background of child abuse and child neglect brought on by the hands of his father. However, the system had failed him as no matter how many times the police had been called to their house due to suspicions of abuse. Neither he nor Lisa had been removed and eventually that caused him to lead a life of crime. Mick Rory, while it hasn't been confirmed, potentially had an abusive father as well. But his biggest vice was his pyromania, of which he developed at a young age, his obsession soon causing him to light his house on fire and watch as his family burned. Maybe to take down the father that had been abusing him for so long?"

Tess started to pace back and forth. "Mick was then brought into juvenile custody, but not before taking a psychological exam. Snart as well. Snart passed with flying colors however Mick was deemed to be psychotic. Their actions against the CCPD and the Flash have proven that as he tends to go along with Snart's methodical nature due to finding a sense of entertainment in their sprees. Much like he had when he was found watching his family and house burn to the ground. But what about the other meta-humans that have come about? Some have wanted nothing but revenge for the ways they've been mistreated? But does that make them bad people?"

"Ms. Morgan with all due respect if we went down a checklist of every metahuman and their upbringing we'd be here for days," Chief Paulson pointed out.

"That's why I've taken the liberty of doing it for you."

Harrison smiled. "Yes, you see we've compiled a sort of database of metahumans that have come about. Call me a masochist but due to the metahumans being a direct result of the scientific and technological advancements I had been trying to make, I like to be a part of what is going on in this city. Yes, Tess and I have already worked this out and her results may surprise you, or may not as it seems you've already drawn your own conclusions."

"My conclusions from these months of studies is that the powers don't make the metahuman evil, it's the choices they make once getting those powers that do. What about the well meaning parents who suddenly receive powers and see it as a way to improve their family life? A meta who can control and create water? No need for a water bill anymore, they can live their lives peacefully with their powers. It doesn't mean they'll go out and decide to send a tidal wave throughout the city to wash everyone away. So for those saying everyone who has powers has to tell everyone what about those that are mentally ill? What sort of treatment are they going to get when them being a metahuman is going to get the bigger focus? And what good is it going to do if the metas have to reveal their powers?"

"We'll be able to stop the criminals before they can start!" Chief Paulsen declared. "It's why we have the meta-human task force."

"We have the meta-human task force to take down metas that are using their powers for their dangerous, personal gain!" Tess smacked the back of her hand against her palm to enunciate. "What about all of the others? Those who want to hide it because they think the police will start to track them? What about the little boys and girls that don't want to tell their parents they're developing powers because they think their parents will be afraid? What about those that think they'll be turned into the police? That's what we're showing right? That every meta that comes around is going to be taken in by the police."

"And its reasons like that that we need to come up with a registry for them. Mayor Bellows, the crime rate in Central City will go down once the metahumans are ousted! They'll know we're onto them, they'll know the Flash will find them and they'll stop committing their crimes."

"There's no evidence to prove that," Tess insisted. "Instead you're lumping all metahumans together."

"Mayor Bellows, with all due respect there's no way to prove that the metahumans are the ones who are the most dangerous to the city," Harrison added. He shrugged. "You should know that considering The Flash had saved your life during Flash Day when you presented him with the key to the city."

All three of them started to talk at once before Mayor Bellows finally slapped his hand onto the table. "I've heard enough!" He declared. "Not enough to make my decision but enough for today. Ms. Morgan, Dr. Wells, Chief Paulson you have to know that whatever I decide all I want is what's _best_ for this city and all of its residents. No matter what happens. This is a tough decision to make; there are many steps that need to be taken. I thank you for your time today." With that he turned to leave the conference room, becoming swept up in his security team as he went.

Chief Paulson and the members of the city council followed afterwards.

Tess frowned as Harrison went over and wrapped her up in a warm embrace. "Do you think this is going to work?"

"If there's anyone I know to be persuasive it's you," Harrison said. "I highly doubt that Mayor Bellows will have the information you've compiled and continue to go along with taking away the basic fabric of what makes us human." He let out a sigh, shifting his blue eyes aside. "Nevertheless, we should speak to Barry and the others, to let them know what we've been doing away from STAR Labs these last couple of weeks. Especially to get them prepared for what's to come."

Tess nodded. Still, she couldn't push away the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong. "I think you're right."

* * *

Barry came slowed on the cosmic treadmill, resting his hands on his hips. He gasped for air, taking a step down off the back and reached for his shirt that sat on the arm of the treadmill. Then he walked out and looked at Cisco, Iris, and Caitlin with wide, earnest eyes.

"Well?" He asked.

Caitlin shook her head, leaning away from the control panel. "Well, just because it doesn't look like you've gotten faster yet doesn't mean it's not going to happen."

"Yeah, you've been working really hard today, Bare," Iris pointed out. "You've been running on that treadmill for hours now trying to get faster. You're just tiring yourself out."

That wasn't possible. His healing abilities worked fast enough that fatigue didn't settle in so easily. Not unless he didn't get a lot of sleep. Barry stifled a yawn. Okay, maybe he _was_ working a little too hard. But since Sand Demon…knowing he worked for Zoom… _No._ He couldn't think about that. He had to focus on his speed. He had to get faster.

"What else am I supposed to do?" He asked. "I've got to get fast enough to catch him. He wants to kill me, not just that, but he wants to take my speed. He's already got Jay's. What happens if he gets mine, too? He'll just be even faster, right? And after that? He'll just go to another Earth and do it? If there's a way I can stop him…then I'm going to do it."

"Dude, even _I'm_ telling you to relax," Cisco said. He got up from his seat and grabbed Barry's shoulder. "A dead Barry isn't fun but a dead _tired_ Barry is even worse." He tightened his grip. "Listen, man, you're not alone in this. You know the rest of us are going to do as much as we can to help you out. But unless we can figure out more about these breaches, then stressing isn't going to help?"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Barry asked.

Iris gave him a 'duh' look. " _Relax._ And take your mind off it. Barry, you keep forgetting that being The Flash isn't all of who _you_ are. You're Barry, too, my best friend, and you're starting to lose yourself in this whole thing."

"She's right," Caitlin agreed. "Ever since Sand Demon you've been really throwing yourself into this and so have we to try and keep up. We deserve a break, too."

"Amen to that! And I propose that we go out and get some drinks, right? Or maybe head to the karaoke bar? Oh, I know! We haven't had a Cisco Cinema in a while!" Cisco clapped his hands together. "That's it, it's decided! Cisco Cinema, my place, twenty minutes! I'm expecting you all to be there."

Iris laughed. "Okay, I'm there. Let me just tell Linda that if anything comes up just to text me. Since we worked that Meta-Spider story our boss wants us to work on some more things together."

"That's great, Iris," Caitlin said.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get experience with other journalistic stories and she's getting a break from sports. I call that a win-win." Iris started to leave the Cortex but stopped by Barry, poking him in the shoulder. "I expect to see you at Cisco Cinema, alright? If not, I'm going to send dad after you."

Barry finally managed a small smile. "You mean like how you did the one time I was late past curfew."

"I was worried," Iris defended herself.

"You were jealous that I was studying with Becky Cooper instead of helping you with your science fair project."

"I still won, didn't I?"

"Yeah, with my help." Barry laughed along with Iris as she jostled him on the arm and walked by him. He turned back to Caitlin and Cisco. "I'm guessing I don't have a choice in the matter."

Caitlin shook her head. "Do we ever?" She smiled at Cisco, who turned and raised an eyebrow to her. Then he lifted his fingers and mimed poking himself in the eye before pointing back at her. "I'll text Cade so she knows what's going on."

"No problem. Hey, I'm going to go get some coffee from Jitters and then I'll meet you guys over there okay?" Caitlin nodded and Barry raced over to Jitters. It wasn't a second too soon as he realized he was more tired than he thought. Nearly out of breath as he went up to the counter to place his order. He smiled at the pretty, African-American girl behind the counter, causing her to smile as well, her full lips pulling wide. Her nametag read Kendra.

"Welcome to CC Jitters, what can I get you?" She asked.

"Could I get a Flash to go, please?" Barry asked. He took out his wallet to pay for the order when Kendra stopped him.

"Would you like some Flare with that?"

Barry paused, holding a couple bills in his hand. Despite how light they were, he nearly dropped them. "Huh?"

Kendra lifted her hand and pointed towards the menu above her. Barry lifted his gaze and scanned the menu. There was the advertisement for the coffee that represented him and his heroics. He couldn't help but smile as he looked over it. It was still really cool to have a drink named after him. Then he noticed there was another part of the advertisement, something he hadn't noticed before.

"It's a new addition," she explained. "Add some cinnamon or ginger to your Flash. We call it adding some Flare." She smiled. "Honestly, I think they work really well together. The drink and the two of them out there, saving the city."

Barry slowly nodded. "Yeah..." He moved to the end of the counter to take his order once it was finished brewing. When he retrieved it he took a long sip. He had to admit it; the addition of ginger was really good with the coffee. Then he lowered the coffee and looked at the labeling 'Flash and Flare'.

All of a sudden it was like he had been struck by lightning again. But this time instead of being doused in chemicals and getting new powers, he was seeing everything clearly. How no matter what struggle he came to Cade cheered him on, how she was always there when he needed help in a fight, how they could have honest and open conversations even if they didn't have the same views, how she teased him for his nerdy tendencies but didn't make him feel bad for it either, how she gave advice when he didn't realize he needed it, how they had a lot of fun together and he never got bored when she was around. But most importantly how he could fully be himself with her. Just like when they came off from a particularly good fight against a metahuman.

With that, Barry raced from Jitters to the CCPD. He ran into Patty almost as soon as he walked through the door.

"Barry, hey!" She greeted him.

"Hi, Patty," Barry replied. "Hey have you seen Cade?"

"Yeah, she and I were just working in the morgue. It's so cool to be able to study the bodies like that." Patty paused for a second. "Well, I don't mean it's cool that the person had died, but to find the cause of death from something as small as a sample of blood and DNA, to be able to unravel a mystery like that is just so amazing." She then stopped, noticing Barry's look and started to laugh. "I know, I sound like a crazy person. But that's what happens when you're working in the science field, you get fascinated by some strange things."

"No, yeah, I totally get that," Barry agreed. "I got the same looks when I said I was going into forensic science. But it can be really cool."

"Yeah, uh, we should get together and talk about it sometimes," Patty said. She shifted her blue eyes to the side, as if embarrassed then said, "Or, maybe about the case that we just finished. With Sand Demon. That's what they're calling him now."

"Yeah, I heard. And, yeah, that'd be cool. I'll catch you later, okay?"

"Okay. See you, Barry."

"Bye." Barry went to Cadence's office and knocked on the doorframe before going inside. He made sure to close the door behind him. "Hey."

"Hey," Cadence replied, tossing a pair of gloves into the trash can before spraying a can or air freshener around the room. "Don't get me wrong, I think Patty's cool. But I also think she has a strange obsession with dead bodies. I haven't seen anyone get so excited before." She sat down in her chair and picked up her phone to read her text message. Then she glanced at Barry. "Until you got here, I mean."

"I, uh—"

"I don't mean like that, I just meant where's the fire?" She laughed at her own joke. Barry walked up to her desk and set the coffee cup down. She reached out and grabbed it, quickly reading the label. "Is this supposed to tell me something other than the fact that I'm starting to get why you grin like a loon when someone orders one of these?"

"It's a new promo they have at Jitters," Barry explained. "Where if you order a Flash you can add some Flare to it."

Cadence smiled. "That's cute. If you make it an iced drink do they call it adding a Snart?"

"No."

"I mean, I'm just saying that Snart seems to have a bit of an unhealthy attachment to you."

"Cade." Barry couldn't help but laugh. "That's not what I'm trying to say."

"Sorry. Sorry, go ahead."

Barry licked his lips and moved to sit on the edge of her desk. "With everything that's been going on with Zoom and these other metas and what happened with Ronnie and Eddie there's a lot that I think about. I think about my future and what it means to be The Flash. And how there are times where I feel like there's not much I can do to change things or be really happy because of the responsibility and pressure that's put on everything. But I know that's not really true because when I _am_ really happy is when I'm with you, Cadence." Cadence raised an eyebrow hearing him call her by her full name, both knowing full well that she was usually universally referred to by her nickname. "And I know we tried this before and we broke up because things got so busy but I can't use that excuse anymore."

"Excuse?" Cadence repeated.

"An excuse to push you away, to make sure you were safe, so that you weren't a target. But I know that no matter what we do, we're always going to be a target and I shouldn't use that excuse to keep from being happy." Barry finally faltered. "I don't know if that makes any sense—"

"—It makes plenty of sense, Tholly," Cadence finally said.

"And I don't know if you feel the same way." Cadence gave him a 'duh' look. "What?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been flirting with you since I met you. Even when I was dispatched to _kill_ you, I was still flirting with you." She looked a little stricken. "And if you haven't noticed that I've _still_ been into you then I _clearly_ need to brush up on my flirting skills."

Barry laughed. "I think your flirting skills are fine."

"Good, then you're just oblivious." She mimed wiping sweat off her forehead and smiled. "I feel the same way you do, you know? That I want to try again but…the idea of something happening to you because of me is something I don't think I can take. I mean, I'm your partner, Barry. If we don't work as a team we don't work at all." She reached up and scratched behind her ear. "I guess that sounded kind of lame."

"It didn't sound like at all." He couldn't keep his laughter down. "Okay, maybe just a little."

"Thanks." Cadence reached out and shoved Barry on the arm. He lifted his hand and grabbed hers, lacing their fingers together. "Barry, if we're going to do this again, can we go slow? Like, I don't want the label of boyfriend and girlfriend to make things awkward or strain things before we can really get started. I mean, I'm sure that's not going to stop Brady at all, but I don't want it to be where we get caught up in things too quickly and it affects all other parts of our life."

"Whatever you want," Barry replied. He gently rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. Cadence rested her chin on his shoulder, her forehead against his cheek. Then smiled, her eyes flashing.

"How about we start with this then?" Cadence leaned in and pressed her lips against Barry's. Barry leaned into her, moving his hand to cup her cheek as they continued their embrace. Thunder and lightning; sparks flew as they continued their embrace, showing the passion they had kept dormant.

Cadence laughed at the tickling sensation she felt between her hands then leaned back, watching as Barry vibrated in front of her.

"Oh, so _that's_ what you do!"

It took Barry a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about, and a few seconds longer to stop vibrating.

Then he laughed.

* * *

 **A/N:** I bet you didn't see the opening coming. If you paid close enough attention you'd wonder why they hadn't used their powers the entire time. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. I'm especially interested to know what you think about the Harrison/Tess portion.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Captain Singh does act like a jerk on the show, however probably not so much to call him a dick. But it's been shown that Barry's had a long relationship with him so he may not entirely see him in a good light. Yes, you've seen Cadence use her powers to see if someone was lying before. Namely, she used it on Barry right before he went up against Reverse-Flash in the last story.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you so much. It's good to know I get the characters right in that way. That's always something I want to get better at so it's good to know it's going well.

 **Yummers:** I hope you loved this one even more! ;)

 **PowerHero432:** I'm glad you noticed her character growth. There's actually going to be something else brought up in how Cade reacted to it that I think will make sense and add to it as well. Yes, Leah will be back and she will have more scenes with Cadence and Brady as well as with Brady and Conner. I hope Harrison's and Tess's part was to your liking.

 **Babyj:** Yeah, it took me a bit to figure out how to write Harrison as he's not RF and then working Tess in as well. But I think I figured it out in a good way now. Leah is definitely going to come back. It's not the last you've seen of her.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	14. Confessions

**.:14:.**

* * *

Caitlin pursed her lips as she lifted her gaze from her tablet to Brady over and over. So far his vitals looked to be holding up well as he used his slingshot against the targets in the training room. With every bull's-eye that rose he barely blinked before shooting at it then turning to the next one, almost as if anticipating each move that was coming his way. His speed had improved from the last time they had worked on him. His accuracy as well.

When time was up, Brady reached up and pulled a pair of goggles from his eyes and pushed it up his forehead. He turned back to the others, looking at them expectantly. "Well?" He asked.

"Amazing job," Cisco said. He smiled and gave a thumbs up. "You're a regular Robin Hood."

"Your accuracy and speed have increased over %70 percent since the last time we tested you," Caitlin agreed. She turned the tablet around to show him, Barry and Cadence coming over to look as well. "And the only place to go from there is up."

Brady beamed, pumping his fist.

"You've really improved a lot over a short period of time," Caitlin said.

"Well, it only happened with Oliver's help," Cadence said. She shrugged before resting her hands on her hips. "I didn't think it was a good idea at first, but it ended up working out really well."

"Yeah, Oliver even gave him a complement," Barry agreed. "And you know he doesn't give them out too often."

"Anyone that's not a girl, anyway," Cadence said.

"Does that mean I get my suit now?" Brady asked.

Caitlin and Cisco exchanged a glance before doing their best to look away from Cadence. If they could keep their eyes off her then she wouldn't notice and wouldn't have to ask. Unfortunately, she and Cisco were as bad liars as Barry was and as soon as their eyes became averted, the fire metahuman knew something was up. Cadence sighed loudly; turning her gaze to the ceiling for a moment then leveled them at her friends.

"You already made a suit for him, didn't you?" She asked.

"Well…" Caitlin started.

"It's not like we thought he would ever need it, it's just in case," Cisco defended himself. He held up his hand and took a step backwards, just in case Cadence was about to launch herself at him. "Like how Dr. Wells talked us into making a suit for you after we met. We had no idea if you were going to be a friend or a threat but he said we needed it." Cisco paused for a second and rapidly continued with, "Of course we didn't know at the time that he was actually taken over by a murderer and that you were actually here to try and _kill_ Barry…"

Barry frantically moved his hand across his throat in a cutting motion. Finally, Cisco noticed his gesticulation and cut himself off with a nervous laugh. "But, I mean, it all worked out in the end didn't it? So, maybe it'll work out here, too?"

Barry slapped his hand over his face, Brady rolled his eyes, and Caitlin grimaced. She knew Cisco was just trying to help but even that wasn't going to save him. Instead, she turned to Cadence and asked meekly, "You're not mad are you?"

Cadence glanced at her for a second. Her face was blank as she said, "No, I'm not mad."

That made Caitlin blink in surprise. She knew her friend had a bad temper and had a habit of showing it off at certain times. Usually they were justified, such as when they were all arguing over whether to go after Ronnie and Professor Stein or let them die, but other times she had seen her go off the deep-end for lesser things. Especially when it had to do with Brady. Come to think of it, she thought it was a little weird how she hadn't blown up at them for all knowing about Brady's suspension and not said anything to her about it.

But this was different.

This was putting him in danger all because of his powers. She had been the first to say she hadn't wanted him to learn how to fight or have a suit or any gadgets because of the idea of a young boy putting himself in danger like that. In private, Cisco had mentioned to Caitlin that Batman's sidekick, Robin, had started out as the "Boy Wonder" when he was about Brady's age. Caitlin felt it wasn't something that needed to be mentioned to Cadence. Though as far as Caitlin knew Cadence knew it as well, as Metropolis was close enough to Gotham that some of Batman's city-defending heroics were broadcasted through the Daily Planet.

"Y-you're not?" Even Barry looked confused about it.

Cadence took another deep breath, as if she was steadying herself. "No. If things are starting to get this bad with…Zoom and the rest of the metas he's bringing over from this other Earth that Jay has been talking about, he might help. Not to mention if there are other metas in his school he could help him that way, too."

"Have you heard anything else about Leah?" Caitlin asked gently.

"She hasn't said anything to me," Brady said. "But I haven't been at school."

"You're going back on Monday, bud, don't get too excited," Cadence said to him. Then she turned her attention back to her friends. "I haven't heard anything either. Then again I'm still trying to figure out the best way to go up to her parents and say, 'your daughter is a meta and I know some people at STAR Labs, which is supposed to be defunct', who can help her'. Cadence made a funny face. "I don't know about you, but I don't plan on being taken to an insane asylum or being arrested for potential kidnapping."

"Well, just keep an eye on that, okay?" Barry asked. "Let us know if there's anything that we can do to help. But for now…" he stretched his arms out in front of him and cracked his knuckles. "We have some training to do. If we're going to beat Zoom, I have to get faster."

"We've been training all afternoon," Caitlin reminded him. "Take a break, you deserve it. You're getting faster, Brady's getting better, Cade's getting stronger. Just don't push yourself too hard."

"I can't help it!" Barry's eyes flashed with emotion. Barry roughly ran a hand through his hair, then placed it over his mouth. Then he lowered his hand and let out a low, croaking chuckle. "You'd think by now I'd be used to it. I have metas coming left and right trying to kill me nearly every day. Or at least trying to stop me from stopping _them_ committing their crimes by any means necessary. Having the Reverse-Flash want to kill me made sense; he killed my mother because he couldn't get to me, so he waited until he was strong enough to do it again. But Zoom? We still don't know what he wants and Jay's not back for us to ask him, we don't even know _how_ to contact him or what he can do to help me get faster if he doesn't have his own powers!"

"He's got the knowledge to help us and even you know, as a scientist, that our knowledge is our best weapon," Caitlin said. "You're going to figure this out, Barry. We're all going to help you."

Cisco nodded.

Barry started to say something then stopped. He crossed his arms and kicked at the ground. "I guess you're right," he agreed, almost unwittingly.

"Uncle Cisco!" Brady burst forward and grabbed onto Cisco's arm in a death-grip. "Can I see my suit now? Please? _Please?"_ He tilted his head back to look at his mother and shot the question her way this time. "Please?"

Cadence looked at Cisco and smiled when she saw how much it looked like he was about to burst with excitement to say something, to show off his newest creation. She barely let the words 'go ahead' out f her mouth before the two were practically sprinting back to the Cortex where hers and Barry's suits were stored.

Caitlin laughed, hugging her tablet to her chest. "Boys and their toys," She remarked. "He's been working on that suit for so long now; I think he was desperate to be able to reveal it."

"I don't doubt it," Cadence said lightly. "Didn't you just see him? He practically skipped out of here like a little school girl."

"It's really not that bad," Barry reassured her. He reached out, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Actually, I think you'd really like it once you see it. He's put as much work into it as he has with yours and mine, so it's the safest thing he could wear."

"Okay, I know I can be a little bit of a Mama Bear, but I'm not _that_ bad," she defended herself.

"You said you were going to kill Oliver," Barry reminded her.

Caitlin's eyes widened and Cadence held up her hands. "Not literally. Besides, it's not like I could actually do it, have you seen his arms? His biceps are like the size of my head." She held her hands apart to measure it.

Barry frowned and Caitlin couldn't help but bring her hand up to her mouth to stifle her laughter. Barry and Cadence hadn't said anything about getting back together but Caitlin could see it from a mile away from their interactions with each other. Even when they arrived at STAR Labs that day to get some practice in they were looking at each other differently; almost as if they couldn't help but see if the other was watching then they did something right. Then there was the bet they had said once they started their training; whoever did the best in their improvement would give the other person a task they had to complete. Cadence said Barry had to dye his hair any color she chose and so far Barry had't come up with one for her yet.

Cadence chuckled and looped her arm through Barry's. "Don't worry, Tholly, the big muscular type doesn't turn me on. I prefer the scrawny, scientific type."

"I'm not scrawny," Barry defended himself.

"When was the last time you lifted weights?" Cadence chuckled and stood on her tip-toes to give him a kiss on the cheek, then used her other hand to tousle his hair. Barry laughed, pulling his head away from her hand. Then Cadence stepped away from Barry and looped her arm through Caitlin's. "So, what should I be worried about with this suit? Are there rocket launchers hidden somewhere inside?"

Caitlin laughed. "Cisco can get carried away with his gadgets, but he knows what he's doing. I don't know how he does it. Every time he gets an idea he _has_ to get it down. From the original drawing to the sewing, to the mechanics that go into it. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he ever made a suit for himself. You know, just in case."

"You think he's ever thought of making one for you?" Barry asked.

Caitlin came to a halt as they stepped into the Cortex, where Brady was marveling over the suit that Cisco was showing off on a mannequin smaller than Barry's and Cadence's. Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. "No," she said quickly. "Why would he? It's not like I have any powers or anything. Why would _I_ need a suit?"

Barry looked at her strangely and squeezed her shoulder. "I was just kidding, Caitlin. Relax."

Caitlin managed a slow, almost spastic laugh and followed behind Barry. She sat at her computer, resting her face in her hands. Barry was right. She had to relax or else she would do something she regretted. Maybe hurt one of her friends without meaning to. She didn't have a lot of control over her powers, doing her best not to use them at all since Cadence had stopped by her apartment to bring her coffee that morning. The supercooling excuse she came up with had been on the fly and if it hadn't been something she'd seen in real life, before getting her powers, she wasn't sure she could've convincingly come up with any other excuse.

She lifted her head and watched as Brady marveled over his new suit; a black cloak over a gray bodysuit with pockets for his slingshot and the ammo to go along with it. From what she had seen from Cisco's long hours working on it, he had also added a mechanism in his belt that would make it so that when he blended in with his surroundings his suit would as well. Not to mention that when he phased his suit would phase as well. It all came together with a dark gray symbol on the front of his suit. In some ways it was reminiscent to Oliver's suit, but there were many differences as well; starting with the hood that left a shadow over his face so no need for a mask and ending with the Comm. Link earpiece that connected to a scope to be moved over his eye when needing pin-point accuracy.

If Brady weren't so young—which worried Caitlin as much as it did Cadence—Caitlin would've been as outwardly impressed as the others.

"Don't tell me you made him a suit," Tess said. She and Harrison strode into the Cortex with long strides; her blonde hair flowing behind her as she did so. Her blue eyes widened when she caught sight of the fabric Cisco was holding in his hands.

Brady immediately shoved it back into Cisco's grasp and took a giant step back. "He didn't make me a suit," he said immediately.

"What's going on, Tess?" Cadence asked her mother, eyebrows coming together. "You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

"Or something," Harrison said grimly.

"Yeah, where have you guys been?" Cisco asked. He protectively folded the suit in his arms before walking over to the smaller mannequin, pushing it back into the alcove with Barry's and Cadence's. He then carefully draped the new suit over it, in case he managed to wrinkle it even further than the folds already pressed into the fabric. "Not that we haven't enjoyed being able to run STAR Labs by ourselves. We've managed to have a good handle on the metahumans without you."

"That's good to hear," Tess said. She sounded a little relieved, but her eyes held a sense of fatigue in them. "It's not as good as the news we have to give you but…"

"What's going on?" Barry asked. "Did Zoom bring another meta over?"

"This is something that's subject to Central City, I'm afraid," Harrison denied. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "For the past couple of weeks Tess and I have been doing all we could to keep what we've been doing at STAR Labs a secret from the general public. Unfortunately, that may be the least of our worries."

"Do you remember that one man who wanted to sue Flash and Flare for the damage done to his vehicle?" Tess asked.

Barry shrugged. "Yeah, so? It was dropped."

"He may have dropped his lawsuit but the city hasn't forgetting. With the sudden rash of metahumans that have been coming by, as well as what we know about Zoom, there have been more people coming forward to say how the presence of metahumans has done nothing but hurt the city. Including the presence of The Flash and Flare."

Indignantly, Caitlin pressed her hands to her hips. She stood up, pushing her chair away from her computer, and rounded the desk so that she could speak to Tess and Harrison. "But without the two of them the metahumans would completely take over the city."

"And who knows how bad that would be," Cisco added. "Can you imagine what would happen if, say, Captain Cold ran the city? Or HeatWave? I can't imagine what disaster _that_ would be."

Cadence winced and turned away at the mention of Snart and his accomplice. Caitlin wasn't sure she had seen it at first; Cadence had regained her composure very quickly. But there was still an air of discomfort that radiated off her.

"As far as some of the residents are concerned, metahumans need to be held accountable for what they've done in terms of the damage to the city," Tess said. There was an apologetic tone to her voice. She continued to deliver the bad news. "Including those who have been trying to save it. It's been enough of a problem that Harrison and I were called in to speak with Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows."

"I'm sure as you've noticed we haven't been here at STAR Labs for the past couple of weeks and haven't been here much to aid you in your quests against stopping more metahumans," Harrison said. "We've been doing as much research and going to as many meetings as possible to make sure the worst doesn't happen," Harrison continued. He tilted his head over towards Tess. "Due to her background of research Mayor Bellows and Chief Paulson found it was enough to have a meeting to talk about."

"When did this happen?" Cadence demanded.

"Not too long ago. Long enough for them to get back to us with a decision soon. And it may be a decision that can affect all of us."

"What kind of decision?" Barry whispered.

Tess licked her lips. "Chief Paulson wants the metahumans and everyone who has powers, to have to make themselves known to have their abilities, to lower the risk of criminals that will target the city. Including wanting to know the identities of The Flash and Flare."

"What?!" Cadence spat.

"No," Brady protested.

"They can't do that," Barry said.

Caitlin's breath caught in her throat. Panic set in to her body. If they went through with this…she'd have to reveal she was a metahuman. She had to let other people know she had powers that other people didn't have. She had to admit she was _different_ when all she wanted to do was fit in. And what was suppose dot happen after that? What happened to those that had to expose themselves? Were they monitored more often? Would they be sent away? Eradicated? Was there going to be some sort of a divide between the humans and metahumans, more so than what was slowly starting to grow? Would everyone in the city turn on them and The Flash, wanting to run them out of the city? Oliver already had enough people to deal with, people that didn't trust him and thought he was a menace until he managed to revamp himself and the Arrow's image time and time again.

Could they all do that?

Could they manage to brush off the scrutiny and act like nothing was wrong?

 _I don't think anyone can do that,_ Caitlin thought. She rubbed her hands together, looking around at her friends. They all had shocked and dismayed expressions on their faces as Tess and Harrisons' words sank in. _How can they ask anyone to do that?_

"Nothing is set in stone, we just wanted you to be aware of what's been going on with us," Harrison said. He cleared his throat. "I know it may be hard for you to trust me considering what we've recently been through with Eobard, but Tess and I are working hard to make sure everything we're doing with STAR Labs and the Flash is kept intact. Our safety as well as the work to our city is our number one priority."

"So they haven't come to a decision yet?" Caitlin asked. It was a brief moment of relief, there was still some time left for them to figure things out. She visibly relaxed, her shoulders slumping so far she had to reach out and grab onto the desk to keep herself steady.

"No, not yet. But it has to be something we're prepared for," Harrison said. He reached up and pulled his glasses off, rubbing his eyes. "Especially with Zoom around."

"We would've told you earlier," Tess apologized. "But there wasn't much to say until we knew what Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows had to say."

"Maybe Joe can talk to him," Barry suggested. He reached up and rubbed his neck, working out the stress knots that suddenly appeared. "Being the lead of the metahuman task force, maybe he can show him that giving the chance for them to rehabilitate instead of…whatever it is their planning?"

"We won't know until we try," Tess said, tapping the tips of her fingers together. "Even then, we won't know as time will tell."

"So, what? We're just supposed to back to our regular duties and pretend like nothing's wrong?"

Harrison nodded. "That's exactly what we're going to do; we can't bring more attention to ourselves than we already have. Anyone that gets closer to us, to what we're doing, to what we are, is a threat. So we'll have to be careful."

Caitlin nodded. She turned back to her desk and sat down in her seat, running her hands over each other. So many things were going through her head, starting and ending with how much of her life was centered around her thirst for knowledge, her drive to learn new things and to fix things. She was fixing the quality of Central City, trying to help take out the fear the residents felt every day they left their houses. How was she going to do that if she was one of them? Her credibility would be lost and she'd had to face the hard truth that her life was never going to be the same and that she had to be careful what she wished for.

"Hey." Startled, Caitlin looked up to find Cisco sitting at his computer next to her. "Everything's going to be okay, Cait."

"Yeah, no, I know," She said. "I just…it's a scary thought. To think that everything we're worked for and have been working for could potentially be shut down all because of a man who doesn't understand metahumans."

"They're all just scared, Cait," Cisco said. "I think we can understand that. We've been put through so many jams lately that even I get scared a little bit." He smiled a little. "But I'm not so sure about you, you're not scared of anything."

Caitlin lifted an eyebrow.

"I really like that about you, Cait. You can go and face anything head-on, even if you're not sure how it's going to turn out. But trust me when I say this is going to be fine. No one can think that someone as badass as The Flash is a menace to this city." He snorted. "It's scarier to think of a city _without_ The Flash than it is of my worst nightmares."

Caitlin braved a smile. "Your worst nightmare is having your comic book collection stolen."

Cisco wagged his finger in her face. "I can see you're about to laugh, Caitlin Snow. But that's okay; I know you're hurting right now. I'll let it slide that you just insulted my livelihood." Caitlin laughed. "You see? Everything's going to be—"Cisco abruptly stopped talking, his eyes darting down.

Caitlin followed his gaze and her blood ran cold. He had reached out and put his hand on hers. But she hadn't noticed because her hands had become so numb. Numb because she had been using her powers without knowing it. She watched, tears starting to well up in her eyes as Cisco visibly tried to move his hand away from hers but became stuck. The skin on his fingers stretched until he finally managed to rip his hand away. Grasping his wrist, Cisco looked at Caitlin, whose eyes darted around the empty Cortex—she must've been deep in her thoughts if she didn't notice everyone had left to do whatever—before landing on Cisco's questioning eyes.

"Cait," he started.

"Please," Caitlin whispered. "Don't say anything."

"But Cait, you…you have…how did you do that?" Caitlin motioned for him to lower his voice. She reached up and brushed her hair from her face and took a deep breath. She knew she had to say something eventually, but not this soon. Not when she didn't know how to admit it to herself. "Cait, you're…you're meta?"

"I don't know," Caitlin whispered back.

"Well, unless you've invented some sort of a pocket freezer—"

"—Cisco, I don't—"Caitlin broke off, closing her eyes.

"How long has this been going on?"

Shame rolled over Caitlin as she lowered her head. "For a while," She whispered. "Since…since we were dealing with the Suicide Squad. I noticed it then, for the first time." She risked a glance up through her bangs to watch Cisco react.

Cisco's eyes widened. "Cait, that was months ago! Like…like _months_!"

"I know."

"How could you keep that from us?"

"I'm scared, Cisco! I don't want any of this. I don't want these powers. I don't want that responsibility." Caitlin hugged her arms to her body. "What am I supposed to do if someone attacks me? What if I _kill_ someone?"

"You aren't going to do that," Cisco protested. He reached out and brushed Caitlin's hair behind her ear. He gently rubbing her shoulder. "You don't have a killer bone in your body. You don't even like to kill bugs."

"Those are bugs, Cisco. They can't hurt me more than a person can. I can't control it as well as I'd like. What if…what if someone was attacking me or I'm trying to help someone and I accidentally freeze them? I'm scared to touch anything; I'm scared to get too close just in case…"

"Does anyone else know?" Cisco asked.

"Harrison does." Her eyebrows came together. "Or maybe it was Eobard."

She expected Cisco to be upset to not be the first to know. They were best friends, they told each other everything. Still, even with Barry, Cadence, and Brady all having abilities as well…she never felt so alone. They all had the drive to want to go out in the field and help people…she just couldn't do that.

Cisco reached out towards her hands and she instinctively pulled them back. But Cisco reached out and grabbed onto her hands, forcing his larger ones around hers. She lifted her head and he gave her a tiny smile, which she matched with her own. Things were going to be okay, he was going to keep her secret as long as she needed him to.

"Hey, do you want to help me make sure these suits are up to code?" Cisco asked. "If we're going to show the city that we mean business, they'll have to look good while doing it."

Caitlin laughed and nodded. "It's good to know where your priorities are, Cisco."

"I may get a lot of entertainment out of it, but I care about this city as much as anyone else," Cisco said. "It's my home and Barry and Cade are my friends. I'm not going to let anyone tear them down when they're the best things that's ever happened to all of us." Caitlin was about to remark how sweet it was until Cisco reached out and lovingly ran his hand over the front of Barry's suit. "I'm sorry; do you want to be alone?"

"There's nothing wrong with having good enough sense to know when a job has been done well," Cisco defended himself. "Besides, I'm checking the durability. Leather can only hold up for so long and I wash these suits by hand."

Caitlin nodded. She reached out to Cadence's suit and picked up the leather jacket. She turned it this way and that over her hands, admiring the craftsmanship that Cisco had put into it. She had to admit he did an amazing job with it, all on his own time and dime, too. She stated to say so then stopped when she noticed two large holes at the bottom of the jacket, almost as if someone stabbed it with something.

"I know you can be attached to these things so don't freak out okay," she said to him.

Cisco's eyes narrowed. "Why? What'd you do?"

"I didn't do anything." Caitlin handed the jacket over to Cisco. He gave her a suspicious look as he took the fabric and looked it over himself. He twisted his mouth to the side.

"Huh." Cisco then pursed his lips. "I'm going to have to have a talk with her. First Barry blows up my suit and now she pokes holes into hers. I swear they don't appreciate all the hard work I put into these things." Caitlin tilted her head to the side, chewing her lower lip. "What?"

"What?" Caitlin replied.

"You're doing that worry thing when you chew your lip," Cisco pointed out. "I was just kidding; I'm not actually going to kill anyone over a suit." He sniffed. "No matter how precious they are to me."

"When would this hole have gotten in there, though? You check the suits after every fight they go in and Cade hasn't used her suit since…" Caitlin slowly trailed off. A strange energy shifted through the air, her mind racing a mile a minute. How ironic that they had been talking about how she wouldn't ever have killed a bug or a spider. Where she had even mentioned during their run-ins with the meta-spiders that there wasn't any venom to worry much about if they hadn't been affected by the Particle Accelerator. _And Cade had been knocked down…_Caitlin thought.

Caitlin looked over at Cisco, who looked back at her, eyes widening at the same time hers did. ""It looks like it could be a—"

"—Spider bite," he whispered.

* * *

Barry closed the pod door to the cell and walked back to the food cart that held numerous bags of Big Belly Burger. He looked over at Cadence, she kicked towards the ground, looking everywhere but at the pods to the left and right of the one they were currently at. Barry waited until she turned to go back to the hallway before he reached out and tapped her on the left shoulder, moving to her right side.

After flinching at the sudden touch, Cadence glanced to her left then shifted to her right in time for Barry to lean in and press his lips against hers in a sweet kiss. Cadence made a sound of surprise before happily kissing him back, her smile contagious when she pulled away.

"Smooth," She commented.

"Sorry, I just, I, really wanted to do that," Barry said.

Her smile widening, Cadence reached out and placed her hands on Barry's cheeks. "Just a tip, don't ever apologize for kissing someone. More often than not they're glad you did it." She patted him on the cheek, took a step back, and pointed at him. "Just as long as you get the signals."

"The signals?" Barry repeated.

"Smiling, welcoming you into their space, wanting to spend time with you…" Cadence trailed off as she started down the hallway with Barry pushing the food cart alongside her.

"And that's why, even though it's your turn to feed these guys, that I'm the one that's doing it?" Barry asked.

"Haven't you heard? I'm great company," Cadence teased. Her smile faded after a few seconds. "No, I just…I really don't like being down here. Not knowing that Breathtaker and Stratos and Mindboggler are here."

Barry frowned, continuing to push the cart in front of him. "They're in the Pipeline, Cade; they can't come after you anymore."

"You don't know that." Cadence stopped and leaned back against the wall behind her. She looked around for a moment before chuckling to herself. "Hard to believe that when we first met you all locked me in here. Even harder to believe it was for a good reason."

"None of us knew what was going on," Barry reminded her.

"I'm not trying to get your sympathy, Barry; I'm trying to explain how insanely strong these people are." Cadence's eyebrows lowered. "The Assassination Bureau, I don't know who they work for or how they got together but they can do more than any other meta I've seen. Breathtaker…he _gave_ Mindboggler her powers."

"Did he give Stratos his, too?" Barry asked.

Cadence shook her head. "I don't know. I don't even know how he or Incognito got theirs either. The Pipeline may be able to block the ability for them to use their powers, but that's not going to hold them for long. Breathtaker…he can do much more than anything you've ever seen. He can kill someone without even lifting a finger."

"Is that why he's called Breathtaker?"

She nodded. "He literally sucks the life out of you. I've seen him do it; it just looks like the person died of natural causes. The fact that he could do that to any of the rest of us at any moment…I think they may have given themselves up too easily, may be working on something to learn all of our secrets and get out of here."

Barry tilted his head to the side. He studied Cadence hard, noticing she did her best not to look him in the eye. Noticed how she had nearly jumped out of her skin when he tapped her on the shoulder. Noticed how she seemed to slowly be turning in on herself. Of course he had noticed that Cadence hadn't been mad when she found out that everyone else knew things about Brady that she hadn't before. It was possible that it truly _didn't_ bother her but all the same…

"Cade, what's going on?" He took a step closer to her, but stayed far enough away so that she didn't feel like he was crowding her. He didn't want to push her too far if she didn't want to talk. "You've been acting kind of weird lately."

"Nothing," Cadence said after a second. She smiled. "I guess I'm just worried about what Dad and Tess were saying about Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows." She pushed herself off the wall and started walking again.

Barry moved with her, keeping pace. "Cade, listen to me." Barry reached out and gently grasped her face. "Nothing's going to happen with them. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Cadence warned him.

"I don't think we have much to worry about considering there was just an entire day in my honor." Barry placed his hand against his chest, basking in the afterglow of Flash Day. Then he shrugged. "And, you know, your little drink thing." Cadence made a sound of offense and reached out, pushing him hard on the arm. He laughed, deflecting her shove with a flick of his elbow and stopped at another pod. He laughed when Cadence took a large step back away. "How are you supposed to feed spiders anyway?"

"They're giant, mutant spiders, Tholly. Who cares?"

Chuckling, Barry opened the pod door then frowned, noticing the Meta-Spiders moving erratically. They scrambled over and under each other, racing around the pod. Their legs clicked across the glass as they did so, louder than the humming sound of the electrical energy floating into the Pipeline. Then they were attacking each other, rearing up on its hind legs, fangs dripping with venom as they lashed at each other.

"What the what?" Barry murmured. "Hey Cade, come look—"he looked over his shoulder then stopped, noticing the strange look on Cadence's face. "Cade?" She glared at him, her eyes suddenly blazing with fury. She lifted her hand and shot it forward.

Time slowed down around Barry as the tunnel of fire spiraled towards him. He looked at Cadence's face, recognizing the fury in her eyes, then everything sped up again and he barely managed to throw himself out of the way. He crashed to the ground, lashing out his foot to close the door of the pod just in case the fire melted the metal framework and glass to let them out. Then the flipped back around to face Cadence, just as she sent a cloud of steam towards him.

Barry cried out as his hands were burned seconds before she reached out and kicked toward his face. He shot back to his feet and blocked a few more attacks she sent her way then grabbed her wrists, keeping her from hitting him again.

"Cade, what are you doing?"

Cadence snarled back towards him. Then she relaxed, her lips curling back into a smirk. Faster than Barry could bring his hands back, she sent flames up around her hands, burning him. The smell of burning flesh hit the air and Barry gagged, immediately dropping her hands. He backed away and turned his hands over, finding the skin on his palm blistering and popping, some skin melting away from his fingertips and dripped to the floor, while other parts were bright pink and fleshy. He watched, horrified as his hands started to heal themselves.

"Don't get in my way, Flash, unless you want to get burned," she said.

Barry looked up at her. "There's something wrong with you. Let me help."

Cadence tilted her head to the side, looking at him curiously. Her eyebrows twitched upwards and she said, "You'll have to catch me, first." With that, she teleported out of the Pipeline.

Barry raced up to the Cortex, skidding to a stop so fast he nearly fell over. "Guys! Something's going on with Cade."

"We know, we just found some holes in her suit," Cisco said. He motioned towards the empty mannequin where Cadence had grabbed her suit through her instantaneous teleportation. "They were left there from when you were fighting against the meta-spiders."

"We think she was bit," Caitlin explained.

"Bit?" Barry repeated. "By the Meta-Spider?" He ran his hand through his hair. "W-what does that mean? What do we do?"

"It means the venom from the Meta-Spiders are working differently than we thought it would." Caitlin quickly tried to explain. "We saw the venom and how it reacted against you when the spider web hit you, right? Well, this was injected into her so it's basically poisoning her." She grimaced, noticing Barry's hands. "And it's affecting her control over her powers."

"Sort of like when you were whammied," Cisco said. "But one hundred times worse. Because, you know, this could kill her."

All of a sudden, a warning siren started to blare, bringing Harrison, Tess, and Brady from other parts of STAR Labs. Caitlin and Cisco quickly filled them in on what was going on. Harrison immediately jumped into his chair, pushing his glasses up his nose as he leaned into his computer screen. The light illuminated him, casting shadows along the planes of his face that suddenly made him seem sinister. Tess stood behind him, resting one hand on the back of his chair, the other brought up to her mouth.

"Security cameras have her locked along the main streets. She's moving fast, so she must be teleporting all over the place," Harrison explained. He shook his head, eyes narrowing. "There doesn't' seem to be any sort of rhyme or reason to her pathway."

"It corroborates their idea of the venom making her lose control of her powers," Tess said.

"But if she loses control and she uses too much, wouldn't her body temperature get too high?" Brady asked. His voice trembled as he watched the footage of his mother.

"Yes," Caitlin said grimly.

"I have to stop her," Barry said. He started towards his suit then stopped, turning back to the others. "Can you make an antidote?"

"If we can knock out and get the Meta-Spiders and use their venom sacks as an initial starting point to concoct one, yes," Caitlin said. "But we'll need to move fast. Because of the properties of her powers, because of the heat, it may exacerbate the venom and make it move through her body faster than we can make an antidote."

"You need to bring her back here as fast as you can," Cisco said.

Barry nodded and ran to his suit, changing into it and then raced back out onto the streets. He found Cadence setting an office front on fire. Barry quickly stopped behind her.

"Flare! Stop!" Cadence turned Barry's way and raised an eyebrow. She turned towards him, crossing her arms. Barry stretched out his hand, slowly walking towards her. "You don't want to do this."

"I don't?" Cadence blinked rapidly, almost as if she was confused. "That's news to me."

"You're not this person, this isn't you," Barry said. "You're being affected by the Meta-Spiders. You were bit." Because of her powers it must've taken a while before it started to manifest since she had been bitten, Barry suddenly realized. Her body had to have been trying to fight it off as long as possible before it became too strong.

"Huh." Cadence used her tongue to suck her teeth dismissively. She turned her back on him. "It's no wonder I never liked spiders."

"Let's just get back to STAR Labs. They're making an antidote to help you."

"Nothing can help me, Flash. There's nothing there to help." She turned back to Barry, holding out her arms. "Mick was right. We're not better than anyone else. We just think we are with these powers and abilities that no one else has."

"Mick?" Barry repeated. He clenched his hands. They hadn't seen Mick and Snart since they had rounded up the metas Eobard had set free and put them back into the pipeline. Since then they had continued on their crime sprees with Barry unable to stop them, as per his agreement with Snart to keep his identity secret. "When did you see him? What did he say to you?"

Cadence lifted her hand, watching as flames flickered around her hands. "You want to stay on the good side of the tracks. Hate to break it to you, Flash, but in this life, with what we can do, there's not so much that's different between right and wrong. Just our motivations."

Barry swallowed hard. "Come on, Flare."

"Catch me, Flash."

They moved at the same time. Cadence teleporting out of the way as Barry hurried towards her. Plowing through the cloud of smoke, Barry turned back around to search the streets, looking to see where Cadence had gone. He saw her atop a nearby fire escape, looking down at him, resting her chin in her hand, watching him curiously. Barry raced towards her, but she teleported once more.

Over and over they swirled around the streets with Barry chasing after Cadence who teleported just as he was about to reach her. Then they were fighting. And while Barry's speed helped get multiple solid hits into Cadence, her teleporting ability made it easier for her to get the upper hand. If Barry moved to punch her in the stomach Cadence would teleport, but then appear in the air above him, knocking him the ground before teleporting again to kick him in the back. Barry backed up against a concrete wall, shifting back and forth as Cadence aimed flaming punches towards his head.

She struck towards the left and Barry shifted to the right, making her punch directly into the concrete wall. Cadence cried out in pain, bringing her hand back away from the wall. Barry rapid-fire punched her in the chest, enough so that she backed away from him. Cadence suddenly bent backwards into a flip, catching Barry under the chin. Once Cadence landed on her feet she teleported and sent a strong punch to Barry's jaw, knocking him onto his back into the concrete wall behind him. Cadence leapt up and wrapped her ankles around his neck. Twisting her upper body to the side, her momentum brought Barry with her, slamming him to the ground. Barry coughed, rolling onto his side. He looked up, hearing Cadence's footsteps come closer to him.

She started to walk in a circle around him, not breaking eye-contact as she did so.

"It's so funny how you think you know what everyone else wants when you don't even know what you want yourself," Cadence said. She eyed him coldly. "You constantly go back and forth over everything in your life; do you want your mom back or do you want to leave her dead? Do you want to kill Zoom or merely get answers from him? Do you want to be there for Central City and for your friends or do you want to wallow in your own misery?" She clasped her hands together, hugging them to her chest. "Poor, poor, poor Flash. Everything is always about him. Not like everyone else is suffering from his selfish decisions. You know those six months weren't just bad for you."

Barry rested his hands on his stomach, trying to catch his breath, willing the pain to go away. "Cade," he breathed. "Let me help you."

A 'duh' look came over Cadence's face. She turned to a pickup truck that sat nearby and winked. Immediately, the windows blew out and flames shot into the sky as a raging inferno engulfed the car.

"Okay." Barry slowly got back to his feet. The pain was going away, but this fight was lasting longer than he wanted. "That's new," he breathed.

At his words Cadence whipped her head towards him as quick as a rattlesnake. "Pop quiz!" She teleported in front of him and punched him so hard that his head whipped to the side and he fell to the ground. Barry tasted the metallic tang of blood as it filled his mouth. Seconds before he was kicked hard in the stomach, knocking him across the street. "What is The Flash's greatest weakness? Is it the cold?" She teleported and kicked him again. "Or is it that he always relies on his speed and has no other tricks up his sleeve to back up his confidence?" She grabbed him by the collar of his suit and lifted him off the ground. He could feel the uncovered skin of his face start to singe from the exposure of heat close to his face. If it weren't for his suit, he was sure he'd be badly burned from being in such close proximity.

With a hard throw, Barry was flung across the street and Cadence teleported midway through his flight to strike him once more, immediately slamming him to the ground.

Groaning, Barry rolled onto his back just as Cadence walked over and stepped onto his chest. Her fists flamed, making her image shimmer as she leaned down towards him. "But I know his real weakness," she hissed. A groaning cough and pathetic wheeze escaped Barry's lips when she increased the pressure on his chest. "That he won't ever do anything to lose the ones he loves; his friends, his family…and sooner or later that's going to get him killed."

Barry coughed pathetically. He looked up into Cadence's face, the shimmering of the heated air around her along with her glowing eyes made her look possessed. He had to think fast, what was going to get her to stop. He thought to what she said and immediately figured out what to do. They'd fought enough side-by-side that they knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. And what could easily take each other down.

He just wished they never had t use it. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Barry superspeeded to his feet and started to run in a large circle around Cadence, going faster and faster as the seconds passed. Cadence gritted her teeth and shot fire streams at him, but he moved so fast that each blast missed him. Then she tried to send a cloud of smoke towards him, but the wind whipping around from his tight circle around her sent it back into her face. Choking, Cadence turned away, grasping at her neck. Finally, Barry slowed down enough to throw a bolt of lightning her way.

Cadence turned and held up her hand. The lightning shot towards her and right as it was about to reach her, it crackled with fire before dissipating completely, a fire aura surrounding her to protect her. With Cadence distracted, Barry halted in his running and started to rapidly windmill his arms. Blasts of air burst from his hands and struck Cadence, immediately snuffing out the flames in the vicinity and around her hands. Cadence gasped for air, struggling to bring in a good breath, but Barry's wind attack robbed her of the air in her lungs.

She collapsed to her knees before falling onto her side, making terrible choking sounds as she did so. Barry hurried forward and scooped her up into his arms, racing back to STAR Labs.

* * *

Cadence's eyes fluttered open, immediately closing at the harshness of the light above her. Then she felt something against her eyelid, pulling it open. First the right then the left.

"Mom? Are you awake?" She could hear Brady's voice muffled above her.

"Shh, Brady! Let her rest." That was Caitlin's voice.

"But she's awake, I can tell." Her eyelids were pulled open again and Cadence reached out, batting his hand away. Then she shielded her face with her hand, finally able to open her eyes. Cadence started to move to sit up, quickly finding she was sitting in a bed in the medical bay, the top half of the mattress raised so she didn't have to move too far. "Mom!" Brady threw his arms around Cadence's neck and hugged her tightly, causing Cadence to chuckle and gently pat him on the back.

"Easy on the neck, bud, I still need it," she said.

"Sorry." Brady sat back on his heels.

"Welcome back, Ms. Nash," Caitlin said, standing by the other side of the bed.

Cadence glanced at her. "Do you guys always say that to people who wake up?" She asked in a low mumble.

"Only those that manage to survive a near-death experience," Cisco said from her other side. He reached out and gently nudged her on the arm. "Though hopefully next time it's not from another Meta-Spider. I think we can handle Zoom better than that. Mostly because it was a pain in the ass to try and catch these spiders once we let them loose from their pods in the Pipeline."

Cadence laughed quietly. Hearing rapid footsteps coming towards the medical bay she sat up straighter as Barry, Tess, and Harrison came through the door. "Hey," she said quietly to Barry."

"Hey," he replied. "It's good to see you in here, Ms. Nash. You seem to have missed many appointments."

Cadence smiled, instantly catching on. "I've just been really busy," she replied. She brought her hand up to run her fingers through her hair, finally looking around at her friends. "What happened? I remember talking to Barry about the Assassinaton Bureau and then…"

"Long story short, back when you and Barry were going to save Captain Singh, you got bit by one of the Meta-Spiders," Cisco explained. "And instead of being cool and turning you into Spider-Man it basically turned you into a demon."

"What Cisco means is that the venom inside the Meta-Spider bite, the same venom in the web that only affected Barry when it was on him rather than Captain Singh and the others, affected your powers, ultimately making you lose control. If Barry had been bitten it would've been like when he was whammied. Same with Brady or…" she glanced at Cisco. "Or any other meta."

"So how did I…?" Cadence started. Barry looked away and she took in a sharp breath. "Did I hurt you? What happened?"

"Sweetie, relax." Tess reached out and smoothed Cadence's hair back from her forehead. "Everything's oaky now. Caitlin and Harrison created an antidote for you and Barry brought you back here safe and sound to make sure it was administered in time."

"But…" Barry licked his lips. "When you were out…you said something weird. You said something about Mick."

"Mick?" Cisco repeated.

"HeatWave?" Brady asked.

"Have you seen him?" Harrison asked with such sudden ferocity that it made the others stare in surprise. "Mick. Have you seen him recently?"

Cadence lowered her head. "Yes," she said quietly. Reaching out, she bunched up the blankets of the bed in her hands. "Every now and then he'll show up wherever I am. He says he wants my flame, that he wants my fire."

"What?" Barry reached up and ran his hands over his hair. "Why didn't you say anything?"

It took a few moments for her to come up with the answer. There were a lot of reasons why. 1) She was a hero to the city; she should've been able to handle things herself. 2) She was a woman and as much as she could do with her abilities, she was scared. Mick was a lot bigger and stronger than she was, able to pick her up with one hand with little effort. And number 3, the reason she said out loud, "I didn't want to bother anyone," when what she really meant was 'I didn't want to be called self-centered again. "I thought I could handle him myself."

"So HeatWave's showing himself again?" Cisco asked. "That's funny I didn't hear of any banks being knocked over. Snart must be getting antsy."

"He said he and Snart haven't been working together recently," Cadence said.

"What else did Mick say?" Barry asked.

"That we're really no better than any of the other metas of this city. That we think we're on such high-horses even though we'd do the same thing they would, anything for our own personal gain." Barry's eyes widened as he recognized the words that had been snarled to him earlier. "And he wants what made me a meta."

* * *

A few hours later, after Cadence finally convincing Caitlin that she was well enough to go home, Cadence lay on her bed, gently brushing back Brady's hair as he slept soundly beside her, insisting on staying in her room to make sure Mick didn't attack her that night. Apart from momentary headaches that came and went, she didn't feel any sort of reaction to the antidote that had been injected to her. As it was, she hadn't felt any different when the Meta-Spider venom had been working through her. But it gave her enough time to wonder about Zoom, if there was anything that could make him lose control of his powers, rendering him vulnerable, just as the venom had done to her.

It was something she had to remember to bring up to Jay the next time he was around. Not to mention getting a final answer as to what Zoom was doing on their Earth, where he was constantly going, and what his real identity was.

There was a light knock on her windowsill and Cadence looked over to find Barry climbing in through her window. "Checking up on me again?"

"Am I that obvious?" Barry asked.

"In a good way," Cadence replied. She brought a finger up to her lips, motioning towards Brady. Barry nodded and sat on the windowsill, facing her. "I mean, I'd feel a little upset if my partner didn't come to check on me. If the roles were reversed I'd probably send a bouquet of flowers."

"Flowers?" Barry laughed.

"So I'm a little bit of a romantic, so sue me," Cadence said. The two laughed quietly. "About everything I said today—"

"—You don't need to apologize," Barry said quickly.

"I know. I just…I wanted to explain something." Cadence took n a deep breath through her nose. "The thing is, if I had to choose to be someone's sidekick…I wouldn't want to be anyone else's. But the reason I'm so against being known as one is because I'm insecure. I'm insecure of my abilities, of what I can do for this team, of letting go of my past with the Assassination Bureau. I've said it before, but I'm not as smart as you guys and I often wonder if you'd ever get bored of me because I don't know as much as you do. Not only that but because there's only so much I can contribute." Cadence licked her lips. "As a woman, I'm already on the lower end of the totem pole; in my career, in life…and being able to do the exact same things that you do as a hero, being able to save the city so many times…it's hard when you know that you're not going to be recognized or treated the same way for it.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't want the glory and major media attention or anything, that's not what I'm after. I just want to be acknowledged. And when I see that Brady worships The Flash so much it makes me wonder if I'm not doing enough for him to see me as a hero too, and not just his mom. Then there's Leah. She's a big fan of mine…but how can I be a hero, a role model to her when I don't even know if I deserve it or if anyone else in this city will see the same things in me that she does? Especially now that there are those that are opposing us being here?"

"I already told you nothing's going to happen," Barry said firmly.

Cadence smiled a challenging smile. "You sound very sure about that."

"There aren't many things I'm 100% sure about, but I have a lot of faith in what we're doing," Barry said. He thought for a minute. "Even if there are those that think we're no better than the bad ones."

Cadence grimaced, her stomach clenching with the pain of knowing how much she allowed Mick's words to get to her."I'm sorry I hurt you like that. I don't ever want to do that again."

"You won't." Barry sounded so sure about that it made Cadence jerk her head back in surprise. He smiled, eyes flashing with challenge. "Because you can't catch me." Cadence rolled her eyes and Barry walked over to her, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. When he started to pull back, Cadence reached out and grabbed onto his shoulder, holding him still. Just to make sure he knew how sorry she was. Finally, she let go of his shoulder and he backed away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He started towards the window.

"Hey Barry?"

Barry stopped, one foot outside the window.

"Do you mind staying a bit longer?"

"Sure."

Barry climbed back through the window and climbed onto Cadence's bed on the other side of Brady. He rested his cheek against his palm, wondering what was in store for the rest of them when things inevitably came crashing down.

* * *

Harrison looked over his shoulder as Tess walked into his office. "So?" She asked.

"So, I was correct in thinking it was Mick who had stolen the computer from the packaging shipment that came in," Harrison said. "He and Snart must've needed it to figure out the blueprints of STAR Labs as well as the information we have on numerous metahumans. It's the only other way he would know that Cadence's powers didn't come from the Particle Accelerator."

"He probably won't stop until he gets it," Tess warned. "We've already established he's not in the right state of mind for most of the decisions he makes." She paused, eyeing Harrison warily. "Do you remember how it was possible she was made into a meta?"

Harrison lifted his chin and rested it on his hand. "I remember it perfectly. But the question is, are they my memories or Eobards?" His body stiffened when he heard a soft scraping sound outside of the office. "Who's there?" He demanded.

Harrison and Tess watched as a shadowy figure slowly walked into the room.

It wasn't until he reached the light that Harrison realized he was looking back at himself.

"Hello there," the other Harrison said.

* * *

 **A/N:** I knew I wanted to have this chapter/plot but it took me a while to figure out where to put it. I had some clues foreshadowing this was going to happen, so I hope that with everything else that had been going on it made sense? Plus, it ties in with Mick and the Rogues a little bit. Any guesses on what that plot is yet? Since the next chapter goes into Family of Rogues you'll see it more then.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Yeah, they were practicing without their powers. It seems like I tricked a lot of people with that so I'm kind of glad, haha. Cadence would probably make good on the promise to give bodily harm to Oliver if he did something to Brady but who knows. Oliver tends to be very in-tune with young kids so he knows how to keep them safe. I hope this chapter was as good as the last two.

 **DarkHelm145:** There's another part that's going to be added to it soon. Though for me 'soon' is a relative term as things usually get switched around while I'm writing.

 **Josephguy217:** Exciting, isn't it?

 **PowerHero432:** There's actually still going to be some more with Oliver and Conner as things go on that's not just what had happened with the crossover. I've always wanted to have that expanded on and it'll definitely be shown in this one. Again, there's still going to be stuff with Barry/Patty though, but probably not in a way that people would expect.

 **yummers:** Glad you like it.

 **babyj:** I'm glad you liked that emphasis as well as showing it's difference from the way Caitlin feels.

 **Spinquin142:** I'm glad you liked it. I hope you liked this one just as much.

 **For those wondering this **story is updated every week on Wednesday. I'll let you know if I ever change the day.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	15. Another Point Of View

**.:15:.**

* * *

Brady looked up as his mother sat at the breakfast table across from him with a steaming plate of pancakes. She looked back at him, eyebrows raising, noticing his nearly empty plate. As she watched, he reached out and took the last bite, shoving it into his mouth. He maintained eye contact as he chewed, eventually starting to laugh to himself, unable to keep a straight face.

Cadence smiled, taking a sip of orange juice. "How do you manage to eat so much so fast?" She asked.

Brady shrugged. He picked up his last bite and pushed his plate aside. "I'm just really hungry." His eyes lit up. "Maybe I'm turning into a speedster!"

"That'd be just my luck," Cadence said. She ran her hands through her hair, almost in frustration. "I already had trouble keeping up with you since you learned how to walk; I don't need you to be any faster than that. It's bad enough you can blend into your surroundings."

Brady smiled.

"So how you feel going back to school?"

"Good," Brady said. He wiped off the back of his mouth with his hand. "Not that I don't like hanging out at STAR Labs all day, because I do. But if a meta isn't around it's kind of boring. Plus, now Conner and I can hang out more. You know." He started to circle the table top with the tip of his index finger. "Once I'm not grounded anymore."

"Ask me again after school and I might have a different answer for you," Cadence said.

Brady's mouth dropped open indignantly. "I've been grounded for _months_!"

"You think sneaking out in the middle of the night and running after a super crazed Gorilla _and_ lying to me about being suspended isn't grounds for being grounded?"

"You said you weren't mad about me being suspended." He couldn't help but pout. She wasn't making much sense. Then again, as she had told him many times before when he started to whine about something, mothers didn't have to make sense and he needed to get over it.

"I'm not. I'm actually really proud of you for standing up to your bully like that."

"And?" He knew her better than she thought.

"And I'm mad that you thought I'd be mad. Now, add all of that up together and, hate to break it ya, bud, but that's grounds for murder. I've been letting you off easy."

Brady rolled his eyes and Cadence smiled. Then Brady sat up straight, looking his mother in the eye. "How are you?"

She blinked twice. "Fine."

"The venom from the meta-spider isn't bothering you anymore?"

"No. Not since Caitlin came up with that antidote for it. I feel fine now." She grinned evilly. "No need for you to be worried about me coming to attack you." She reached out and tapped the tip of his nose.

Brady pushed her hand away and gave her a pointed look. "You'd never attack me. But I bet your attacking Barry gave you a lot of points with him. Chances are he's not going to date you again."

Amusement flashed over Cadence's face. "You're still meddling in my love life?"

Brady rested his chin in his hand. He hoped she understood he wasn't really trying to meddle. But that he really did care about her happiness, more so than his own desire for a dad. He went that long without one; he could keep going without one.

"I'd be fine if you dated Ryder." Ryder wasn't really his dad, either. His dad was very much like his mom, where he was open about a lot of things Brady asked about and could discipline when needed. Brady even started to see some similarities between the two of them in their faces and their tendencies to blurt things out as well as their love of soccer—his mom and dad hadn't missed a game. But he still didn't really feel that Ryder was like a dad, probably because he seemed to be too afraid to go too far with things in case it pushed Brady even further away than the eight year absence had been.

Cadence let out a long sigh. She pushed her plate away and mimicked Brady's stance, looking him in the eye to make sure she had his attention. "Let me tell you something, bud; being in a relationship, for the sake of being in a relationship, is crazy. You're not finding a way to love yourself if all you're afraid of is being alone. You have to let your heart lead the way and my heart isn't with Ryder anymore. We grew up to be two completely different people." Wistfully, she shook her head. "Actually, I look back and sometimes wonder why we get together."

"You don't know?"

"Of course I know. I just meant if we were the same _now_ and we were _then_ I don't think I'd recognize myself." Cadence tapped her fingers against the tabletop. "We were friends first and we got to know each other very well before we started dating. So that helped a lot."

"Like you were friends with Barry first. Other than wanting to kill him, I mean."

Cadence winked. "Exactly. But I have good news for you." Brady's eyebrows rose but otherwise he stayed quiet, making Cadence smile. "Barry and I decided to try dating again. We're going to take things slow but— "

"You are?!" Brady practically blasted out of his seat. "Does that mean that he can come for dinner again? Like we got to Harrison's and Tess's every Sunday?"

"He was never banned from doing it, bud; neither is Caitlin, Cisco, Iris, or Ryder."

"I know. I just thought it would've been awkward or whatever."

"Why?"

"Because he might've brought Patty." Brady rested his arms on the table then put his chin on his hands. He looked up at Cadence, waiting for her to say something. Instead, she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, staring directly at him. Her eyes shifted back and forth for a moment and Brady sighed, knowing she already knew he didn't like her. "I don't like her," he confirmed.

"Why?"

"I don't have to like everybody." There was a honking noise and Brady looked towards the front of the apartment, recognizing the sound of the bus. "I have to go. Don't forget, I don't have soccer practice after school. So I'll just go to the CCPD." He shrugged into his backpack and took the lunch bag his mom handed out to him.

Cadence glanced at him for a moment then lifted her hand, pressing the side against her forehead then reached out and pressed it against his. Her hand just barely missed his forehead, pressing down his spikes. "Darn, you're getting taller too. Almost as tall as me…probably about two inches to go and you'll be my height."

"At least you don't have to look down at me anymore," Brady pointed out.

Cadence rolled her eyes and leaned forward to kiss his forehead but he quickly ducked out the way. "Oh, I see. You're too old for me to kiss you now, right?"

"Maybe." Brady grinned, eyes lighting up. "Ask me again when I'm done being grounded." He smiled cheekily at his mother and waved, backing out of the kitchen. "Bye. Have a good Zumba class. Have a good day." He hurried out the front door and down to the school bus that waited at the curb, stopping himself before phasing through the doors. Taking a step back, he waited for the doors to open before climbing on.

"Hey." He dropped into the seat next to Conner.

"Hey." Conner put down his comic book and slapped Brady a high-five. "What's up?"

"Still grounded," Brady said.

"Same here. So what happened? I saw on the news."

"She got bit by one of the meta-spiders," Brady explained, lowering his voice. He dropped his backpack to the floor between his feet. "And the venom was making her powers mess up. Hers and Barry's fight lasted a long time. I started to think they were too evenly matched."

"Well, I'm glad everything's okay. But that fight looked so cool!" Conner grinned. "I wish I was a meta so I could fight like that."

"I haven't been able to fight at all," Brady said. He pursed his lips for a few moments. "I get it. I'm not that strong and I've only just started to get better with my sharpshooting. I guess I need some more practice. But it'd be cool."

"What do you think about Leah though? Is she going to start working at STAR Labs, too?" Conner flicked his hair from his eyes.

"Not unless they can find a way to get her parents to agree to it without knowing that STAR labs is working with The Flash." Brady rolled his head to his best friend. "Do you know anyone who can hypnotize people?"

"Not except for those magicians that used to come to our parties."

The two smiled and laughed to themselves. The bus stopped again and this time Leah climbed on. She looked at the boys hesitantly for a second then walked and sat in the seat behind them. "Hi," She said quietly.

"Hi," Conner replied. He rested his back against the side of the bus so he could equally face Leah and Brady. Brady shifted so that he was sitting on his knees and draped his arms over the back of the seat. "What's up?"

Leah immediately brightened; obviously happy they weren't going to treat her differently because of her powers. "Not much. Did you hear about the play we're going to be putting on this year? Peter Pan? I think I'm going to try out for Wendy."

"Why don't you be Peter?" Brady suggested. "You can fly without having to use a harness."

"I can't fly but I can hover," Leah explained.

"Is there anything else you can do?" Conner asked. He nodded to Brady. "He can phase through things and even blend in with his surroundings."

"Really?"

Brady nodded. "And I have this slingshot that I use too. The ammo is spheres that contain different elements and weapons. My favorite one is the smoke bomb and the flash bomb. It really helps to get out of a jam." He bobbed his head back and forth. "And to play pranks on my friends."

Conner glared at him and Brady smiled sweetly.

"Umm, I haven't had a lot of time to figure out my powers." Leah lowered her gaze. "I only just started to show them a few months ago. It seems to get worse when I stress and I'm not so good at school because I'm dyslexic. So the whole school being haunted didn't really help much. I kept thinking that people would look for the ghost and figure out it was me the whole time."

"You just have to learn how to control it," Conner said.

"Yeah, we'll help you," Brady agreed. He twisted his mouth to the side. "It's too bad we didn't do this during Halloween. We would've had a really good haunted classroom this year."

Conner and Leah laughed.

Brady looked over to Conner, about to say something then stopped. He leaned over and looked out the back window of the bus. Other students' heads bobbed in and out of his way but he could still see the car that had been following them slow down to get caught by the stop light a few streets back. Brady looked away, shaking his head.

There had to be a million reasons as to why a car would follow a school bus so closely.

* * *

It was only eight in the morning and Barry was already tired of doing paperwork. No matter how fast he could get it done, it didn't seem like the pile of paperwork ever went away. So when he heard Joe's voice wafting up the stairs of the CCPD. He sounded incredibly upset about something, something that it seemed like he was going to get after Barry for.

 _Oh no!_ Barry got to his feet and raced to the balcony of the level below him. He looked down at Iris and Joe as they stood on the stairs. Iris leaned against the banister, looking up at her father. Though her face held a serious expression, Barry could see she was trying her best not to laugh. Her eyes shifted over to Barry and he waved a hand, hoping she wouldn't rat him out and let Joe know he was there. Then again, Joe would probably go to all ends of the Earth to find him after that.

Barry told Iris to be careful but he should've known it wouldn't take long until his fatherly instincts kicked in. _Or the news spread around the CCPD. No one knows how to keep a secret around here._ Barry still blushed with embarrassment when the senior officers and detectives reminded him of the time he picked up his high school girlfriend, Becky Cooper for prom from the CCPD because he didn't have his driver's license yet.

Meeting the family was hard enough, but meeting the _police_ family nearly gave her a heart attack.

"And I can't believe you were so stupid to put yourself in danger like that," Joe was saying. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"Dad, it was a case I needed to crack," Iris defended herself. "I got a hot lead on a real estate scam. These guys have been illegally evicting people and breaking up families. It's a great story. But now I have an even better one. Another great story of The Flash protecting the city."

Now Barry started to frantically wave his arms before switching to make a cutting motion across his throat. But it was too late. Either Barry wind milled his arms too fast or Joe really had that parent's intuition for he turned around, catching Barry in the middle of his gesticulations. Barry quickly switched to waving to Joe, as if just noticing him for the first time that day.

"Hey, Joe," he greeted him. "How, how, how's it going?" He couldn't help but stutter, immediately showing his discomfort. Joe lifted his hand and wiggled his finger at Barry, making him roll his eyes and walk down the stairs to stand next to Iris. Both of Joe's kids waiting for their punishment. "So, I guess you heard what happened last night?"

"You made her jump out a window?" Joe asked.

"I didn't _make_ her. You know Iris, you can't _make_ her do anything," Barry pointed out.

"Oh thanks, Bare," Iris said.

"Don't be upset with him, you were the one who decided to become a daredevil, Evil Kinevel." Joe crossed his arms. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You thought it was a good idea to go after guys with guns?"

"Dad, I was instructed by Mr. Larkin to do the case on the illegal evictions going on in Inglewood and some of the other poorer neighborhoods of the city," Iris calmly explained. "I was just trying to be a good reporter."

"She was just trying to be a good reporter, Joe," Barry said, coming to her defense.

Joe sucked in his cheeks. A stern look came to his face which Barry recognized as his 'police mode'. It was the same expression he gave to criminals and perpetrators he was going to interrogate. "Iris, a good reporter would've checked with her editor, found out what slant he wanted for the article and _not_ thrown herself into the middle of gunfire." He reached out, placing his hand on Iris's shoulder. "10% of being a reporter is seizing the opportunity; the other 90% is preparation. And you weren't prepared."

"So you're going to tell me how to do my job now?" Iris asked. Joe gave her a look and Iris tilted her head back to look at the ceiling for a moment. "I know you're right, Dad. I really put myself in a lot of danger all for a story. Even if I thought the story was worth it, it wasn't very smart."

"Thank you." Joe cleared his throat then turned his attention to Barry. "Did you really go fast enough to pivot yourself around?" Barry relaxed, realizing that Joe was starting to smile, marveled by Barry's speed showmanship.

Iris shook her head. "It's good to know what you really care about." She leaned forward and gave Joe a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you both later. I have to talk to some officers about what I saw last night. Maybe I should say something about The Flash taking off his hood and taunting the criminals? The identity of The Flash revealed. Wouldn't that be a great article?"

"So not funny," Barry said.

Iris patted him on the shoulder. "If I go down, I'm bringing you with me. See you later." She waved over her shoulder, continuing down the stairs, long hair bouncing with each step she took.

"Bye baby," Joe said. He turned back to Barry. "You're lucky I found her first, I was about to kill you." Barry laughed, albeit nervously this time. There were many things that Joe had been trained to do and he wouldn't have been surprised if Joe found a way to kill him and make him look like an accident. If Joe found a way to kill him anyway.

"Your life would be boring without me, Joe, and you know it," Barry said. The two started down to the lobby of police headquarters. Barry brought up a hand and scratched by his eyebrow when they passed by Captain Singh's office. He still wasn't sure if the Captain knew about him being the Flash and he didn't want to be stopped and asked. The sudden question would probably throw him off enough to make him blurt out the truth.

"It'd be a lot simpler, I could tell you that." Joe stopped at his desk, taking off his jacket to drape it on his chair. "I've never had to look up so many scientific words since you were in high school." Barry chuckled. Joe joined in for a few moments before becoming serous. He nervously shuffled with papers on his desk. "So, how's your dad doing? I haven't really spoken to him since he was released from jail."

"You haven't?" Barry's eyebrows rose. The two were best friends before his father was put away. But he had been out for a little over a month now. He thought they would've seen each other all the time, Henry's apartment was only on the edge of the city, it wasn't _too_ far away.

"No. I guess…" Joe ran his hand over his mouth. "I guess I don't know what to say. Before the whole man in yellow thing turned out to be true, before you turned into The Flash I guess, some part of me really believed your dad did what he was accused of. A large part of me didn't want to believe it and I started to think maybe I was just too close to the case to have a rational mind about it. So when it was all proven to be true I felt a lot of shame. I didn't visit him as much as I should have and when I _did_ see him it was only in passing and on police business. I guess I don't expect him to see _me_."

"He's never said anything about being angry with you," Barry said.

"I don't even deserve that. Actually, I think I'd like it better if he hated me," Joe said honestly.

Barry reached out his hand, grasping his foster father's shoulder. "My dad could never hate you, Joe. He knows you were doing your job and you were doing your best with what you knew. Even he couldn't really believe what he saw that night. Besides, all he does now is read the newspaper, watch The Price Is Right, and study to make sure he can get his medical license back."

"He really wants to do that?" Joe asked.

"Well, he's not sure yet. But it's an option. If it helps, he's always happy for the company." Barry let out a low breath. "He just doesn't want to take me away from my Flash duties."

"Don't worry Bare, once everything calms down for your dad things will go back to normal. You have to remember that a _lot_ of time has passed since he was put in jail. Smart phones and laptops weren't as big then as they are now. Not to mention how many shows and movies he's missed. It's an entire life; it's not going to be easy."

Barry slowly nodded.

Joe patted him on the back and walked away from his desk.

Barry turned to go back to his office just as his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text, eyes growing wider with each word.

 **Cisco: Get to STAR Labs now. A breach has opened up.**

 _A breach? At STAR Labs?_ He wasn't quite sure what that meant but knew it had to be bad. Barry lowered his phone and started to stride out of the CCPD at a calm pace. There were too many people around for him to suddenly duck and run. Plus, Iris was still talking to the officers at the closest desk to the lobby so they weren't going to move anytime soon.

Just as Barry reached the door, Cadence was walking inside dressed in her workout clothes from teaching her early morning Zumba class. She started in the direction of the locker rooms when she noticed Barry deliberately heading towards her. Lowering a water bottle from her lips she smiled and said, "Hey, Barry. You missed it. This guy—"

"—A breach has opened in STAR Labs," he interrupted. "We have to go."

"A what?"

Barry put his arm around her waist and walked her backwards out of the CCPD and ran the two straight to the basement of STAR Labs. Arriving, Cadence dropped her bag to the ground when she noticed a swirling vortex suspending in the middle of the air. Cisco, Caitlin, Harrison, Tess, and Jay stood around it as well, all staring in awe. "So, that's a breach," Barry said.

"A what?" Cadence repeated.

"That's what allowed me to travel from my Earth to yours," Jay explained. A vein on his neck throbbed as he swallowed. "And that's how Zoom has been bringing those metas here."

"Fifty-two of them opened up," Harrison said.

"And the biggest one just so happens to be here in STAR Labs," Barry said. He would've laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. If that was how Zoom was getting in…did that mean it was how he was getting away? Was he following them the whole time? Using that breach to watch them?

Cadence seemed to have thought the same thing for she suddenly appeared very unnerved, bringing a hand up to rub the side of her neck in a fashion very similar to Barry.

"You really think we can use this as a bridge to get from your world to ours?" Cisco asked. He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Because I have to tell you, that doesn't seem to be working. Every time we chuck something at it, it comes right back." He picked up a super ball and threw it to the swirling vortex.

Seconds later it came shooting back around the room, making everyone duck out of the way. Cadence jerked her head to the side and sent a blast of heat vision from her eyes, immediately melting it before it could strike her in the nose. She turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Cisco.

"Y-you see?"

"Well, it Zoom can use it to bring metas over, then maybe a speedster can open it," Barry suggested. Before anyone could stop him he raced to the back of the room and shot forward again, crashing into the vortex. Instead of moving through it like he expected, Barry was hit with what felt like a hammer swung into him and he went flying back, crashing into Cadence, Cisco, and Caitlin, knocking the three to the ground where they all started to laugh. "Guess I'm not fast enough," he remarked.

"Obviously not fast enough to see how that wouldn't work," Caitlin agreed.

"Apparently my super ball met its untimely death for no reason," Cisco agreed. Cadence gave him a look and he gave her one back. "You owe me a super ball."

"Deal." She reached out her hand and they shook on it before pushing Barry off to get to their feet.

Tess reached over and helped Barry off the ground. "Should've tried to stop you as soon as I saw your muscles start to lock."

Barry's eyes widened. He looked over at Harrison who bobbed his head back and forth. "Her specialty is behavioral sciences. She spends a lot of time watching people to understand body language and non-verbal communication."

"Or she just knew you were going to do something stupid," Jay said.

"Hmm. He hasn't been here that long and yet he already knows you better than you know yourself," Cadence remarked. Barry glared at her and she smiled sweetly in reply.

"Right now we just need comments that'll help us figure this out, sweetie," Tess commented.

Barry's eyebrows rose at the exchange and looked to Cadence for explanation. "Oh, Tess calls everyone sweetie. She's like a 'mom' personified. So much so I think she's perpetually in the 50s minus the racism and rampant sexism."

"And it's so refreshing to have a woman's touch around here," Cisco said. He gulped loudly when Cadence, Caitlin, and Tess all glared at him. "I'll just keep my mouth shut now."

Harrison smirked. "That may be a wise decision." He reached up, tapping his fingers against his chin. "I wonder…if there's a way to think of this like a door—"

Jay smiled shook his head. "And on the other Earth there's another door, but the vortex isn't stable enough to let him through. We find a way to stabilize it; we find a way to get there."

"Exactly," Harrison agreed.

"Well, at least now we know what to do with this one," Barry said. "But what about all of the others?"

"We'll have to close those," Cadence said. "Or at least keep an eye on them to see what's going to come through them. He's always brought Sand Demon, Hydro Hunter, and Atom Smasher. Who knows what else he can throw our way?"

"Well, the only thing we can do for now is wait," Tess said. "If we go chasing after Zoom, trying to figure out where he'd show up again, we'll just waste our resources and energy. It's best just to keep an eye on these breaches from here. Besides," she pushed her hair over her shoulder. "I don't think he uses the breaches until he absolutely needs to."

"And when he does, we'll be ready," Cisco said. He stretched his arms over his head. "That being said, who wants some coffee?"

"Coffee? Really?" Caitlin asked. "At a time like this?"

"Hey, if we're going to spend our time staring at a computer screen I need to make sure I don't fall asleep," Cisco defended himself.

Cadence put her arm around his shoulders. "You spent last night playing video games again, didn't you?"

"I had to get to the next level or else I'd lose the opportunity to get the limited edition sword," Cisco said. "And you can't play Skyrim without having the legendary sword. Believe me." He pointed towards everyone. "So, coffee?"

"I'll take a cup," Caitlin agreed.

"I'm just going to stay here and watch these breaches," Jay said. "Just in case something happens."

"Bring me back something," Harrison tossed over his shoulder, continuing to watch the vortex swirl and shimmer in front of him, almost as if mesmerized by it. He brought up a hand to rub the back of his head, wincing as he did so. Almost as if he had been struck there and the swelling hadn't gone down.

"Sure thing," Cadence agreed. "Let me just get changed." In the blink of an eye she teleported, leaving her gym bag suspended in the air for a second, then re-appeared, dressed in jeans and a red and white striped shirt. Holding out her arms she caught her gym bag it hit the floor. "Okay, let's go!"

"Talk about a quick change," Caitlin remarked.

"With all of the time I spend having to smell like work, I learned to do that _very_ fast," Cadence said. She held out her arm and looped it through Caitlin's and the two walked out of the basement. Barry and Cisco followed them and the four went to Jitters.

Barry looked at his watch when they arrived. "Okay, but we have to make it fast. I'm sure Captain Singh's going to be looking for us, soon."

"Just tell him you slept in," Cadence suggested.

"It's practically impossible for me to sleep in now. My brain never shuts off so I never get completely to sleep."

"Wow, no wonder you're so high-strung."

"Maybe you should hold back on the coffee," Caitlin suggested.

"No, its okay, I'll figure something out." Barry stepped up by a table with Cisco, Caitlin, and Cadence taking their seats. "Flashes all around? And a hot chocolate for Cade?" He asked. They all nodded and he went to get the order. Barry smiled when he saw Kendra behind the counter again and ordered the drinks. Once they were prepared he picked them up and started to turn around, nearly crashing into Patty as he did so.

"Hey!" They cried in unison. Patty glanced at his drinks. "You must really like The Flash. But you should probably only drink one. The extra shot of espresso is supposed to keep you running all day and I don't think you need the extra energy."

Barry smiled. "No, I don't think so. Actually, they're not for me, they're for my friends." He nodded over to their table. "Are you sticking around to celebrate?"

"Should I?"

"For going to work with Joe and everything?"

"Actually, I have to get into work now. But can we do a rain check?" Patty smiled sheepishly, moving her blue eyes towards the ceiling for a moment. "Or, I guess, a rain check of a rain check?"

"I'm sorry?" Barry asked.

Patty gazed at him. "You know, to talk about what happened with Sand Demon."

"Oh! Yeah, no, right. Yeah, we can do a rain check of a rain check. Hopefully there's not enough metahuman attacks that'll keep you too busy," Barry said. "But take it from me, Joe's great to work with."

"I'll use that vote of confidence to get me through the day," Patty said. "Bye, Barry."

"Bye."

Barry took the drinks back to the table, carefully passing them out before sitting down. Cadence started to say something then stopped when Barry zoomed back to the counter, re-appearing with a Blueberry muffin in his hand. Her eyes lit up. "Aw, you remembered!"

"How could I forget? It's all you ever order," Barry teased.

Cadence gently shoved him on the shoulder then pecked his cheek.

"Mhm, I see what time it is," Cisco said, his lips inches away from the rim of his mug. "You thought you could keep this from me and Caitlin. Well, now we know what sort of dynamic we have going on over here." He looked over at Caitlin, who pursed her lips and focused on reading the menu. "Wha? Did you? Did you know? Am I the only one who didn't know?"

"I didn't tell her," Barry said."Only because, I just…I didn't think there was anything to tell."

"No one told me, I just guessed," Caitlin said.

"Caitlin Isabelle Snow! How could you not tell me?" Cisco planted his hands on his hips. "I'm your best friend."

"Excuse me," Cadence broke in. " _I'm_ her best friend."

"Okay, you're obviously new here. Me and Cait, we've had this thing going on for a while." Cisco rapidly stabbed his finger onto the counter top. "So I've got the best friend corner marketed. And don't even think about saying that Barry's your best friend, mkay? Because it's bros before—"

Cadence glared at him, letting out a low growl. Barry whistled and made a show of sipping his Flash, not wanting to get in the middle of it. Even from where he sat he could see steam suddenly rise out of Cisco's mug as Cadence heated it up.

Holding out her hands, Caitlin tried to stave off the argument before it could start. "Well, the way I see it, things are like a friendship square." Barry raised an eyebrow. Caitlin continued her explanation, looking pleased with herself. "Cisco is Barry's and my best friend. I'm Cisco's and Cade's best friend. Cade is my and Barry's best friend. And Barry is Cade's and Cisco's best friend. A friendship square!"

Barry placed his mug down on the table top. "So you're saying you're not my best friend?" He did his best to work up his 'wounded puppy' expression to put as much guilt onto Caitlin as much as possible. It worked as her eyes widened and she did her best to try to explain herself, only managing to get out, "I didn't say that" before dissolving into babbles.

"It's okay, Cait, I was just joking."

"Uh-huh, yeah. So that just means that neither of these two can live without the two of us so I think we're in good standing," Cisco said to Cadence, making the table laugh. He took a long sip of his mug and immediately spat it out, burning his tongue. In his haste, he jumped backwards, crashing into someone, making Barry, Caitlin, and Cadence laugh harder. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"No need to apologize, Cisco," Lisa Snart drawled, turning to face him. "You can bump into me any day."

All laughter immediately ceased.

"Lisa Snart," Cisco said. His eyebrows came together as he looked over her.

Barry swallowed hard, watching her intently. There were only a few reasons why she would be around and none of them were particularly good. Lisa followed in her brother's footsteps so much that she didn't know anything other than robbing people and taking down whomever got in her way. The muscles in Barry's legs twitched, waiting for him to run and stop whatever was going to happen.

"Cisco Ramon," she replied. It took a few seconds for her stern expression to soften. "Look, I know we aren't on the best terms. But I need your help. And The Flash's."

"You want _The Flash's_ help?" Caitlin asked.

Lisa turned her gaze to her. "No need to be jealous, Caitlin. I really do just need Cisco's help. I'm not going to do anything to him or anyone else." She looked at Cisco and took a step closer to him. "Please? Call the Flash. I think my brother's been kidnapped."

In the next few moments the group was back in STAR Labs' Cortex with Barry and Cadence dressed up in their suits. Snart and Mick may have known their identities but Lisa didn't and they needed to think things that way to keep their identities a secret for a few days longer. Barry was just glad the others were still in the basement. It would be harder to keep things calm with Lisa there. And he waited for her explanation, skeptical of every word that came from her mouth.

"So you're telling me that he was kidnapped?" Barry asked. "Like, for real?"

"I'm telling the truth," Lisa said. She sighed and stared to stroll around the Cortex, eyes darting around each piece of expensive equipment. Almost like a jeweler pricing everything in her mind. Caitlin watched her, eyes narrowed with disdain. "Last night Lenny, me, and Mick, were knocking over the cashier's cage at the Central City racetrack."

Barry glanced at Cadence at the mention of Mick's name. Her head tilted to the side as she listened to Lisa. Other than the wisps of fire that started to show around her fingertips, she didn't react.

"Is it physically impossible for you to not rob people?" Caitlin asked her.

"We didn't finish the job. Mick torched open the side of the building for a getaway and I saw Lenny getting thrown into the back of the van. I would've followed but someone knocked me out. When I came to, Lenny was gone and Mick took the cash." She rubbed her hands together. "Now, if I remember correctly. You owe Lenny a favor for having him and Mick return those metas that you let go away."

Caitlin pursed her lips. "I don't like her," she said.

"She's got a point though, "Cisco said. Caitlin glared at him. "Is today everybody hates Cisco day?" He asked. "She _has_ a point. We should at least hear her out."

"Even if we wanted to help, how are we supposed to find him?" Barry asked.

Cisco snapped his fingers. "That's where I come in handy. You see when I rebuilt the cold gun I didn't have the time to place a tracker on it. So I devised a method of locating it by borrowing some military technology. It works the same as thermal imaging only instead of infrared heat signatures it's looking for ultraviolet cold signatures."

"That's brilliant," Barry said.

"Yeah, if it works," Cisco agreed. "It only will if he had the cold gun on him."

All eyes turned to Lisa. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember. "He had it during the raid but after that…I don't know if it was left behind." She sounded apologetic. Sincere. She had every opportunity to turn back and attack them but she continued to watch the group as Cisco went to his computer to look. Her eyes were filled with concern.

She had to be telling the truth. Besides, if she weren't, Cadence would've figured it out pretty quickly.

"Mm. I'm not getting anything from this. Unless he's found a way to detect the tracker…" Cisco shook his head. Caitlin laid her hand on his shoulder in comfort. Frustration slid over his face as he continued to try tracking across the city.

Cadence noticed Barry looking at her.

She looked at him. "I know nothing about tech,"

He sighed. "No; but you know about being a criminal."

Cadence twisted her mouth to the side. "Give me a half hour. I'll find him." And with that, she teleported from the Cortex.

* * *

Barry took a deep breath and knocked on the front door. He didn't have a lot of time before they had to go after Snart, but he couldn't wait on this. He had already waited long enough. His conversation with Joe earlier that day had put a fire under his put—no pun intended—to do it.

The door opened and Ryder looked at Barry in confusion, his eyes widening in surprise then confusion when he took in Barry standing in front of him in his Flash suit, hood pulled down his back. "I'm hoping people will think it's a late Halloween costume," he explained quickly.

"Honestly, Barry, I don't think many people will jump straight to you being The Flash," Ryder said. His eyebrow rose. "You look a little…young?"

Barry sighed. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"What are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here? I looked at the construction site first…"

"I have the day off." Ryder took a step back to allow Barry into the house. Barry nodded gratefully and took the invitation to go inside. "I've just been hanging around here all day. And becoming suspicious of nearly every spider I've come across." He smiled an impish smile, running a hand through his hair. "Otherwise, I'm starting to get used to these things happening. Considering you're dressed like that I'm sure you're working on something."

"Yeah. Yeah, and I know you don't really want to be involved in all of this stuff. But you really did help, giving us the blue prints to the sewer system and everything."

"You're welcome."

There was a long pause in the conversation. Barry watched as Ryder eyed him warily. So much so he wondered if he was being X-Ray'd. Either that or his paranoia was starting to go out of control. He dealt with a Black Flash and now a Zoom that could appear out of nowhere that every shadow he saw out of the corner of his eye made him whip his head around and send his heart racing. His paranoia was justified, but it was starting to become out of control.

"So…you didn't come here just to tell me that did you?" Ryder asked.

"No, I, uh. I wanted to talk to you about something else," Barry said. "About Cade. And Brady."

Ryder smiled. "You finally asked her out again?"

Surprise flashed over Barry's face. Caught off-guard, he nearly lost his balance. "How'd you know about that?" He shook his head. "Wait, you're okay with it?"

"No offense, Barry, but you have to be blind to have missed it," Ryder said. He held up his hands. "Either that or I'm just speaking from experience. I didn't know she was flirting with me until we went to get something to eat and I asked if it was a date. To my surprise we were on our _third_ date at the time." Ryder crossed his arms, shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be okay with it?"

"I don't, uh, because of Brady," Barry said.

Ryder's lips twitched. "How could I not notice that he worships you?" Barry shuffled his feet. "Look, I'm not blaming you for anything, Barry. I'm glad you're his friend. He needed someone when I wasn't there and…you were. I'm glad you listen to him and talk to him and help him with his homework when he needs it. And Caitlin and Cisco, too. I'm glad for all of you guys being in his life. I'm not jealous but I get it."

"If it helps," Barry broke in. He licked his lips. "I have to give you major props for coming back and wanting to be in his life. That's what I came here to tell you. That I know how you're feeling. It wasn't just him that missed out on time spent with you, but you missed them, too. Everything moved on without you and you're trying to find your footing again. I just wanted to let you know, that even if Brady doesn't say it, he appreciates the effort. My dad and I…he was in jail for a long time and all I wanted was for him to come back and be my dad again but he couldn't. Not that he's out, I realize a lot of my life went on without him and I have to try to make him feel normal again. And the rest of us, we don't want you to feel like you're being pushed out or anything.

"I know it's not much, but—"

"—No, I get it." Ryder held his hand out to Barry. Barry held out his hand and grabbed Ryder's, shaking it firmly. "Thanks, Barry."

"You're welcome, man."

The emblem on Barry's chest vibrated and Barry pressed his hand to it. "What's up?"

"I found him," Cadence's voice came from the suit. "Let's go."

* * *

 **A/N:** So this was a little more lighthearted compared to the last chapter. I hope it wasn't out of place.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Yes, that was Earth-2 Wells. Now he just needs to make his official appearance. And, of course, there's a reason Harrison and Tess haven't said anything about seeing him yet.

 **Ethan:** As explained here, Tess calls everyone's sweetie. She just has that motherly disposition. However, as it is with stories that start at a significant time jump after the one before, there's a lot I can't show. Of the things I haven't shown is the Wells family and their interactions with each other. With the way they speak they're closer to each other than they were the last story but what I couldn't show is that during the six month absence they've spent a lot of time together working in STAR Labs while Barry wasn't there. So to Barry he confused as to why they're closer 'all of a sudden' while to everyone else it's not weird. That being said, Cade, Brady, Harrison, and Tess have dinner together every Sunday so they do spend time together outside of working at STAR Labs.

 **Guest:** Thanks! Glad you liked it!

 **DarkHelm145:** Thank you! I hope this one was as good. I know it wasn't as fast-paced as the last one but I hope it continues to keep you interested. Especially now that Harry is here. I mean, there has to be a reason Harrison and Tess haven't mentioned anything about seeing him, right? ;)

 **yummers:** That's a really good question, and only time will tell. Their powers work well together but work well to beat each other as well.

 **For those wondering **, this story is updated every week on Wednesday. I'll let you know if I change the day.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	16. Unseen Forces

**.:16:.**

 _Unseen Forces  
_

* * *

Barry coughed and waved a hand in front of his face, removing the smoke that had been blown in his direction the second he stepped into the bar. Cadence, who was significantly shorter than him, managed to steer clear of the haze calmly walked in after him.

"You're sure he's here?" Barry asked. His eyes watered and he turned to the side to cough.

Cadence chuckled and patted him on the back. "I'm sure. It didn't take too long to find him in a robbery in progress. He was working with some other guy who, surprisingly, isn't Mick."

Finally regaining composure from his coughing fit, Barry turned to her with wide eyes. "You let them get away?"

"I wouldn't have been able to track him here if I hadn't, Barry, relax. Something like this is like a two second job for us. Sometimes you have to think outside the box, you know?" Cadence said. She looked over at Barry, who eyed the dive bar with a nervous expression. "Besides, you don't need to be too uncomfortable, I'm going home with you." Leaning back and forth, Cadence looked around and found Snart sitting in a back booth, slowly picking off his plate, not paying attention to those playing pool and smoking around him. "There he is."

"C'mon."

Barry lead the way over to Snart's table, walking with an air of determination. He and Cadence slid into the seat across from him, with Snart barely looking up from his plate of steak, French fries, and ketchup. His steel eyes flicked back and forth over their faces.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you here," Snart drawled. He bobbed his head back and forth. "Barry, I mean. You're a little too..." he picked up a fry and waved it in front of him, as if drawing his outline. "straight-laced to make runs out here to dives." Then he glanced at Cadence. "You, I get. Word on the street is that Mick has been letting you know the way the world truly works." Cadence's eyes narrowed. She clenched her hands into fists. "I wouldn't. This place may look like a dive but they have enough security cameras around to make even the worst criminal's blood run cold."

He swallowed his bite and picked up another fry the nodded to Barry. "Pass me the salt."

Barry did as he was told, reaching over to grab the crystal salt shaker. He examined it for a second. Surely the only reason it was there was due it being stolen from somewhere else. Funny how Snart mentioned the security around and yet it was a place where the people on the wrong side of the tracks tended to go. As far as Barry knew, he would've expected Snart to be at the Motorcar Diner. He had mentioned it the last time they encountered each other.

"Don't spill," Barry said, handing the shaker over. "It's bad luck."

Snart, who had just finished pouring salt over his food, placed the salt shaker on the table and promptly knocked it over with a flick of his finger.

"Why are you here?" Snart finally asked.

"Your sister sent us to find you," Barry explained. He leaned forward, resting his arms on the sticky table top. He could practically feel his arms suctioning to the table as he did so. "She said you two and Mick were knocking up—"Snart smirked at the two. Barry cleared his throat. "Knocking _down_ the racetrack and you were taken by someone."

He continued to eat silently. Every few seconds Snart would loll his head to his other shoulder as if weighing the words Barry had said. Cadence twisted her mouth to the side, silently watching him. He clearly didn't care too much about what was going on around him. But Cadence could see the very slight way his shoulders tensed, could sense his body temperature rise slightly. He was getting a little nervous.

Finally, Snart asked, "Does it look like I was taken by anyone?"

"Maybe not taken, maybe working with them against your will," Barry said. "I thought you only worked with Mick."

"Mick, has been a little preoccupied lately," Snart said.

Cadence's eyebrows came together. Mick had said the same thing when he had revealed himself to her before. Something about Snart working with someone…Ah. That was it. Cadence stared hard at Snart, willing for him to say or do something different to tip them off. "Mick says you were working with your dad."

"Well it sounds like you and Mick have a special sort of relationship going on if you're sharing secrets like that," Snart said. The corners of his lips turned up. "I'd be careful if I were you. I've worked with Mick for a long time and once he gets his mind on something…" he let out a low whistle, shaking his head.

"Why are you working with Lewis?" Barry demanded. "I thought you worked alone."

Snart rolled his eyes. A movement that was usually reserved for the most pessimistic of times or for hormonal teenagers was a strange movement for Snart. Almost as if he didn't have a care in the world. Coming from the guy that planned every one of his heists down to the letter, dotting t's and crossing i's, that him being so normal made a chill move down Cadence's spine.

It was probably just what he wanted.

"Things are…complicated with family," Snart explained. He rested his elbows on the table, and his chin atop his hands, steepling his fingers. His eyes bore into Barry's as he said, "As you know with your own parents."

Cadence looked at Barry out of the corner of her eye, noticing his jaw tighten, how his Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed hard, trying not to let Snart's words get to him. "What's going on?" Barry demanded.

Snart sat up straight, rolling his eyes once more. "Don't try that song and dance with me, Barry. You can't leave well enough alone and have to be the hero for everything. Don't waste your time trying to save people who want to be saved."

"I bet whatever you're up to other people are going to be hurt."

"Unlike a lot of things, I don't go back on my deals. If you leave me alone, no one dies."

"You're a criminal and you live by a code."

Cadence flinched.

 _"I get it. You want to stay on the good side of the tracks. I hate to break it to you, but it's not like you have any space to talk about what's right and wrong. Reality check, princess. You're not better than any of he rest of us. You've stolen and you've murdered just as many people as we have for your own personal gain. But you continue to think of yourself as a good person, above those who continue to commit crimes, as a hero for the people of this city. Are you sure about that?"_

It was funny, now that she thought about it. It was like when she was still part of the Assassination Bureau, how often Breathtaker would put his voice into her head, how he would make Mindboggler put her back in line with the many illusions she could create.

 _It's almost like he's doing this all over,_ Cadence thought. Her stomach clenched. No. That was more horrifying than anything else she had seen or done. The thought of it happening all over again made her blood run cold, her hands clench, her muscles tighten, and a cold sweat run down her spine. If she had Brady's powers she was sure she would sink all the way to the center of the Earth, the thought grounded her so badly.

"But he doesn't," Barry was saying when Cadence focused her attention on him once more. "It seems like he won't care if people die. I can't leave this alone."

Snart wiggled his finger the same way a parent would to reprimand their child. "Then everyone will know who you are under that mask."

'I don't care. I will take you down anyway." Barry leaned forward. "Both of you."

Snart nodded. He slowly smiled. "We'll see about that."

Cadence's eyes narrowed. She had noticed something in Snart's demeanor as he said it. It wasn't his eyes, as expressive as they were, he was very careful to allow them to show certain things when he pleased. No, it was something with his posture. Nearly as soon as his father was mentioned he hunched in on himself and became a little more hostile than usual. There was something about the mere _mention_ that set him off. She understood almost immediately.

"We will," Cadence said firmly.

Snart shifted his eyes to her.

"If we take him down, you'll be glad he's gone," she continued. "I actually think that's why you weren't trying to hide you've been working with him instead of Mick and Lisa."

"Oh really? And what made you think that?"

"Because I know guys like you," Cadence explained. Her eyes narrowed. "I've worked with people like you. I _was_ like you once upon a time. So don't think you can pull one over on me." She paused for him to let the words sink in, hoping he wouldn't call her bluff. "But you…you working with your father is a special case because I know what he's done to you. I've seen the same thing in many of the kids that I've worked with. Those who were too afraid to say anything in case they suffered the wrath of their parents. Ones who literally trembled with fear when I asked their parents to leave the room so I could examine them and then shut down once they were brought back. I know you're afraid of him."

Snart's eyes narrowed as he ever so slowly tilted his head to the side.

"You're afraid of him because you know what he can do. Rather than the man that has grown up without him in your life, you're still that scared little boy you've always been around him. I don't blame you, knowing what he's done, knowing how helpless you've felt, how powerless. It's why you continue to do what you do, not just because you're good at it but because it's all you've known. It gives you power. I understand that. But what you don't understand is that's not real power. That's a false sense of security. _Real_ power…is taking your life back from him. Taking off his hold over you."

Cadence nodded to Barry. "And if you help us help you…you can do that."

Silently, Snart reached out and grabbed his napkin. He dabbed at his lips and wiped off his fingers. Then, without breaking eye contact, he stood up from the booth. "Thanks for dinner." He walked away as the waitress came back to the table with the check.

Barry picked it up and shook his head, tossing it aside.

Cadence reached out and grabbed onto Snart's plate and pulled it towards her, picking up a couple of fries to eat them. "That was probably the worst thing I've ever said to someone," she murmured.

Barry reached out and put his arm around her shoulders, gently rubbing his back to comfort her, like she had done earlier that day. He must've sensed she didn't want to talk about it. Twisting his mouth to the side, Barry pulled out his wallet to pay for the meal. "Something tells me we need to have a conversation with Lisa."

He paid the bill and the two left the bar. Once they stepped outside, Barry was about to race away, but stopped when he noticed Cadence slowly walking out after him. She looked at the ground, her eyebrows furrowed together in an intense frown.

"Hey." Barry reached out and cupped her face in his hands. His eyes searched hers and she turned her head away. But he made her turn back to him. He hadn't seen her so dispirited before. "Look at me, okay? I know what you're thinking."

"I doubt it," she mumbled.

Still, Cadence couldn't help but look back at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "You're nothing like him, or Mick okay? Not at all. And you can't think like you are. You're working hard to move on from what you did before and I wouldn't even dream of having you as my partner if I didn't think you were the best to do it."

Cadence slowly started to smile at his earnest words. There were many good things that could be said about Barry, and his way of seeing the positives in everything was certainly one of them. Cadence reached up and placed her hand on Barry's neck, gently stroking it.

"If I'm not mistaken, I've saved your butt more than you saved mine, so I think that means that you _my_ sidekick."

"I got a drink named after me before you did so…"

"I'm going to kick your butt, Barry."

* * *

Barry raced into STAR Labs, put his suit back on, and placed his hands on his hips as he strolled to her. Lisa raised an eyebrow, looking back at him.

"So your bother wasn't kidnapped," he said, moving into her space. She eyed him with obvious disdain but didn't respond. Her eyes shifted over to Caitlin and Cisco before turning back to Barry. "He was pulling a job with your father."

Lisa blinked in surprise. She took a step back and shook her head, blonde tresses flying as she did so."What? No! Lenny would never do that."

Caitlin pursed her lips. "Just like he would never try to kill the Flash with a cold gun," she said sarcastically.

Lisa waved her off. She grabbed the front of Barry's suit, making Cisco stand up and Cadence move to take a step toward them. She relaxed her grip, her hand shaking and when she spoke next her voice was trembling quietly. "Are you sure it was my dad?"

"We're sure," Cadence said. "Snart all but confirmed it for us."

Pressing her fingertips to her temples, Lisa shook her head. She turned her back to the team and paced for a few moments. Then she lowered her hands and crossed her arms. "You have to believe me; Lenny would never work with him. He's a bad man."

"You and your entire family are criminals," Caitlin said, throwing her hands into the air. "You broke him and Mick out of the armored car that was taking them to Iron Heights. You continue to rob people. Why should we trust anything you say?"

"Why do you trust me?" Cadence asked. Her eyes widened and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth, as if she had meant to think it, rather than say it out loud.

Her question stunned the room. Barry looked at her, his wounded puppy expression returning. Caitlin faltered for a moment. She took a step back and looked over at Cisco, who looked to be as stumped by her question, if not as uncomfortable. Caitlin brought her hand up and ran it through her hair, then turned back to Lisa, silently raising her eyebrows.

Lisa's eyes lowered. She grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled it over to reveal a scar running vertically over her clavicle.

"I didn't get this scar being a criminal," she admitted. "I got it being a daughter. The first time he came after me I was seven. The second time it was eight. It was when I learned that a bottle hurts worse than a fist. He used to say he was trying to teach us lessons. I must've been a slow leaner; the lessons never stopped." Lisa moved her collar back into place. "Look, he may be a jerk brother but he's the only jerk brother I've got. He protected me and now it's my turn. If he's with my dad, he's in serious trouble."

Barry let out a long breath. "There's nothing we can do to help him now. We'll have to wait for the next time they strike."

"Know my dad, it's not going to be too long," Lisa said.

"Ohhh, I know that means," Cisco decalred. "It's a stakeout, right?"

"If by stakeout you mean you man the computers while we get back to work then, yeah," Cadence said. She walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Though it looks to me like you're going to be in some good company."

Cisco laughed sarcastically back to her, his eyes darting over to Lisa as she strolled around the Cortex, gently running her fingers over the computer desk. Barry and Cadence changed out of their suits and left STAR Labs in the blink of an eye.

Caitlin pursed her lips once more, eyeing Lisa. "I'm going to go see how things are going with Jay." She whipped her head around to Cisco, who rested his chin in his hand. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Honestly, Cait, that's a lot of things," Cisco pointed out.

Caitlin pointed at him and walked down to the basement. She pulled her hair back behind her shoulders and rubbed her hands together, walking into the room. Her eyes immediately landed on the swirling vortex in front of her. Then she noticed jay walking out from behind it, rubbing his hands on a dirty towel.

"Working hard?" She asked.

"Hardly working," Jay replied with a half smile. "I'm not making a lot of progress with this, unfortunately."

"It _looks_ like you are," Caitlin said helpfully.

"Well I am, just a little slowly," Jay mused. "I guess I'm a little preoccupied. Not sure what's going to happen if this works. What I'll do if I go back to my Earth. There was a lot of work I was doing, things I never thought I could do. But when the Particle Accelerator explosion happened, all of the lives I saved, all of the things I could do since I was suddenly so fast…there's nothing like that rush. Sometimes, I feel that Barry hasn't had a lot of time to take things in, to understand how great it can feel."

Caitlin tilted her head. "Not within the last couple of months, no. He's been really into himself, suffering from the people we've lost. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if he and Cade suffer from depression. There's so many things they do but losing Eddie and…and Ronnie like that…the way Barry turned in on himself and how Cade threw herself into saving people…it must be hard."

"That I can understand," Jay said. He hung his head for a moment, then reached up to swipe off his fringe, leaving a streak of grease behind. "With my speed, I could save so many people. But if I missed that one…just one…it was like a knife stabbing my heart. And then you can only focus on those that you lost, no matter how many times you manage to save other people."

"But superheroes suffering from depression? When they have the entire world at their fingertips?" Caitlin asked. "I have a rational mind but…that's a little hard to believe."

"Why not? They're still human."

Caitlin lifted her chin. She looked Jay in the eye. That was true. She had seen Barry at his worst and at his best and continued to cheer him on and help him out every time he needed some help. Then Cadence came along and despite the tumultuous start they had she jumped in and worked twice as hard to make up for killing Barry and the other things she had done, all with a continuous smile on her face. But apart from her anger she didn't show her emotions so much while Barry showed them all the time.

Maybe she hadn't been paying too close attention to how they were feeling when they were all so busy trying to find their self-wroth through protecting Central City. She snapped to attention when Jay said, "You know, with as slow as things are going with this, I could use some help. More specifically a surgeon's touch."

Caitlin smiled. "I'd love to," she said. "But maybe later, I actually have somewhere I need to be."

"A date?" A laugh escaped Caitlin's lips. A strained one. She hadn't thought of dating since Ronnie died. It was so funny how things like that didn't seem to take up so much space in her life when it didn't need to be anymore. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed—"

"—No, it's okay. Actually, I'm just going to see a former colleague of mine," Caitlin said. "But when that's done I'll be glad to help. Thank you for the offer."

Now Jay smiled. "Anytime, Dr. Snow."

Caitlin nodded. She backed out of the room, continuing to smile, before heading to the parking lot. (Not after peaking in on Cisco and Lisa to be sure everything was the way it should be). Then she drove to Central City University's science department and parked in the parking lot. There were already a lot of people streaming in and out of the building and from where she sat, she could see through the windows of the front room, saw Dr. Wangari Hollowell giving her strained smile at her current and former students. Well, all of them were to be her former students as she was retiring.

How surprised Caitlin had been to receive an invitation in the mail to her former professor's retirement party. She hadn't though it would be so soon the Dr. would decide to stop teaching her studies on thermal physics. Caitlin owed some of her research interests and her academic progression to the doctor, she single-handedly being the one to write her letter of recommendation for STAR Labs as well as being her academic advisor and on her team for her Master's Thesis on Cryogenics. Dr. Hollowell was the one who had suggested that Caitlin go on the research expedition to Antarctica with Crystal Frost and Louise Lincoln…that trip never came to fruition. Caitlin's father had passed and her mother couldn't bring herself out of her pain to let Caitlin leave.

Still, Dr. Hollowell had been supportive and helped Caitlin in many other ways, pushing her. Sometimes she pushed too hard, Caitlin and the rest of her classmates started to call her 'Doctor Melting Point' because of the way she worked hem to their breaking point in 'lessons of humility' when they started to cry. Caitlin equally hated and admired her.

Stepping out of her car, Caitlin hoisted her purse over her shoulder and walked towards the building. She made it halfway up the path when a familiar gait caught her attention. Caitlin smiled and hurried to catch up. "Professor Stein!"

Professor Martin Stein turned and blinked at her before smiling. He opened his arms to give her a hug. "Caitlin, it's so good to see you. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Dr. Hollowell," Caitlin explained. "She was one of my professors. And you? How's Clarissa?"

"Clarissa is as lovely as ever. As for me and Dr. Hollowell, she's an old colleague, we go way back." Professor Stein turned and gently placed his hand on Caitlin's back to implore them to continue walking. "Actually, we've done many academic conferences and trips with each other over the years. We've traveled the world."

"Really?" Caitlin asked. She couldn't keep the disbelief from her voice.

"I may be past my prime, young lady, but there was a time where I wanted nothing more than to travel," Professor Stein reassured her. There was a warm twinkle in his eye as he added, "Or am I to assume you're referring to her…shall we say stoic demeanor?"

"Stoic isn't the first word I'd use, but I agree," Caitlin said. She sniffed. "Dr. Hollowell really pushed me on my academics. Her studies on thermal physics worked well with my studies on biologic makeup and cryogenic studies, despite them being complete differences."

"Yes, fire and ice. Then it is certainly fate that has been brought up in many aspects of your life."

Caitlin smiled sadly.

Professor Stein squeezed her shoulder. "It's alright. Surprisingly I miss young Ronald, myself. He could be a bit of a pain in the ass, as you kids say, but he wasn't one to be anything but himself. And he really was quite adventurous, we had that in common."

"Yeah, he taught me how to take more risks," Caitlin said.

"And the same for me." He brought a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at a line of sweat that suddenly appeared on his forehead. "Now, I do find these parties to be quite dreadful at times and have even skipped out on mine after a while." He held open the door of the science building for Caitlin to go in, in front of him. "So what do you say that when we're over the mind numbing game of who is more accomplished than the other, we go find each other to get the drink we'll inevitably need."

Caitlin laughed. This time a real, genuine laugh. As much of an older gentleman Martin Stein appeared to be, he certainly knew how to live life to the fullest. "I'd like that." She held out her arm. "Shall we?"

Professor Stein hesitated for a moment, bringing a hand to his chest. He turned away, rubbing at his forehead once more, then looped his arm through hers. "We shall."

* * *

"Everyone move back, she can't throw!"

Brady frowned. One of his classmates walked up to the pitcher's mound, nervously twisting her baseball back and forth in her hands. She hadn't been getting any good throws since his class decided to play baseball during recess and the rest weren't going easy on her. It didn't surprise Brady at all; since he finally defended himself against his bully his mom had warned him he would just move on to another target and it seemed like she was it.

He shifted his mitt to his left hand, bringing his right up to shield his face. Brady watched the bully, who laughed along with his friends who backed further into outfield. Then an idea came to him and he smiled to himself. Lifting his chin, Brady looked at Conner, who stood on first base, who smiled and nodded. His smile widening even further, Brady lowered himself into a crouched position and held up his mitt to catch the ball.

When he was sure all eyes were on the girl and the bully, he reached out his hand and very gently pressed his fingertip to his ankle. The pitch was thrown and Brady used his powers to gently move himself and the bully a few inches into the ground. Slow enough so that no one else would notice, but enough for it to make a difference. The ball lamely arched through the air towards him. The bully swung the bat and would've hit the ball head on if it hadn't been for Brady's powers on him. Instead, the top of his bat grazed the ball, hitting it up into the air.

The bully tried to start moving, but with his feet firmly in the ground, he tripped sideways, falling to the ground. Brady rose the two out of the ground, then the bully got up and started to run. Then something even more amazing happened where the ball did a wide arch through the air and struck him on the head.

"Ow!" the bully brought his hand up to the lump that formed on his head, slowing to a walk. He looked up towards the sky, allowing the ball to bounce along the ground and roll into Conner's waiting hands.

Conner reached out and tapped the bully on the chest with the ball. "You're out," he said simply.

The bully glared at him and stormed off the field just as a whistle was blown by their teacher, signaling them to get back to class. Conner ran over to Brady. "That was awesome! I didn't know you could control the ball like that."

"I can't," Brady said.

The two walked to the edge of the field where Leah was waiting for them, holding onto a jump rope. "Did I do okay?" She asked. "I didn't think I could reach from all the way over here."

"Yeah, it was cool," Conner agreed.

"Good job," Brady said. "I don't think he's going t be messing around with anyone else from now on. Sort of wish I could've used my sling shot at least once, through." Conner and Leah laughed. The three started towards the school then Brady stopped. He turned towards the fence and grabbed onto it, hefting himself up. _Man, for someone who's so good at protecting Star City, he doesn't really know how to blend in._ "Oliver!" He started to wave his arms. "Oliver!"

Oliver leaned out of sight in the driver's seat of his car for a few seconds. Then, seeming to realize he was caught, he opened the door and walked over to the fence. "Hey," Oliver greeted him with a tight smile.

"What are you doing here?" Brady asked.

"I was, just waiting for a friend," Oliver explained. "There's some things that we need to talk about and he said he'd meet me nearby."

"Barry?"

"No, no, someone else." Oliver then blinked, tilting his head. He crouched down so that he was at Brady's height and looked him in the eye. "You know, you shouldn't call over strangers like this. It's not safe."

"You're not a stranger," Brady pointed out.

"Still, maybe you shouldn't mention to your mom that you saw me here today."

"Why?"

"She probably wouldn't be so happy about it."

Brady smirked. "Clearly, you haven't met my mom." He jumped down from the fence and motioned to his friends. "These are my friend Conner and Leah. Guys, this is Oliver Queen."

"Hi." Leah waved.

Conner nodded. "My mom talks about you," he said.

Oliver looked taken aback. "She does?"

"Yeah, she says that you're going to run for mayor of Star City or something," Conner said. He rubbed his nose. "I don't really know. I don't watch the news."

Oliver chuckled. "Well, that's only a rumor. I'm busy doing a lot of other things for that." He narrowed his eyes at Brady, who was doing his best not to let anything show on his face. "Well, I think I should let you go to class. I know I'm not one who has much say in this—"

"Stay in school?" Leah guessed.

"As long as you can," Oliver agreed. "There's not a lot you can do in life if you don't have an education to fall back on." He turned to go, taking one last look at Conner, who looked back at him, tilting his head to the side, his eyebrows coming together. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Bye,"

Oliver went back to his car and the three kids went inside.

Neither of them noticed the car sitting two streets away with a camera pointed towards them.

* * *

Barry and Cadence had only been at work for a few hours when things started to come full circle. They got called to a crime scene where a body had been found with a missing head. After deducing it wasn't from decapitation but from a bomb that had been placed in the person's head, they then got the information that the man that had been murdered was a colleague of Lewis Snart. Figuring that out, Barry then realized the only way Snart was willingly working with his father was because Lisa had to have a bomb planted in her head as well.

After explaining it to Cadence the two hurried back to STAR Labs where they found Lisa and Cisco watching Soap Operas, specifically with Cisco explaining in detail the background of a relationship of two characters that spanned a decade when they burst in. Changing into their suits once more, Barry immediately went to scan Lisa's head and neck.

"The micro-bomb casing must be made with some kind of a ferromagnetic material," Barry said. He dropped the scanner to his palms, trying to find the entry point of the implantation. Lewis had to know what he was doing, he didn't find anything.

"Maybe we can remove it," Cadence said. "Have Flash or even Shadowhunter take it out."

"No, that's too risky," Cisco said. "That magnet you're holding is running the risk of making it combust with magnetic friction of oxidation." Barry and Cadence immediately took a step back from Lisa, who looked on with wide eyes. "I'll think of something."

"And in the meantime, Lewis and Snart are planning their next heist," Cadence said. "Guys like these, they don't wait too long to make another hit. The more they can get done in a short amount of time, the better the chance they have of coming up with an alibi."

"So we need to know what they're going to do and when they're going to do it," Barry said. He snapped his fingers. "What if we could get them to tell us?"

"And you're going to do that, how?" Cisco asked slowly.

"They're tech guy is dead and they're going to need a new one," Barry said. "So we infiltrate Lewis's crew,"

"You're going to pretend to be a criminal?" Cisco raised an eyebrow.

Barry shrugged. "How hard can it be?"

Cadence held up a hand. "Again, I know nothing about tech,"

"But you know about being a criminal."

The expression on Cadence's face stayed static as she asked, "You're not going to stop bringing that up are you?"

A few minutes later found Barry and Cadence walking into Snart's and Lewis's hideout. Snart turned towards them, holding his cold gun to their chests. "I know you can be hard to dissuade but what part of I don't need you to save me do you not understand?"

"You may not need us to save you, but you want to save your sister," Barry said. Snart faltered, slowly lowering his cold gun, glaring at the two. "We know about the bomb Lewis put in her, we're working to get it out."

Snart finally lowered his arm, pressing it to his side. "I hope you don't think that if you do this, I'll owe you something." He looked at Cadence. "Some bigger than others."

Cadence took a breath. "Get Mick to back off," she said.

"I'm not a miracle worker. I already told you, one he gets his mind on something it's hard to get it off." Snart lifted his cold gun and twisted it in his hands, his eyes roving over the blue glow it emitted. "Once he got a taste of what these guns could do he wanted more. Color me surprised when he managed to get that super computer from STAR Labs that had all of your information on it." He lifted his gaze once more. "You really need to work on your security."

Cadence clenched her teeth.

"Mick and I haven't worked together in some time. But even I know what his weaknesses are; money and women. Unfortunately, due to your heritage, you encompass both. Not to mention the power you have of being a meta." He thought for a moment. "I'll tell you what, the next time I come into contact with Mick I'll have a word with him."

"What do you want in return?" Barry asked.

"I'll let you know. I already have immunity from the Flash, there's so much to choose from." Snart looked over as his father walked their way. Even in the darkness of the warehouse, Barry could see the discomfort that flashed across Snart's face before it disappeared.

Lewis glared at Barry and Cadence as he approached. "Who the hell are you?" He demanded.

Thinking quick on his feet, Barry thrust his hand out towards Lewis. "Uh, Lenny said you needed some new techs. What's up, I'm Sam."

"I'm Lana." Cadence gave a short wave. "Lana Lang."

Lewis stared at the two, his steely glare shifting back and forth between them before turning to Snart, whose face didn't give anything away. However if one were quick enough to see it, they'd notice the look of disbelief that shot through his eyes.

"Who's Lana?" Barry whispered to Cadence.

"A girl I get mixed up with all the time back home," Cadence whispered out of the side of her mouth. "Honestly, I don't see the resemblance. I think she's in Africa now."

Lewis let out a snarl and turned to Snart, shoving him hard on the shoulder. Snart took a step back but didn't fall. He kept his eyes on his father, set in a defiant glare. "You gonna tell me this kid can crack a Draycon keypad?"

Again, Barry was quick to jump in. "We helped Snart steal the Kahndaq Dynastiy diamond from Central City Museum last year. That was locked up behind an Amber Tech industries phase three suppression door with a draychon XL1218 keypad."

Cadence blinked, scratching the back of her head. Even Snart appeared to be a little stunned. Finally, he slowly blinked and said, sounding ever so slightly annoyed to admit, "Couldn't have done it without them." His words sounded like they came through gritted teeth.

"Draycon's my jam," Barry said with a smile.

Lewis walked up to Barry and gave him a glare so cold it made Barry freeze. So Snart's father appeared to be as cold as his son could be. If not more so. Lewis didn't look so imposing from sight alone, but of everything Barry knew about him and his aggravated activities…he couldn't be too careful.

"Tonight," Lewis said in a low growl. He reached out and jabbed Snart in the shoulder with his index finger, making him jerk backwards with the hit. "He'll give you a call."

Both Snarts walked away from the metahumans to wait for nightfall.

Barry let to a low breath and turned to Cadence, who had been unusually quiet through the interaction. He tilted his head and looked at her, silently asking 'what'. She looked at him.

Cadence smiled. "Did you just say Draycon's my jam?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Ugh, so many things to do and characters to show and working on how to give them all enough attention. As you can see I'm working on _Family of Rogues_ and _The Fury of Firestorm_ right now as well as bringing up another part of my original plot. I know it all looks like bits and pieces that don't fit together but it'll all start to make sense.

Two things; I don't remember if Caitlin's dad died when she was young or not, so if someone could remind me so I can fix this chapter, that'd be great. Another thing, I have no idea where Caitlin or the others went to school so for now I just say they all went to CCU. Though I know how them not knowing each other from before would be difficult so if there are any suggestions, I'll take them. Maybe I'll switch it so that she went to Hudson.

However, let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review. Also, don't forget to check out my new story _Take Cover Where You Can_ based on the ep _Attack on Central City._

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** And now you see that car again. Wonder what that's about. Well, I do, but you get it. Cisco's and Cadence's friendship is something I've been meaning to work on more and it's something that'll be mentioned more often.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you, as always.

 **Guest:** That was a great question! It's both, actually. Something that was passed down through their genes as Tess has always been an observer in a way; she could see greatness in Harrison Wells after all. But the Assassination Bureau utilized it.

 **DarkHelm145:** Here's the start of Stein's part, like I said. And Harrison and Tess will be explained more. I think I've finally found a way to have them around more now that they've announced what they're doing with metahuman rights.

 **Spinquin142:** I really do love that part of their relationship as well; where she can be stern and disciplinary when she wants and needs to be, but allows him to go out and make his own mistakes. It can be a hard balance to write but they're both only children so they tend to be spoiled. There's more with Snart and Mick in the next one, I just needed to do Snart's side.

 **Highlander348:** Again, thanks for the review! I'm definitely going to be bringing in more of what we talked about into the story as it goes on.

 **PowerHero432:** I know, right? Even with the break between 'seasons' at the beginning of the story, it has taken him some time to get back to school. I am going to show it more, though, since that's a big part of Brady's day and he's learning how to navigate being different while surrounded by his peers at school. Yeah, the four are definitely best friends, but their different dynamics is something I plan on showing more as the story goes on.

 **Babyj:** Seems like everyone was really waiting for more of Snart and Mick. With legends coming in soon as well as them having their own plot, I know it's taking a bit to get to have more focus on it. But I'm trying; my ideas tend to change while I'm writing, no matter how much I have planned out. Thank you all for being so patient with it.

 **For those wondering this story is updated **every week at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday. But follow DarkElements10 on twitter to get updates on the status of our stories in case it's not updated on time.  
****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	17. Criminal Code

**.:17:.**

 _Criminal Code_

* * *

Iris stood up from the oak wood table, clutching her now cold coffee in her hand. Whoever thought her elderly boss—okay, he wasn't that old—would take so long to get to the point of their meeting? How long does it take to point out the dwindling paper sales due to people looking at the CCPN online, how they needed to punch up their writing and article topics, and how to brainstorm what was the best way to move forward?

All the while she was thinking about what her next article was going to be. She finished typing up the one about the unfair evictions and was already itching to get to her next one. It was what she liked so much about the journalism field, there was always something else to start researching right after one was done. If only she could get some inspiration other than the stories about The Flash and Flare. Not that she didn't enjoy being able to write about her friend's achievements and showing the city how great they were for morale; but there were other investigative things she wanted to get into.

Iris had only just sat down at her desk when she was blinded with confetti suddenly drifting down around her. Okay, blinded was a strong word. She was at least startled by it. Then she clued into the fact that the 'confetti' was actually bits of paper that had been ripped up and thrown over her head.

Chuckling, Iris turned around to find Linda standing beside her, her lips pursed into a smirk. "What's going on?" She asked.

"Apparently you are, Miss. Ace Reporter," Linda said poking Iris on the arm. "Do you think you have time for us little people now? Or are you on to bigger and better things?"

"What are you talking about?" Iris asked.

"Editorial needs your photos and story ASAP." The right side of Iris's face scrunched up in confusion. Linda couldn't stop the beaming smile that came to her face as she said, "Your expose just made the front page."

It took everything in Iris's body not to squeal and start bouncing up and down. As it was, she couldn't stop the massive smile that came across her face, mimicking Linda's. "What?" She couldn't believe it. Front page? "I just…I don't…what?"

"Yes!" Linda reached out and hugged Iris. Then she stepped back, blowing a piece of confetti off her cheek as she did so. "I'm so happy for you. And a little bit jealous, but I'll get over it."

"Thanks Linda." Iris's couldn't stop smiling. She felt a little badly that Linda had been on the newspaper staff longer than her. And she was working on the sports column, not much that would give her the chances to get on the front page unless something Earth shattering happened. "I got lucky."

"You're being modest." Linda shook her head. She reached out and placed her hand on Iris's shoulder, squeezing it tightly. "You're a badass reporter, Iris. You deserve this."

"Thanks."

"And to make things even sweeter, I'll treat you to lunch today. What are you in the mood for?" Iris thought for a moment as Linda walked to her desk to get her purse. "Big Belly Burger?" The two suggested at the same time.

Linda laughed. "Big Belly Burger it is." The two went to her car and she drove them to the restaurant.

Iris sat down in a booth after ordering and waited for Linda to get their food before she sat down as well. Then once their food was passed out she immediately started to dig in, eagerly speaking about her front cover article. "I'm surprised Larkin didn't say anything about it? He had the entire meeting to do so."

"I'm not supposed to say anything, but Larkin is preparing to throw a surprise party," Linda explains. "He does it for every reporter's first time of getting on the front page. And for birthdays and holidays. Looks like it's your turn this time. I thought I'd give you a head's up."

"Oh no." Iris laughed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that he gets to be really into celebrating things sometimes. You know that confetti I threw at you? Picture that times ten." Linda shook her head. "No, it's really cool. And it shows a sense of belonging with the CCPN. Not that you didn't fit in before."

"Right, thanks." Iris rolled her eyes. "Now that I can do more than write about The Flash."

"And we're all wondering how you manage to get so many good stories." Linda took a long sip of her soda, keeping eye contact with Iris as she did so. "So tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone else. How do you always get the news about Flash and Flare?"

Iris opened her mouth, trying to think of a good excuse. Anything that would make sense but not outright tell her what she knew about them. She knew she was moving into tough territory whenever anyone brought it up. But sometimes it was fun to prove what she knew.

"A reporter can't reveal her sources," she finally said.

"Oh come on, that's bullshit and you know it," Linda said. She popped a French-fry into her mouth and looked out the window towards the parking lot. "We can give sources to other papers and news information websites, but to each other it's just sharing the wealth."

"Nice try," Iris said. She took a bite of her Double-Belly Burger, her absolute favorite from the menu. "So, what are you doing for your next article?"

"Hot rod."

"What?"

Linda pointed out the window, a bright smile coming to her face. "Check out this hot rod." Iris leaned forward to follow Linda's point and looked out the window of the restaurant. A souped up convertible had peeled into the parking lot, swinging into an empty space, engine revving as it did so. Then the car turned off and the driver got out, unfolding himself as he did so, reaching up to stretch his arms over his head.

"The driver's not so bad looking either," Linda continued.

Iris shook her head, leaning back in her seat. It must've been fun to have those feelings, to get excited about someone like that. It wasn't so long since Eddie had passed, but long enough where she probably should've gotten back out there in the dating world. She hadn't cried herself to sleep in a while, it helped she had Caitlin to talk to. Still, there was a part of her that wondered if it would be considered cheating if she started to go out. It was a bit of a silly notion, rationally knowing that Eddie would want her to be happy. But he made her happy.

Iris turned her attention back to the guy as he walked to the front of the fast food restaurant and went in. Iris's eyes squinted. He looked so familiar. "Haven't we seen him before?"

"Oh yeah!" Linda's eyes lit up. She looked at Iris mischievously and sat up straight. "Hey, looks like we're bumping into each other all over the place." The young African-American man slowed his steps and smiled at the two young women. "I'm starting to think you're stalking me."

"I don't move that fast," the man replied.

Iris laughed. "Smooth," she commented.

The young man laughed as well. "Actually, that one was kind of lame. But it was the best I could come up with."

"Aww, you didn't need to use a line on us, we would've given you our attention anyway." Linda reached out her hand towards him. "I'm Linda Park."

"Wally West." He shook her head.

Iris's eyebrows rose as she reached out to grab his hand. "That's funny. That's my name, too. But my name's Iris."

"That's crazy," Wally said. "I haven't met so many people who've had my name. I mean, apart from my mom, of course." He laughed a little.

"You getting something to eat?" Linda asked. "You can join us if you want."

"I have to get going. I just stopped in for a quick bite."

"Oh don't worry, we don't bite."

Iris reached out and gently kicked Linda in the shin. Linda winked back at her, and then rested her chin in her hand as she looked up at Wally. "So we saw your car out there. It's awesome."

"Looks really fast, too," Iris agreed.

Wally beamed. "Yeah, it's mine. I worked really hard on it. I like to tinker around with cars, figured I could do a better job than the shops could do."

"I'll say," Iris agreed. "It looks like something you'd see in a Fast and the Furious movie."

"I didn't know you liked action films," Linda said. She must've really not believed it for her eyes grew wide.

"I'm not, Barry is," Iris replied. She waved her hand. "Give me a good comedy any day. I like to laugh."

"Right? Why go to a movie if you aren't going to guarantee enjoying it?" Wally agreed.

"And everyone needs a good laugh," Iris agreed.

Wally nodded. "As far as The Fast and the Furious goes, they're some pretty good movies. Of course I only go to see the kinds of cars that are being used and wondering when I'll be able to afford it for myself." He crossed his arms. "A man can dream, right?"

"I don't know; the ride you've got now is pretty impressive." Linda smiled flirtatiously. "I wouldn't mind a ride."

"Well, maybe the next time we run into each other I'll give you a ride." Wally started to move away. Then stopped, turning back to the table. Iris smiled, noticing the sheepish smile that came to his face. She couldn't help it. Obviously he was really excited and nervous to flirt with Linda like that, even if she was openly flirting with him, too. It was cute.

He shuffled his feet, rubbed the back of his neck before saying, "Um, do you think I could get your number? Or something?"

"Hmm." Linda pretended to think. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know you very well."

"I know enough about you to know we'd have a good time together." Wally flashed a warm smile that Linda couldn't help but match. Then she took out her phone and the two exchanged information. Iris was looking at her with a raised eyebrow when Linda finally gave Iris her attention back. "What?"

"Nothing. Just that I'm in awe of you," Iris said.

"Oh come on, you could get a boyfriend, too." Linda grimaced. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"No, it's okay. It's…Eddie's been gone for almost a year now. It'll be a year in May." So six, seven months had passed? Okay, maybe it hasn't been that long. Or maybe it was long enough. She wasn't quite sure. "I was even thinking maybe I should start going out again. At least to have a little bit of fun." _Not like helping Barry take down some metahumans isn't fun._ She tried not to smile, knowing Linda would ask about it, having to try and explain things away.

"Well, I know the perfect person for you," Linda said.

Iris waited for her response.

"Barry."

"No!" Iris clapped her hands over her mouth, realizing she had blurted out the word a little bit too loudly. Linda covered her mouth, shoulders shaking as she laughed hysterically. "I mean, no. I just…me and Barry? No. That's just…no."

"I'm sorry; I just thought that it might be good. I mean, you know each other so well." Linda waved her hands before thumping herself on the chest, starting to choke on the bits of food in her mouth. Finally, she calmed down enough to say, "I mean…sometimes it was hard when we were dating, because of the way he felt about you."

"That we were best friends? I mean, I know we're close but it shouldn't have been anything that would make you feel…threatened." Linda tilted her head. "Not that you should've been. No one should be. We're just great…best friends." Linda continued to look at her. "What?"

"Iris…he was in love with you," Linda said. "Anyone could see it. The way he looked at you, how close you were…"

"We're like family."

"He wasn't looking at you like you were family." Linda held up her hands. "I was just giving a suggestion. But since you shot that down so fast—"

"—He's dating Cadence, anyway," Iris said quickly.

"Oh? They got back together?"

"Well, Barry hasn't said anything to me. You know how he is about relationships; he gets weirdly…weird about them. He doesn't mean to keep it a secret; it's more like he can't get over being in a relationship and wanting it to be—"

"—Perfect?" Linda smiled fondly. "Yeah, I remember. That's something I liked about him. His earnestness."

"Yeah, she told me about it when she, Caitlin, and I went out for coffee. So I just have to kick Barry's butt for keeping it a secret."

"And for some reason, I suddenly realized how much I'm going to miss Barry Allen."

Iris smiled and held out her cup of soda.

Linda picked up hers and the two clinked them together.

* * *

"Ah, Caitlin Snow. And Martin Stein, it's been a while." Dr. Hollowell smiled at the two. It barely reached her eyes, barely registered over the African woman's face. As a matter of fact Caitlin felt like the temperature around them had suddenly lowered by many degrees.

Caitlin never accused Dr. Hollowell of being very warm.

"It's nice to see you again, Wangari," Professor Stein said with a nod. He reached out his hand and Dr. Wangari shook it firmly. Then she held her hand out to Caitlin. Caitlin shook her hand and gasped at how warm it was. No, not warm. Hot. Almost burning hot.

She brought her hand back and rubbed them over each other. Even without much control of her powers it made her feel better knowing she could calm herself down, to cool down her hands. But it was like Dr. Hollowell's touch completely seared through her skin, down to her bone. Lifting her gaze, Caitlin saw Dr. Hollowell looking at her with a strange look in her eye.

"It's nice to see you," Caitlin repeated.

"As it is for both of you. I know you must've taken a lot of time out of your busy schedules to come visit," Dr. Hollowell said. She gestured around the room with her cup. "Let alone all of the others that have come to partake in this day." The corner of her mouth turned up ever so slightly. "To be honest I'm surprised a multitude of my students and colleagues haven't decided to use this time to tell me exactly what they thought of me."

"I'm sorry?" Caitlin asked.

"I know I wasn't the easiest of professors to have. And I'm sure the both of you can attest to that." Dr. Hollowell placed her steely gaze on Caitlin, who swallowed hard, lowering her gaze.

"I wouldn't say that," Caitlin said quickly. "You were a tough teacher but you were fair. You knew how to push your students to get the best out of them. No one else would do that." _Then again, she's also the only one who made all of her students cry at one point or another._ Unfortunately, Caitlin ended up being one of the students that cried at some point. It was only under a point of extreme stress; her classes were already difficult, knowing it was the only thing keeping her from going back home increased her stress and Dr. Hollowell didn't make any of it easier.

Still, it came as a shock to Caitlin when Dr. Hollowell named her, her favorite student. She was sure the title would've gone to Kyle Quirk, who also worked with her and Dr. Hollowell on their professor's thermodynamics program. He studied the heat and she studied the cold and they put their information together in a paper that was also authored by Dr. Hollowell. Well, she and Kyle did most of the work but it was great to see her name printed like that.

And as Dr. Wells had said, it was something that tipped his favor over into hiring her.

"Or could do that," Professor Stein said. He frowned a little, looking directly at his former colleague. "Being a professor, being a teacher to these young minds is to help nurture them and continue to make them grow as they pave their way through academics. Not break them down until they're a mess of stress and tears."

"I see you haven't changed your ways, Martin," Dr. Hollowell commented. "You still coddle."

"Coddling is not what we do; we impress our talents and studies on young minds and continue to be mentors to them as they move on in life, no matter what they decide to do with that life."

"And as I've seen they've decided to throw away their talents for some of the most commonplace and vapid careers." Dr. Hollowell shook her head. "To think all of my own hard work is wasted as much as theirs is."

"Just because someone doesn't end up in the field they studied in doesn't mean they're not a success," Caitlin said. That was something else she greatly disliked about her. She looked down on everyone who didn't go into academics in some way.

"You can easily say that, you were one of the best and brightest students I've had and being able to go to STAR Labs…one of the biggest science corporations in the world; with bases in Gotham, Metropolis, Seattle, Boston, Melbourne, Kyoto…and continuing to spread worldwide. You've made it as far as I could imagine for you." Her eyes shifted. "Until it all went up in flames."

Caitlin shook her head.

She couldn't be around her anymore without having something to say. Dr. Hollowell could be cold but she could be colder.

"I can see I've managed to strike a nerve with you two," Dr. Hollowell said. "Maybe it'd be best if you managed to reign in your emotions. Take this as a lesson in humility."

Beside Caitlin, Professor Stein bristled, his eyebrows tightening his forehead.

"Well, it appears that, I-I-I-, I…" He started to stammer, as if he couldn't spit the words out.

Caitlin's blood ran cold. There were a million things that could cause someone to stutter like that, and they weren't good. Her eyes widened when she saw Professor's Stein's eyes suddenly change in color. They turned pure white and started to roll around. He trembled as Caitlin reached out and grabbed onto his arm, keeping him from falling to the ground. She looked up at Dr. Hollowell for help, but she looked back at Professor Stein with a peculiar, wild look in her eye.

Swallowing hard, Caitlin threw Professor Stein's arm over her shoulder. "I'm sure he'll be okay," she said quickly. "I'll just…" she turned and walked away from her former professor. Disgust filled her body as she did so. There was something clearly wrong with him and she stood there and watched him like he was some sort of sideshow. Even the people she pushed past in her haste to get him out the door looked at them in concern. But Caitlin gave them all the best she could do of a disarming smile, before leading him out down an empty corridor. She placed him on a nearby bench, backing away just in time for a bright blue, almost white glow to emit around him.

She jumped as the glow turned into flames, shooting out from his hands and around his head.

"Professor Stein. Professor Stein, can you hear me?" Caitlin called.

Her eyes darted towards the flames, her eyebrows coming together when she noticed that they weren't burning anything. The flyers, the wall behind him, and the bench below him didn't react to the flames that surrounded him.

A gurgling sound came from Professor Stein's lips as he continued to convulse.

Caitlin looked around then reached her hands out towards Professor Stein. A frost wind blew from her hands over the Professor. He continued to tremble, but this time Caitlin could see the flames starting to recede. She continued to blow ice over him until the flames were gone and the gurgling stopped. His eyes suddenly turned back to its original color and he gasped for air.

His hands reached up for Caitlin's and she grasped them tightly.

"Professor Stein, you're okay," Caitlin said. Relief slid out of her in a short breath. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I-I'm not quite sure," Professor Stein replied.

"We better get you to STAR Labs," Caitlin said.

"Yes, I…" Professor Stein swallowed hard. "That might not be a bad idea."

* * *

"And you said his flames were blue?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, they started out white then turned blue. But nothing around him was burning." Caitlin shook her head as she stood over Professor Stein's quiet body. Barry and Cadence stood along with her, all three quickly breaking into action when Caitlin called back to STAR Labs to tell them what was going on.

Barry quickly got them both and brought them back to STAR Labs, with Barry going back to get Caitlin's car, while Cadence helped get Professor Stein into a medical bed and get their medical machines set up in case he burst into flames once more. They had to work fast to stabilize him, his vitals leaping all over the place. But he seemed to be okay now. Now he was lying quietly on the bed, the machines quietly beeping around them.

"Have you been able to do that before?" Barry asked.

Cadence shook her head. "Only once before," she said. "I managed to put my flames around some logs that didn't burn. Just to practice. But I've only ever been able to do it that one time. Chances are it's not something I can do again, but he might."

"His powers are based mostly from nuclear energy," Cisco agreed. "It might have something to do with that."

"Do you think there might be a link between that and the phasing ability?" Caitlin tilted her head to the side as she thought. "Barry and Brady have two different power types, scientifically stemming from different elements, and they can both do it. Just like how Barry's and Cade's are different but there are things they can both do."

"If that's the case, then shouldn't there be a link between Brady's and mine?" Cadence asked. "In terms of our molecular DNA?"

Caitlin bit her lip. "It could…if we ever knew what it was that made you a meta."

Cadence nodded but didn't say anything more.

Barry looked at his phone as it started to buzz. His eyebrows came together when he read the text.

"Is that Lenny?"

The group looked over to Lisa, who sat up on her bed. Though there wasn't anything currently putting her in danger, they wanted to be sure there were plenty of medicinal tools around her in case something happened they weren't prepared for. She had been quiet since the group arrived with Professor Stein.

"Is it?" she demanded.

"Yeah," Barry confirmed. He nodded towards Cadence. "We've got to get going. He says Lewis wants to run us over the plan until we've got it cold."

Caitlin clasped her hands tightly together.

"Whatever you say, Sam," Cadence teased.

Barry gave her a look and the two left the Cortex, heading to the Snarts' hideout. Once there, Lewis drilled their plan and cover stories into their heads over and over again until they got it down correctly. As the sun set, it was time for the group to make their way to their target. Dressed in janitorial clothes, Barry and Cadence followed Snart and Lewis into a large jeweler building, pushing the yellow bucket of janitorial tools with them as they went.

"Keep quiet and follow my lead," Lewis hissed as they made their way to the front desk.

"Just like old times," Snart drawled.

Barry and Cadence exchanged a glance, walking up to the front desk.

Cadence looked TV screen the security guard was watching. A baseball game. That was certainly going to have his attention for a while. It'd work well to make them get by with little difficulties. She just hoped they were in for a long shift and was already tired of being there.

"Watchin' the diamonds game?" Lewis asked. His voice was lighthearted, the expression on his face mimicking it. Which was a bit horrifying compared to the always sinister air that surrounded him. If he could fake it so easily…?

"Yeah, Salamanders are killing them," the security guard said gruffly. He turned to the four and held out his hand. "Ids." The four picked off their tags and handed them over. He looked at Cadence's ID then his eye shifted over the group. "You sure you're old enough for this job, Lana?"

Cadence tried not to huff, tried not to let a cloud of steam to come blowing out of her ears. Was it her fault she was so short? No matter where she went where an age limit was set, she was carded and usually mistaken for only being twelve. "I'm twenty-five," she said calmly.

She didn't dare to look at Lewis, who she knew was glaring at the side of her head. Silently blaming her for the hold up. It had been his issue with her when he realized she was part of the plan.

"How can we be sure she's not going to get all up in her feelings and beg us to stop?" Lewis demanded to Snart.

Snart looked Cadence up and down then turned back to his father. "Trust me…she's useful."

"I've dealt with people worse than you," she added. It wasn't a lie at all. "You don't have to worry about me."

"I better not. It wouldn't be the first time I've had to teach a woman to learn her place."

It was a good thing Barry had the ability of speed, for he grabbed onto Cadence's wrist faster than her thought of making Lewis burn from both ends could enter her head. She still had that thought as she waited for Lewis to stop looking at her like a liability.

The security guard nodded. "What floor are you going to?"

"27th," Lewis quickly explained.

The guard continued to wave their IDs over the scanner, his frown deepening as they beeped incessantly. Not the kind of beep that would let anyone to go on their merry way, but an ominous one. One that sounded like 'stop', 'do not pass GO, do not collect $200'. Lewis shifted his feet and started to open the lid to the trashcan with them.

Barry sucked in a breath as he caught sight of the pistol sitting inside. There was no doubt in his mind Lewis wouldn't even blink before shooting the guard. He leaned forward and pressed his hands against the desk, trying to look as hurried as possible. "Hey, what's the hold up, guys? You want to call management and explain why the toilets are still overflowing?" He pointed towards the ceiling. "There're a lot of floors here but there's only one way for it to go…" he swirled his finger in the air as he lowered his arm, mimicking a flushing toilet.

The security guard quickly handed their IDs back and then they were back on track to their target. Making it to the 27th floor, Lewis started around a corner then slowed to a stop, bringing a finger up to his mouth to shush the others. "Hold on, I hear voices."

Both Snart and Barry turned her way. She tilted her head to the side, her eyes starting to glow orange. Her eyesight shifted, allowing her to see to the heat signatures through the wall. She could see wires running through the building that carried electricity, and then she focused on the shimmering images of two moving bodies. "There are two armed guards," she explained before Lewis could get a good look at what she was doing.

Snart shoved his hands into the pockets of his coveralls and rolled his head towards his father. "I guess your plan didn't work out this time."

"Don't' worry." Quick as a snake, Lewis brought out his pistol and pointed it towards his son. Snart's eyes barely wavered from his father's face. "I've got a plan B."

Snart's lips pulled back into a mocking smirk.

This clearly didn't sit with Lewis. He reached out and pressed the pistol against the side of Snart's head. Snart glanced at his father as if he were an insignificant bug. But from where Barry was standing he could see Snart realized his mistake. If he were dead, he wouldn't be able to save his sister…as it was Caitlin and Cisco still hadn't said anything about getting the bomb out of Lisa's neck and still nothing about Professor Stein.

"Your sister turned out to be a disappointment, also," Lewis growled. He stepped closer to Snart so that his lips were by his son's ear. Spittle landed on Snart's cheek as he spoke. "A waste of space, a waste of time, and a waste of skin. I should've gotten rid of you both when I had the chance."

There was a gust of wind that made Snart and Lewis both blink in surprise while Cadence calmly pulled her hair back from her face. They looked over, the tension broken as Barry came back from around the corner, out of breath. "Guards are gone. I don't know. They must've taken a break or something."

Without waiting for a response, he led the group down to the last door on the hallway that held a Draychon keypad and held his breath. There were so many combinations that could be the pass key and he needed to get the right one before Lewis blew his head clear off his shoulders. He would've been close to pissing his pants if it wasn't for Cadence being there as well. His speed could make him move so fast but if he became too engrossed into the keypad at the exact moment Lewis fired that gun…

He held his breath and nearly jumped when Lewis's voice came from right by his ear. "Okay son, show us what you got." His stale breath reached Barry's nose and he almost puked from nerves.

"Keep a look out, and let me do my thing," He said. He waited for Lewis to turn away before using his speed to start punching in numbers on the keypad. Seconds passed and passed as he continued to try combination after combination, hoping to God the system didn't start blaring after too many failed attempts.

Finally, the access light gleamed green. He couldn't help but allow himself to geek out a little at his triumph. The first time he tried and he got it right after a few attempts. "Told you Draychon was my jam!"

He laughed as Cadence brought her hand up to cover her face.

"Good job Sam," Lewis said with an appreciative nod.

"Thanks, man," Barry agreed. He motioned towards Snart. "Didn't Lenny tell you I could do it?"

Snart slowly shook his head, his steely gaze landing on Barry. Barry's smile faded, realizing he made a mistake. He looked at Lewis, whose impressed smile immediately wiped away. Beside him, Cadence stiffened, already sensing danger.

"Seems like you've got an ego there, Sam," Lewis commented. He waved his gun around, moving it back and forth between Barry and Cadence. "Almost like you just got through banging Lana over there. Like no one can touch you."

"Lewis," Cadence started.

"Always be ten steps ahead and know when to go at it alone."

The sound of the gun going off was deafening in the little space of the hallway. Snart flinched and turned away. Not like he didn't expect his father to shoot them when he pleased. But at the speed that he managed to do it. All without a care in the world, he didn't even stop to breathe, to blink. Or maybe it was because of how little the two deserved to be shot like that, in cold blood.

The surprise on their faces before they were pitched to the ground made something in Snart's heart twinge. Something he hadn't felt in a long time.

"I'm sorry," Snart whispered before walking away with his father, leaving the two prone bodies behind.

But if they looked close enough, if their eyes could move fast enough, both Snarts would've seen that the bullets hadn't hit their intended targets at all. No, not even close. Barry reached up and grabbed the bullet before it could hit his shoulder, spinning around with the momentum to throw himself to the ground as if he had been hit. Cadence, not being able to move fast enough, created a fire-like aura shield around her, one that only Barry would've been fast enough to see, and melted the bullet before it hit her. Instead, using a quick twitch of her leg muscles, she flung herself backwards as if she had been struck directly in the chest, arms and legs splayed as she did so.

Barry waited until he heard their footsteps completely disappear. Then he waited for a few seconds in silence before rolling onto his side and quickly getting up. "You okay?" He asked in a low whisper.

Cadence responded by rolling backwards, where she placed her palms on the ground. She rolled her body backwards until her knees were by her head, and snapped herself up onto her feet in a kip-up. "I'm good."

"Cool. Let's go."

The two grabbed their suits out from beneath the trash at the bottom of the trashcan and changed into them. Then they quietly hurried after the Snarts until they heard their voices once more. The two ducked their heads around the corner and watched as Snart blasted his cold gun into the infrared beams that criss-crossed in front of the diamonds they were after.

"Now what?" Lewis asked.

Snart lifted his hands and walked through the now frozen beams, his body breaking each of them. The icicles landed on the ground and shattered even further. Snart turned and looked at his father other his shoulder. "I told you I had a better way past the lasers."

Lewis snarled at his son and walked up to the case, roughly pushing Snart away from him. Snart slammed into the wall beside him, making Lewis turn to glare at his son. "What have I always said? Pathetic."

Snart gritted his teeth. "You've got one hundred twenty-five seconds before the system defrosts and those pretty sirens go off." He watched and waited as Lewis got the door to the case open to reveal the tiny, sparkling diamonds on the black velvet cushion. Just in time for the alarms to go off.

Lewis turned around and glared as The Flash and Flare suddenly appeared behind him. Snart lifted his cold gun and pointed them towards the two heroes. Lewis looked like he was about to start running but stopped as Barry said. "The only place you're going is back to Iron Heights, Lewis."

"Do you want to bet?" Lewis snarled.

"Sure. I'd like to take a cut of that one." The gruff voice caught everyone's attention and they turned to watch one of the guards that had left the area walk back towards them. He lifted off his hat to reveal Mick underneath, who glanced at the security hat and uniform with disdain. "Can't believe I'd ever be on _this_ side of the law." He tossed the hat aside and walked up to the group. "But then I would've missed the looks on all of your faces." He winked at Cadence, who closed her eyes and looked away.

Snart looked at his partner. "Mick," he greeted him.

"Snart," Mick replied in the same tone.

"Didn't expect to see you here."

"There's a lot that you don't know about me. But plenty that I know about you." Mick lifted his heat gun and pointed it towards them. "Plenty."

Cadence stepped forward to address Lewis. "What kind of man puts a bomb in his daughter?" Mick faltered, glancing at her before looking at Snart. Snart looked back him, unblinking, but nodded. Mick tightened his grasp on his heat gun.

"A very rich man," Lewis said with a smirk.

"No…rich men are typically too busy with their own money to determine what they're doing to their kids," Cadence said. Her eyes narrowed behind her goggles. "What you are…isn't a man at all."

Lewis gritted his teeth. "Shoot them, son." Snart hesitated, looking over at his father. Lewis's smirk slowly started to fade. Anger grotesquely twisted his features. "Son!" Still, Snart didn't move. Lewis reached into his pocket and pulled out a detonator. He held it tightly in his hand, twisting it around his palm. "Kill him or you'll never see your sister alive."

Silence continued to stretch between the groups.

Heavy breathing.

Shot nerves.

"I swear to _God,_ Leonard!"

Then Barry and Cadence heard what they needed to hear.

 _"I got the bomb out."_

Barry let out a breath of relief, removing his hand from his Comm. Link. "Lisa's safe."

There was another collective breath that was released through the room. Lewis let out a cry of fury and started to bring his gun around. But before he could move far, Lewis and Mick both pulled the triggers of their guns. A blast of absolute heat struck Lewis in the arm as a blast of absolute cold struck Lewis in the back. Cadence's eyes widened. There had been many things she'd seen before, but not this…

Lewis screamed in the most horrific way anyone could; in absolute pain, as he fell to his knees. The smell of burning flesh and hair filled the air. Lewis's arm turned completely black as rolls of skin started to fall off his arm. He slowly turned to face Snart. "You're working with the Flash? I thought you hated him."

Snart was breathing heavily, gasping for air as his revenge against his father completely exerted his energy. "Not…as much as I hate you."

Lewis scowled at his son. The expression was frozen on his face when he pitched over and died. Even with his eyes half-lidded and the gleam that proved there was life in his eyes was gone, he scowled at his son.

Mick lowered his heat gun and cradled it gently in his hands. "I never like him," he remarked.

"Join the club," Snart replied. He turned to Barry and Cadence, lowering his cold gun. "I believe there's a question you want to ask."

Barry shook his head. He would never understand how a son could kill his father like that. How anyone could kill at all. "Lisa is safe, why'd you do that?"

"He broke my sister's heart," Snart said simply. "It's only fair that I break his."

"An eye for an eye," Mick agreed. He tilted his head. "Though I suppose that's not something that you goody-two-shoes will ever understand." He tapped his fingers against the side of his heat gun. "Just imagine the sort of things we could do if we had your power."

"You told Snart," Cadence realized.

Mick smirked at her. "I tell Snart everything."

"He's my partner," Snart explained. "You can't always work alone. Now…"

Snart and Mick lowered their heat and cold guns and held out their arms, placing their wrists atop each other.

Mick leveled his gaze on them. "Are we going to get those kinky bracelets or do you want us to go quietly?"

Two hours later found Snart and Mick behind the glass at Iron Heights with Barry and Cadence sitting on the other side. Cadence leaned into Barry to listen to what Snart and Mick were saying through the telephone. This time, she looked back at Mick without shying away, without allowing him to hold his power over her. Inside she quivered, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing it.

"Last time I was in Iron heights I was visiting my dead," Barry remarked.

Snart's lips twitched. "Me too."

"And yet you killed him," Mick reminded him. "Well, _we_ did. But don't worry, you get used to it."

Snart practically rolled his eyes. "He deserved it," he said.

Barry smiled.

Mick didn't like that. His eyes narrowed. "That funny to you?"

"No, none of this is funny. But it's interesting to know I figured out your secret, Snart," Barry said. "You'd do anything for your sister."

"There aren't many people in the world you'd do anything for," Snart said, deflecting the statement. "But when you find them, well…"

"Seems to me that you'd do anything for Snart," Cadence said to Mick.

"I owe him a lot," Mick replied gruffly.

"Which proves my point," Barry said. "There's good in you, Snart. There's a part of you that knows you don't need to let your past define you. A part of you that really wants to be more than just a criminal."

A laugh escaped Snart's lips. "So I should be a hero like you?"

"It's just a matter of time," Barry said.

"It is," Mick agreed mysteriously. Cadence glanced at him and he winked at her again, this time something flashing in his eyes that made her stare at him in shock surprise, and a little bit of concern.

"I'll be seeing you." Snart hung up the phone and he and Mick were taken away by Iron Heights guards.

"You really think they can change?" Cadence asked as the two got up to leave the prison.

"I do," Barry agreed. "It may take some time but…" He smiled at her. "Some things...things like this...you don't want to rush."

Cadence smiled back and gave him a peck. "Coffee?"

"I could definitely use some," he said.

"It's on me."

The two stopped by STAR Labs to make sure everything was okay before heading out to Jitters to get some coffee. As Cadence went to the counter to get their orders, Barry leaned against the wall by the front door of the coffee shop. He sighed heavily, running his hands over his face. He would never understand Leonard Snart and probably didn't want to.

If it meant going that far…

"Fancy seeing you here," Patty's voice broke into his thoughts and Barry looked up, smiling at her. She was carrying a to-go cup of coffee in her hand, heading toward the door when she spotted him. "We have to stop running into each other like this."

"We should make a schedule," Barry suggested. "To make sure we know where each other are exactly."

Patty nodded. "I'll have my people call your people."

"That's the problem." Barry shrugged. "Neither one of us have people." The two laughed. "Hey, why are you here so late? Didn't your shift end hours ago?"

"Looks like we _don't_ need to worry so much about our schedules if you know mine so well," Patty remarked. She smiled wider, her cheeks flushing. "Um, no, yeah, I was off-shift. But then we got a call about Lewis Snart and Captain Cold."

"Really?" Barry played dumb.

"Yeah, apparently Captain Cold and his partner Heatwave killed Lewis," Patty said. She nodded earnestly as Barry feigned surprised. "But both of them were willing to be turned in. We were doing the paperwork on it and we needed something to keep at it." She gently tipped her coffee back and forth.

Barry realized Patty was looking at him expectantly. Oh. Right. He needed to react. "That's so crazy."

"Yeah. Of course The Flash and Flare handled it but…I would've liked to be in on that conversation, to know what was going on behind the scenes," Patty said. "Heck, I'd like to be in the same room as The Flash, you know, so I could thank him for saving me."

"I think he knows," Barry said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Word like that gets back to him fairly quickly." Patty's phone started to go off. "Looks like you have to get back to work."

"Right. Yeah." Patty nodded. "I guess I better go. Rain check on that coffee again."

"I'll have my people call your people," Barry agreed.

Patty paused. She smiled and handed Barry her drink before searching her pockets for a business card. She handed it to him with a flourish. "There my number."

"Oh. Cool." Barry took it from her. Nodded. "Thanks."

Patty's smile waned for a second. "That's…that's not what you meant." Her cheeks flushed once more. "You know what; I've been meaning to give you my number. In case you have questions about a case. You know, in case dispatch gets you jammed up. This…is efficient and as law enforcement colleagues efficiency is important."

"Yeah, you're right," Barry agreed. He handed Patty her drink, with her smiling her thanks.

"Great, I'll see you."

"Yeah, see you."

Patty left Jitters and a few minutes later Cadence walked back over with their order. Then the two strolled off down the street, towards Cadence's apartment hand-in-hand. They were silent as they went, as if afraid to bring up what had happened that night and what was going to happen going forward.

And more importantly, were Mick and Snart going to stay in jail?

Knowing their luck? Not at all.

As they approached the front of her building, Barry's eyebrows came together, noticing a familiar figure in front of them. "Oliver?" he called.

Oliver looked over his shoulder before turning to them. "What are you doing here?" Cadence asked.

"In Central City," Barry added. "I thought you would've been back in Starling by now."

"There's some business I had to take care of here," Oliver explained.

"For the mayoral run?" Cadence asked.

Oliver managed a small smile. "That's just a rumor." He cleared his throat, sticking his hands in his armpits. "But there's something I need to tell you two. Something you _really_ need to know. I had some business I needed to do and that brought me into the Inglewood neighborhood."

"Really?" Barry's eyebrows rose. That's where he and Joe lived. Why would Oliver go there and not mention anything about it?

Oliver nodded. "There was some information I needed to suss out. While there, I was checking out the elementary school to see what sort of government funding was going on in comparison to the schools in Star City. "He took a breath through his nose. "Someone followed me."

"You let someone follow you around the city?" Barry asked. "You didn't even notice?"

"Oh! Y _ou're_ the Carmichael Creeper," Cadence remarked. Oliver and Barry both gave her strange looks. "Word travels fast when you've got a bunch of parents thinking someone's out there to kidnap their kids. I've got so many calls in my voicemail from the PTA talking about it. Honestly, I think it's better than being called the 'Scary Hermit Man'."

Barry grinned over at Oliver, making Oliver narrow his eyes back at him. Then Barry cleared his throat and looked away, unable to stand up under Oliver's steely gaze. Oliver sniffed and turned his attention back to the two. "Anyway, I'm so glad you think I'd allow myself to be followed and not notice it."

"Wait, so you were really followed?" Barry asked.

"Mhm."

"By who?"

"By people you don't ever want to be followed by."

Cadence thought for a moment. "The mafia?"

Oliver blinked and brought his fingers up to his forehead. Almost as if he was regretting having met any of them in the first place. Then he regained his composure and said, "No, I'm pretty sure it was the car of a government official."

Barry's eyes widened. "Wait, are you sure?"

"I've seen enough people that my mother and father have become in contact with over the years, to the point that of the numerous political functions we've been to I can recognize a government car easily." He took in a deep breath through his nose. "Not to mention the long range camera lens that could probably see every pore on your face from a mile away." Now Barry narrowed his eyes at Oliver, knowing he was making fun of his youthful looks.

"They were taking pictures of the school?" Cadence asked. Her hands clenched. "Why?"

Oliver shook his head. "I don't know. But considering what's been going on out here with metahuman rights and everything, I wouldn't put it past it being the reason why they were there. They _did_ just have that public incident with a meta this year _and_ last didn't they?"

That was right. First it was one of Brady's classmate that had the power of energy light beams and now Leah, who had the powers of gravity. Not to mention Brady's own powers and there probably being more kids in that school who was a meta. Classes ranged from Pre-K to Fifth grade in that school and with Brady being in fourth grade…that was a lot of students who may or may not have powers to go through.

Barry took in a deep breath through his nose. "Thanks for letting us know, Oliver. But…" He looked at him. "What brought you to Inglewood?"

Oliver licked his lips. "I was visiting a friend."

* * *

 **A/N:** Definitely not the end of Snart and Mick if anyone's wondering, their plot is still going. And Caitlin used some of her powers to help Professor Stein! That's a step in the right direction! Some of you have mentioned I'd been ignoring Cisco's power arc a bit, and you're right I have. But I'm working to bring him in more.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you, thank you. I hope you liked the twist of this one, too.

 **Ethan:** Barry and Snart definitely do have a frenemies sort of thing going on. And as Cade had said, Snart does seem to have a bit of an obsession with Barry. Oliver would never go somewhere without knowing his surroundings. Come on. It's Oliver.

 **yummers:** A BarryCade date is coming soon. If not in the next chapter then the one after that, I need to see how things work out. Let's hope it turns out better than last time.

 **PowerHero432:** You're right, got to love the multiverse. I'm glad you picked up on that, haha. I'm not going into Oliver being so creepy, but now we know what that car was watching them for…

 **Guest:** Thank you, I'm glad you liked that part. There's more to it coming up.

 **Babyj:** Well, it looks like everyone is really interested to see how Mick and Snart redeem themselves for Legends. I hope things continue to progress in a way that makes it a good path for them to travel on to get there.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	18. Sand Fire

**.:18:.**

 _Sand Fire_

* * *

"It's happening again!"

"Professor Stein!"

Caitlin, Cisco, and Cadence hurried over to Professor Stein as he lay on the examining bed. He thrashed back and forth. "I don't get it, he's been fine since last night," Cisco said.

"His vitals are bottoming out," Caitlin said.

Cadence raced into the medical bay and grabbed Professor's Stein's burning arm. With her free hand, she pulled the cap off of a syringe then carefully laid it into Professor Stein's arm. It took a few seconds for her to see the vein she was trying to reach, but then she pressed her thumb into the plunger and pushed it down, allowing the sedative to go through. Once the flames faded, she loosened her grasp on his arm wrist. But held on tightly enough so that she could heal him all the while.

Her knees started to grow weak after a few long, tense minutes. But she forced herself to stay upright, to not show any weakness. It was going to take a lot of heal Professor Stein this time around. It wasn't looking good for him since he and Caitlin first came back with his fainting spell.

"It looks like its getting worse," She remarked.

"We're going to have to use the stabling device again," Cisco said. "This is the one I got from the Power Wheelchair but we don't have much time left."

"Well, I think I might know how to do it," Caitlin said. "The molecules that he was exposed to needed something to bond with in order to stabilize. And now that Ronnie…" she trailed off for a second, pain evident on her face, but recovered quickly. "Is no longer a part of professor stein, his molecules don't have anything to bond to. And the longer he goes without anything to bond to the more unstable he becomes."

"Cait," Cadence stared.

Cisco cut her off. "So what are we supposed to do? We can't have Cade sit here like a portable IV drip to heal him all the time."

"Well, I don't particularly feel like going to work this week so I wouldn't be too upset," Cadence said.

"Really?" Caitlin pulled her hair behind her ear. "What's going on?"

"You remember that guy that died at Brady's school? I've checked him more than once and I'm sure he died from a heart attack but his family is insisting it has to be something else." Cadence rested her hand on her cocked hip. "The evidence surveying the scene makes it weird but…" she let out a long breath. "Let's just say that pressure from Captain Singh is one hundred times better than pressure from a grieving family."

"Well, hopefully Clarissa won't be added to that list," Cisco said. He rubbed his hands together. "Okay, so the only reason Professor Stein is like this is because of Ronnie not being there for him to merge with." His eyebrows came together. "So that means…"

"That means we need to find another participant," Caitlin said.

"Okay, cool." Cadence nodded like a bobble head then gestured with her free arm. "How are we going to do that?"

"Yeah, it's not like we can make a meta app to determine the qualifications people have of being able to merge with him." Cisco paused, bringing his hand to his chin. "Actually, that's a good idea. It'd be a good way to study metas and maybe set up some sort of a love connection."

"Cisco," Caitlin admonished.

"Hey, metas need love too," Cadence pointed out. She and Cisco grinned, making Caitlin roll her eyes.

"Don't encourage him," Caitlin warned. She cleared her throat, pulling her hair behind her ears. "Anyway, through my research I've narrowed it down to two choices." She went to her computer. "They both were affected by the dark matter and were both admitted to the hospital showing symptoms of gene rearrangement mutation. And then both have the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie."

"Okay…" Cisco took in a deep breath. "Okay, but this is more than organ donation. We'll need more than tissue typing for them to merge."

"I might be able to find a match if I delve a bit deeper into their specific DNA."

"Okay…" Cadence tilted her head. "What do you need to do that?"

"A simple blood sample will do," Harrison remarked as he walked into the Cortex. He looked over a tablet, the glow from the screen illuminating his face. He lowered it and pushed his glasses up his nose. Motioning towards Caitlin with the tablet he said, "Isolating the DNA specifically enough to be able to get a pinpoint match can be done through something as simple as blood. All you have to do Is get the blood sample then spin it at high speeds to separate the cells from the blood fluid then release the DNA from the cells using a special enzyme and with the addition of alcohol the blood will coagulate into a sticky blob that will be able to study the DNA up close."

"And people wonder how you managed to start STAR Labs," Cadence said sarcastically. Harrison smirked back at her.

Cisco smirked. "Funny, I was starting to forget that he even worked here."

"Well, I assume that because Eobard had taken my likeness that you wouldn't perceive my presence around the Cortex so well," Harrison commented.

Awkward silence stretched through the room. Cisco cleared his throat, Caitlin chewed her lip, and Cadence cracked her knuckles. They had been so busy figuring out their own feelings of having Harrison there; they didn't put so much thought into what it meant for Harrison.

This was a man who had his life ripped away from him and was controlled by a revenge seeking sentient from another century. Not only was he trapped in his own body that continued to wreak havoc over the lives around him, but there wasn't much he could do about it while it happened save for the few moments where he managed to regain control. But who knew how often that was. And yet, Harrison managed to come to STAR Labs with a smile and worked tirelessly to ease the fears of the growing tension between the citizens of Central City and metas.

Harrison shrugged. "Not to mention Tess and I have been working non-stop to keep up with the mayor's decisions about metahumans."

"Has there been any progress with that?" Cadence asked.

"Progress is subjective, Mr. Ramon," Harrison pointed out. He lowered his tablet. "Let's just say that nothing catastrophic has happened, yet."

"Right." Cisco nodded. "Yeah." He exchanged a look with Cadence, who gently shrugged and shook her head in response. A silent way of saying 'give it time'. Give everyone time to figure things out and how they were going to act around each other.

All the same…they seemed to be forgetting this wasn't the same Harrison Wells—"Dr. Wells"—they knew before. This Harrison was gentler and rather than being so into the everyday operation of STAR Labs and the meta fights, he was more into the research behind them and making sure the city was as safe for those that received powers beyond their free will. Cadence had the chance to get to know that Harrison, the _real_ Harrison that she had known since she was little, more than the others.

She just needed to remind herself that the others needed more time. Plus, she was sure Barry was a little wary that Harrison knew they were dating again and wanted to avoid telling him. If he wasn't smart enough to figure it out on his own. It couldn't have been too hard to figure out the extent of her happiness when she went into STAR Labs that morning after having asked Barry out on a date.

It was the first time in a long time she had been so nervous. She shouldn't have been, really. Still, the uncertainty made her stomach churn, made her palms sweat, and made her legs quake as she walked to him at his lab that morning.

 _"Hey Tholly." Cadence sat down on the edge of his desk. She gently kicked her legs back and forth. "May I ask you something?"_

 _"Yes, please." Barry turned to her and rested his chin atop his upraised fist. He fluttered his eyelashes playfully, making her laugh. "You have my undivided attention." Laughing, he pulled off is safety glasses and gloves. "What's up?"_

 _Cadence smiled, eyes flashing. It was now or never, she reminded herself. Just go for it. Just do it. Push your nerves aside; you've gone after scarier things before. "Barry Allen, will you go out with me?"_

 _Barry's head jerked back in surprise. He even reached up and pointed to himself. "You're asking me out?"_

 _"You sound surprised," Cadence remarked. She rushed to continue, her nerves taking over and before she could stop herself, she found herself rambling like Barry. "Yes, I am. I'm asking you out. And when you say 'yes' I'm making all the rules. I'm picking you up, I'm deciding where we're going to eat, I'm deciding what we're doing after, and I'm deciding when I take you home." She looked at him teasingly. "Unless you have a curfew. I know Joe likes to know that you and Iris are okay and everything and I want to respect his wishes."_

 _Barry gently shook his head. "No, I don't have a curfew."_

 _"Okay. Good to know. I'm planning everything and you don't get a say in it other than to have fun." She blushed, looking down. "I mean, if you want to go."_

 _Barry held his hands up, laughing. It really didn't sound like he had a choice in the situation. Not that he would ever say 'no'. It was nice to be the one to be asked out. The last time he had been was when he was dating Linda, and even then, it was more like she strong armed him into it. Then it took Becky, his high school girlfriend, about five times of hinting to it until she finally grabbed him by the shirt and said directly said she was asking him out. If Cade had hinted at it, it probably would've taken him a few weeks until he understood what she was getting at._

 _"I, uh, yeah," Barry said, finally finding his voice. "Yeah, that sounds great. Sounds good." Anything had the potential to be better than their last and only date, where the Reverse-Flash had attacked them._

 _"But one other thing." Cadence grinned. "We don't talk about anything meta related."_

 _"Deal." Barry's smile widened._

"Do you really think Mayor Bellows is going to allow Chief Paulson to divide the city like that?" Caitlin asked, breaking Cadence out of her thoughts.

"Honestly?" Harrison paused. "I don't know. Chief Paulson is really stubborn with his preconceived notions about metahumans. In some ways I can commend him on his thoughts, he truly does want to keep the city safe. He's just not doing it the way that could be better for everyone."

"You mean making sure that The Flash and Flare can continue to do what they do best," Cisco said. "Kicking people's butt."

"And making sure no one else gets caught in the crossfire." Cadence tilted her head towards Professor Stein. "You said you need a blood sample?" Caitlin nodded and Cadence teleported. She appeared a few seconds later with vials of blood in her hands. "There you go."

"Wow." Cisco let out a low whistle. "That was about as fast as Barry."

Cadence twisted her mouth to the side. "Mm, I doubt it. I think I accidentally set off the smoke alarm in that lab. Let me tell you, getting those things to stop is a lot harder than you'd think." She stuck a finger in her ear and wiggled it around. "Anyway, how long do you think these'll take?"

Taking the vials to the med bay, Caitlin shrugged. "A couple of hours."

"Good, we can still meet up with Patty and Iris."

Cisco nodded. "Oh! So _that_ explains why you're dressed up in athletic clothes." He looked over Caitlin's gray leggings and racer back tank top of which matched Cadence's black leggings and pink tank top. "I just thought it was laundry day. And then I realized that definitely couldn't be it, because Caitlin always runs on a schedule. And it's not Saturday."

"You know me too well, Cisco," Caitlin remarked.

"Or you've been spending too much time together," Cadence said.

"Not possible. The Dream Team has to keep going somehow."

At the CCPD, Barry had just left his lab and was going down to the lobby to speak to Joe when he heard his name being called. He looked over his shoulder and spotted Patty coming towards him. "Hey, what's up?" He then got a good look at her clothes. "Going running?"

"Hiking, actually," Patty explained. She looked down at her clothes. "Cadence invited me to go with her, Caitlin, and Iris. We're supposed to be leaving soon."

"Oh, right that's today." Barry smiled. "Have fun."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something first," Patty said. She fell into step with him and passed over a plastic bag with EVIDENCE stamped on the side. "What do you think of this?"

Barry took the bag and looked it over. He twisted the items back and forth. They couldn't be what he thought he was. Still, he knew he shouldn't question anything the city had to show him time an time again. "Teeth?" He finally managed to ask.

"Shark teeth," Patty clarified. " _And_ I've got a witness that said he saw a shark walking on land." She spread her hands. "A man-shark."

"A man-shark?" Barry came to a stop. "Sounds like a bad sci-fi movie."

"Or an awesome one," Patty shot back.

Barry laughed. "Yeah, totally." Then his smile faded as he looked over the teeth again. "Are you for real? You think this is a real thing? This man-shark thing?" As far as he knew it was all really, real. He just needed to find a way to wrap his head around it.

"Yeah." Patty's smile faded a little. She twirled a finger by her head, "I know it sounds really weird, but nothing seems impossible now that we have metahumans right?" She then gestured between herself and Barry. "And I thought it would be fun with us working together on a case."

For a moment Barr's eyes widened then he regained his composure. Patty frowned as he said, "It's just, you know, metahumans aren't really my thing." That didn't make a lot of sense. Everyone around the precinct said he was someone who knew a lot about metahumans. Not just because it was proven that one had killed his mother, but because he was the one who seemed to be more sympathetic towards their plight. And he somehow knew where to find the Flash and Flare when their help was needed.

His mother's death, especially as it was finally solved, must've still weighed heavily on his head. "That's fine, I can handle it," Patty said. She reached out to take the evidence. "I'll just—"

"That's alright." Barry tightened his grasp on the bag. "I can just run a test to see where the teeth came from."

"Really? That'd be great," Patty said. She looked at her watch. "I'm going to miss the girls if I don't go now. But thank you, so much. Let me know what you find as soon as you find it okay?" Barry nodded. "Thanks!" Patty hurried from the lobby and climbed into her car.

She drove to Central City National Park and pulled into the parking lot, spotting Iris, Caitlin, and Cadence waiting nearby with another girl. Patty climbed to of the car and hurried over to the three. "Hi! Sorry I'm late, just had a last minute thing to take care of." She turned to the other girl and thrust her hand out with gusto. "Hi, I'm Patty. Patty Spivot."

"Linda Park, nice to meet you," Linda said. Her eyes widened when Patty shook her hand with as much gusto. "Wow, you've got quite a grip there, don't you?" Patty released Linda's hand and Linda gently shook it out.

"Yeah, sorry." Patty placed her hands on her cheeks then quickly removed it. "I was just taught if you want to make sure you're taken seriously that you need to have a powerful handshake." She then turned to Cadence. "Thank you for inviting me! I haven't gone hiking in a long time! I'm so excited!"

Iris reached out and put her arm around Cadence's shoulders. "Just out of curiosity, were you on the same cheerleading team as Patty?"

Cadence cast a side-glance at Iris as Caitlin and Linda both laughed. "I'm not _that_ bad okay." Still, she couldn't help the smile that wormed its way to her face. "But I can't wait for this! The view from up at the top is amazing!"

"And how long of a hike are we talking?" Caitlin asked.

"Oh, about, a five…six mile hike," Cadence said. Caitlin's eyes widened. The last time she had worked out that long, willingly, was when Cisco talked her into doing the five miler the city hosted every fourth of July so they could combat the long nights of research and junk food. They didn't make it past the first week of training before giving it up completely. "But don't worry; I'll make sure you get to the top." She looped her arm through Caitlin's and the girls started towards the trail head.

"So, Patty, you work at the CCPD, too?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, I just became a detective," Patty said.

"As a matter of fact she's working as my dad's new partner," Iris said.

Linda eyed Iris warily. "What is it with your family and their partners? I guess you guys really have the 'keep it in the family' thing going on." She laughed. Iris reached out and shoved her on the shoulder, nearly bashing her face-first into a tree. Patty grabbed Linda's arm at the last second and pulled her away as the girls laughed.

"Wow, quick reflexes, too," Caitlin said.

"You should've seen her at the firing range, this morning." Cadence said. She walked at a quicker pace than Caitlin, practically dragging the bio-engineer behind her as they kept their arms locked. "I thought I was good, but she blew everyone away."

"Not like I _actually_ blew them away. Just wanted to make it clear, I didn't hurt anyone," Patty quickly corrected her. "But I think Captain Singh was impressed." She scratched the back of her head. "When he wasn't too busy taking some extra rounds."

"I think he and Chief Paulson and Joe had a bet going," Cadence explained. "Or else he wouldn't have gotten so pissed when he 'nearly' missed a bulls-eye." She grinned. "Trust me, it's worth seeing a bunch of older guys at like three year olds over something like that."

"Clearly you haven't seen what happens at Family Game Night," Iris agreed. "Don't play my dad in Monopoly. He cheats." She held up a finger. "You need to check his pockets every time he leaves the room to make sure that he doesn't have an extra $500 dollars stashed somewhere."

As the girls continued their hike they stopped every now and then to take pictures for their social media accounts. And along the way they continued to laugh and talk about everything that came to mind, though seemed to purposefully steer away from the conversation of metahumans and the attacks on the city. Cadence moved ahead of the other girls, eager to get to the top of the path. She and Brady had hiked it a few years before and it was just as great then.

Or maybe she was glad to have some time away from the city and the responsibilities of saving everyone in it. Not that she took her powers and her role in the city for granted, but sometimes it was good to be a 'nobody' within the city. The stresses of working at the CCPD were enough adding everything else on top…

 _And I thought being a single-mother was hard,_ Cadence thought with a half smile. Placing her hands on her hips she turned towards the view of the city. The time away was certainly making her head clearer than it had been, relieving the stress and frustration she had felt. She was her own person and able to take down anything that came her way.

Which also meant she was able to come to terms with some things she had been keeping to herself. How she was tired of not allowing herself to move on from her past no matter how many strides she made forward, how she held a small sense of resentment towards Cisco for asking her about whether or not the Harrison she knew when she was young was really Harrison because she couldn't stop thinking about it, how, on the other hand, she was glad to know she had made friends who cared about her as much as she cared about them. And she knew from keeping it a secret so long about what had been going on with Mick that secrets between them never helped anything.

And she really needed to get something else off her chest. Now that the whole Professor Stein thing was happening…

Turning, Cadence found the rest of the girls had finally caught up and were taking their own short break at the top of the trail before taking the hike back down. Cadence went over to Caitlin, who sat on a rock, resting her hands on her knees.

"You seriously don't get out of STAR Labs a lot do you?" Cadence asked. She lowered her voice so that Linda and Patty didn't overhear. They still had some secrets but at least not from each other.

Caitlin lifted her hand to her forehead. "There's so much going on, we could never get the time away. Plus, the pay is good."

"Wait, you're still getting paid?"

"Yeah, Harrison still gives us a salary."

"Well, that explains a lot." Cadence rested her chin in her hand. "I mean, most people would've jumped ship once everything happened…" she trailed off. "Actually, that's something I wanted to talk to you about. You know, because of the whole, we can't keep secrets thing."

Caitlin looked at her curiously. "Does this have to do with Mick?" She grabbed Cadence's wrist. "Are you still having problems with the meta-spiders?"

"If I was, don't you think the entire forest wouldn't burnt down by now?" Cadence joked. "If I didn't go on some sort of a bloody rampage to kill Barry. I mean. Though I just want to say, contrary to what people would probably think because I work with him and I… _work_ with him, my life doesn't revolve around Barry." Cadence moved to push Caitlin's hand away then stopped, frowning. "Geez, Cait, your hands are ice cold."

Panic flashed over Caitlin's face and she quickly pulled her hand away after a couple of seconds of trying to pry their skin apart. "You know me. I always run cold," she said. She rubbed her hands over her thighs. "What were you saying? Something with Mick?"

"No, Cait, it doesn't have to do with Mick," Cadence said. She hadn't had any issues with Mick since he was put in jail, though she wouldn't be surprised if he and Snart managed to magically find their ways out of jail. Just like they had last time. Cadence looked away from her friend for a second. "Look, I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't sure how you would react. But I don't want you to think that I was purposefully trying to keep a secret from you—"

"—Cade, what is it?" Caitlin asked.

Cadence took in and let out a deep breath. "When we were fighting off the singularity, when Professor Stein and Ronnie split themselves up to make the singularity stop…I didn't… feel anything."

Caitlin's eyebrows came together. "You…didn't feel anything?"

"Oh!" Cadence quickly realized how bad her statement made her look. "No, I mean…" she licked her lips, lifting her gaze in thought. "You know how I can sense people's body temperatures?" Caitlin nodded. "Well, I could always feel Professor Stein's, and Ronnie's, level of power; I guess is how I'd explain it."

"But their powers are nuclear based, his flames is created from the nuclear fusion energy," Caitlin rattled off. Cadence gave her a look. "Sorry. What are you…trying to say?"

"I'm saying…when the singularity dissipated and we couldn't find Ronnie…I didn't feel that his energy was gone." Cadence waited, trying to see if Caitlin got it. She reached down and scratched at her ankle, noticing loose pieces of dirt and rock starting to move around her feet. Must've been knocked loose by her shuffling, she was never able to sit completely still.

Cadence looked up at Caitlin once more. It didn't take long for the proverbial light bulb to appear over Caitlin's head.

Caitlin's lower jaw dropped and her eyes shifted aside. She took in a deep breath and ran it through her hair. Or, tried to as it was braided behind her.

Caitlin lowered her voice. "Cade…are you sure?"

"Not one hundred percent," Cadence said quickly. She reached out and placed a hand on Caitlin's shoulders. "I don't want to get your hopes up, Cait, but…I think Ronnie might still be alive."

Caitlin's jaw dropped even further. Then she closed it and looked away. Her eyebrows came together and she pressed her fingertips together. She took in a deep breath through her nose. "If Ronnie's still alive," she said slowly. "Then he probably won't be much longer, if what's happening to Professor Stein is happening to him, too. I made my peace with him dying, again, over the last seven months. It still hurts, but I've made my peace with it."

Cadence grimaced.

"If you really thought he was alive…then you knew it wouldn't help to have me go through it again in case he wasn't." She reached out and gave Cadence a hug, feeling the fire metahuman relax before hugging her back. "Thank you for telling me." Caitlin brought her hands up and smoothed them over her hair. "But there's something I really need to tell you, too—"

She was suddenly cut off by a hard blow that smacked the two on the back, sending them to the ground. Cadence coughed, spitting dirt and sand out of her mouth as she did so. She whipped around and grabbed Caitlin, helping her off the ground. Then she turned towards Iris, Linda, and Patty, who were crouching down, trying to cover their heads from the winds of sand that blew by them. Cadence could hear screaming, hearing it fade away down the path of the hiking trail. Good, the others were getting away.

Turning back, Cadence noticed that the sand was blowing around them in a cyclone. "What's going on?" Linda cried. She started to cough on the sand and dirt flung her way.

The sand cyclone slowly lowered, pulling back enough so that the girls could follow it. Cadence's eyes narrowed as a figure walked out of the bushes, holding his arms up, smirking at them. Her eyes widened, immediately recognizing it as Eddie Slick. The Sand Demon. _That's impossible, Barry defeated him_ she thought.

Patty was the first to move. She lifted the back of her shirt and whipped out a pistol, pointing it towards Slick. "CCPD! Stop right there!" Slick's smirk grew wider as he looked at Patty. "Aww, do you really think that's going to work this time?"

He created a sand fist and struck Patty in the chest. She fell back to the ground, losing her grip on her gun. Then he turned and quickly made work of Iris and Linda, using the same sand fist to slam into them, knocking them hard into the ground. They weren't knocked out but stunned, barely able to lift themselves off the ground.

Cadence clenched her hands into fists at her sides, clenching her jaw. She couldn't use her powers or else Patty and Linda would see it. Then she slowly had an idea. She couldn't use the powers that would outright be connected to her, but that didn't mean she couldn't use her long-range ones.

Caitlin looked at Cadence out of the corner of her eye. She seemed to have the same idea Cadence had. Cadence shot beams of fire out of her eyes using her heat vision. Slick's sand fist immediately turned to glass. Cadence raced forward and leapt high into the air, kicking at it with her foot, where it shattered into glittering pieces. Landing on the ground, she immediately teleported behind Slick and sent a strong punch to the side of his head.

Slick smirked as her fist got caught in his cheek, immediately burrowing into the sand. "Nice try," he said.

Cadence smirked back. "I was about to say the same to you." She made flames erupt around her hand and the side of Slick's face exploded. With a scream he stumbled backwards. Sand immediately formed over the side of his face and his fist, bringing his body back together.

"Your little tricks aren't going to work this time," he said. He slowly made both hands form into large sand fists.

Cadence crouched low, waiting, thinking of a plan.

But without Cisco back at STAR Labs to help, as there was a lack of cell reception on the trail, they were on their own.

* * *

Barry looked up as Joe walked into his lab. "You look like you could use a break," Joe remarked, holding up a bag of Big Belly Burger.

Barry pulled off his safety goggles and rested them up on his forehead, pushing his hair up. "I could definitely use a break. But I'll probably need more than that."

"Right, right. I forgot the whole thousand calories thing." Joe moved to an empty table and started to unpack the bags. "So what are you doing, anyway? I thought you just had paperwork to do today?"

"I did." Using his feet, Barry propelled himself across the floor of his lab to the desk. He pulled off his gloves and dropped them atop the table. "But then Patty asked me to do some work on some evidence she found and I'm getting some testing done." He then noticed Joe laughing to himself as he sat down. "What's… so funny?"

"Nothing other than the fact that if I didn't know any better I'd say you were flirting with her."

"What?" Barry gave a startled laugh. "Patty? No! No, what are you talking about? I'm not."

"Right." Joe crossed his legs. He eyed Barry closely. Barry looked back at him, knowing there was something his adoptive father knew that he wasn't quite saying. Somehow Joe always knew everything. "Because you're dating Cadence."

Again, Barry started to babble a protest. "I, I, I don't know what you're talking about." Finally, he broke out into a grin. "Okay, yeah, I guess."

Joe's smile widened. He laughed and reached out, clasping Barry on the shoulder. "Your babbling always gives you away, son. Not to mention that it's incredibly obvious."

Barry ran a hand over his face. He couldn't help himself as he started to smile and laugh as well. "Is it _that_ obvious?" It wasn't that he was embarrassed by it. But that talking about his relationships or his feelings in general, wasn't always easy for him. But he felt downright giddy.

"It's obvious in a good way," Joe reassured him. "Mostly because you two are the youngest ones here so it made sense. Bets have been going around for a while now." A wounded expression came to Barry's face and Joe held up his hands. "Don't blame me, I bet on a sure thing. You know I can't pass up a sure thing."

"Right, which explains why you managed to clean me out when you were trying to teach me how to play poker," Barry said. He rolled his eyes. Then a thought struck him. "You thought I was flirting with Patty?" Then it hit him. _Oh no._ "It's not like Cade and I are keeping it a secret, it's just that we're taking things slow."

"From what I see, Patty might have a thing for you," Joe said. "You might want to let her down gently."

Barry sighed. "And to think at one point in my life, my problem was telling Iris how I felt."

"And knowing how long you agonized over that, I don't think it's a good idea to keep this going on longer than it shoulder." Joe shifted the topic over to the evidence Barry was looking over. "So what have you got that you're testing?"

"Shark teeth, apparently," Barry said. Joe raised an eyebrow. "Apparently there's a Man-Shark walking around somewhere in Central City." He shrugged. "I'm not saying it's not possible, but out of everything we've seen, it doesn't sound much like a Meta than an urban legend. What sort of powers would a Man-Shark have?"

"The ability to breathe on land, obviously," Joe joked, causing the two to laugh.

Barry reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone as it started to ring. He looked it over, his eyebrows coming together in concern. "It's Cisco, there's something up with Professor Stein," he said.

"Well, go! Let me know what's going on," Joe said.

"You got it."

Barry got up and hurried out of the CCPD and into the Cortex. He looked over; watching as Professor Stein slowly moved his way across the floor of the Cortex, using a cane as he went. He smiled. "Professor Stein, you're up."

"And using a cane at a much earlier age than I thought," Professor Stein commented. He looked over towards Cisco. "And it appears, from everything that Cisco has explained to me within the first few moments of my waking, that there is an impressive need for me to find someone new to merge with."

Cisco nodded. "He had another episode but he seems fine now," he explained to Barry. "Now that I've got him stabilized with the rest of the useable energy from Dr. Well— _Eobard's_ chair!" He grinned. "And you'll be the first to know that I'm coming out with a meta app. Kind of like tinder, kind of like LinkedIn. It's a work in progress. Patent pending of course."

"I, you, what?" Barry asked.

"But that's not what's important at the moment." Cisco held up his hand and motioned towards the monitors on the wall. "We've got two candidates that can merge with Professor Stein and keep the Firestorm matrix intact. Of course Caitlin did most of the legwork but I at least get the chance to reveal them."

Barry smiled, rubbing his forehead. "Get to the point, Cisco."

"Well, first we have Henry Hewitt. He graduated summa cum lade from Hudson University with a double major in Applied Physics." Cisco's head jerked back in surprise. "What? For real? _And_ bioengineering. If Caitlin were here she'd get a lady boner over this guy."

"Apart from Cisco's crass introduction of the man, I have to agree. He's a Hudson boy, I like him already." A hint of a tiny smile came to Professor Stein's face, a glint reaching his eyes.

"Well, what about this other guy? Jefferson Jackson?" Barry walked closer to the screens and studied the younger African-American man. "He was a high school quarterback, four-point-oh student." Barry nodded, impressed. "He's got the physical attributes. And it looks like his alleles are more in line than Hewitt's. Doesn't that make him more compatible?"

"Theoretically, but we won't know for sure if we can't get both of them back here," Cisco pointed out. He thought for a moment then pointed over his shoulder. "Harrison's here. We can check out this Hewitt guy and you guys can check out Jefferson."

"Sounds like a plan," Barry agreed.

"At the risk of sounding like an old man, who is going to be looking over STAR Labs while we're gone?" Professor Stein asked. He drummed his fingertips atop his cane. "I seem to remember that the security of your facilities aren't completely up to code."

"He's got a point," Barry said.

Cisco stared at him. "For real? You're going to go against me, too?"

Barry shrugged.

"Okay, you have a point. Well, Jay's still here and we can call Tess in to keep an eye on things. I'm sure her class is over right now."

Reaching out, Barry gently placed his hand against the back of Professor Stein's neck. "Are you ready?" Professor Stein reached up and folded the arms of his glasses, sticking them in the pocket of his blouse. He then tightened his grasp on his cane. Taking in a deep breath he nodded. Barry grasped Professor Stein's neck tighter and raced out of STAR Labs.

It took a while before they got the right instructions to take them to Jefferson Jackson's whereabouts; the Central City Auto Shop. Loud rap music blared as they walked into the open garage. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Professor Stein's nose turned up in distaste at the mess that scattered the floor of the auto-shop, almost as if begging it to be the wrong place.

Barry looked around for a moment, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Yep, this is the place. His mother said he was a mechanic." He motioned for Professor Stein to follow him into the garage.

"Mechanics…" Professor Stein pressed his lips together. Then he nodded in approval. "It could indicate a strong technical aptitude. That's a positive." He then turned his lips down to the package that sat on a nearby bench. "Oh, prone to allergies. That's definitely a negative."

Barry winced at the rap music that suddenly turned up in volume.

"Not to mention his taste in music," Professor Stein grunted.

"You get used to it after a while," a voice yelled from beside them. Barry turned to find Ryder sitting on a nearby couch, looking at his phone. He sat up, pushing his phone into his pocket and walked to them. "Or at least I've gone deaf after how long I've been sitting here." He and Barry reached out and slapped their hands into each other's in greeting. "What up, Barry?"

"Hey, Ryder. I'm here on some business," Barry said. He reached over and motioned to Professor Stein. "You remember Professor Stein, don't you?"

"Yes. It's good to see you again, sir," Ryder said, shaking the older man's hand gently.

"Good to see you again, too, young man," Professor Stein said. "You haven't start on a new venture of auto-mechanics have you?"

"No, I'm just waiting for work on my car to be done," Ryder said, motioning to the vehicle lifted a few feet off the ground. He eyed Barry. "Something tells me that this business you're here for doesn't have anything to do with the CCPD."

"You're right," Barry said. "Is Jefferson Jackson here?"

As he asked the question, the volume of the music lowered and there was a loud slam of a car hood. The three looked over and spotted Jefferson Jackson walking over to the ground, wiping his hands on the legs of his coveralls. "Yeah, that's me. But everyone calls me, Jax." He shook Barry's and Professor Stein's hands. "Your car will be done in a few minutes," he said to Ryder.

"Take all the time you need," Ryder said, holding up his hands. "I'm in no rush. Living here, there's plenty of work for me to do." He looked at Barry out of the corner of his eye. "Chances are something else is going to be pop up, soon."

Professor Stein cleared his throat.

Barry rolled his eyes. Then he took a step towards Jax. "I'm Barry Allen and this is Professor Stein. We're here from the Department of Safety."

Jax's eyes narrowed as he looked at Barry. Barry took a deep breath and waited for Jax to say something about his look. How he didn't look old enough to be part of the Department of Safety. He should've just said he was part of the CCPD and flashed his badge.

Finally, Jax's expression cleared though he still looked wary. "Do you need to see our licenses? Everything's up to code, here."

"No, uh, actually, we're here to here to collect data on the particle accelerator explosion." He watched Jax's face. A fire flashed in Jax's eyes and he took a step back. He crossed his arms, turning away from Barry. He went back to Ryder's car to do some last minute work.

"I lost enough time of my life to that stupid thing going off," he grunted. "You don't have a car I can fix, I can't help you."

Barry took another step forward. "There's a lot that most people don't understand about it, but we can help you." Boy was that an understatement. And how was he going to react when he found out that they truly wanted him to keep another man from dying?

"I don't like to talk about it," Jax insisted. Then he let out a bitter-filled laugh. "The thing blew up and I got hit hard. I was in the hospital with a busted up leg, a torn ACL, and my dreams of playing pro ball were over."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Barry said honestly.

"I know the feeling, man," Ryder agreed. He thought for a moment. "Sophomore year of soccer I had nowhere to go but up. Then I tore my ACL at the beginning of the season and had to make a long, hard recovery to get better later." He paused and Barry glanced at him. Knowing the timeline, his recovery had to be shortly around the time that Cadence had either gotten pregnant or gave birth to Brady and Ryder was sent away. "It kept me down for a while."

"Yeah, well, good for you buddy," Jax said. His upper lip was curled back into a snarl. "Judging by that pretty car you've got over there, it couldn't have hurt you too badly." He waved a hand. "I got to get back to work."

Ryder looked apologetically at Barry and Barry nodded back. At least he tried. No matter how the sympathetic angle did or did not work, at least he tried. He pulled a card out of his jeans pocket. "Well, here's our number." He handed it over to Jax. "If you want to think about it."

"Yeah, whatever," Jax said.

Barry, Professor Stein, and Ryder walked away from Jax. "So, what is it that you need Jax for?" Ryder brought his hands up and rested them on the back of his head. "You say you want to stay out of the loop of these things and you can't help but be dragged back in," he said to himself.

"Whether you like it or not young man, this is part of your life now," Professor Stein reminded him. Then the turned to Barry. "And I'll have you know that I refuse to have that young man be the other part of me. I already had to deal with Ronald's…idiosyncrasies; I don't think I can handle Mr. Jefferson's." A glint of sadness moved through Professor Stein's eyes.

"Well, considering Jax doesn't want to talk to us, we may not have a choice," Barry said. He grasped Professor Stein's neck again. "Let's go see if Cisco had any luck." He turned to Ryder with a questioning look and Ryder nodded. Barry reached up his other hand and placed it on Ryder's neck, taking him back to STAR Labs. He stopped in the Cortex, finding Henry Hewitt with Cisco and Harrison.

Henry Hewitt walked around the Cortex, looking at all of the machinery in awe. As a matter of fact he reminded Barry of Cisco and his excitement when it came to newly released technology. "This is Barry Allen and Professor Martin Stein," Cisco said with a forced smile. He motioned for Barry to come closer as Henry moved to eagerly shake Professor Stein's hand. "And he's got an ego the size of Texas, but he's aight."

"And I thought kiss-up freshmen were bad," Harrison remarked, eyelids drawn halfway as he watched Henry and Professor Stein converse. "And I've only been around his man for about twenty minutes."

"Yeah, it didn't take much for us to convince him to come back here," Cisco said.

"I didn't think it would be," Barry said. "He's much more perceptive to the idea than Jax was." He ran a hand through his hair. "We need more time."

"We don't have much time, we have to do the merge soon," Harrison said. He nodded over to Professor Stein. "There's not much left in his power source." He nodded over to Professor Stein. "I've crunched the numbers. The Firestorm Matrix will have to be that new power source."

"Wait, so you went to find Jax because…Professor Stein's dying?" Ryder asked.

"Yeah, that's about it," Cisco said.

"With all of that science-mumbo jumbo, got it," Ryder said. He rubbed this temple. "Now I'm starting to get how Cade feels." He looked at the three and his eyes widened, realizing he may have just insulted the three with his blunt statement.

Barry smiled in amusement. _Brady definitely got it from him._ "I guess we should try it out then." He frowned, watching as Harrison and Cisco went to Professor Stein and Henry, getting them ready for the merge. He didn't know what it was, but there was still something about the situation he didn't quite like. Still, butterflies erupted in his stomach as he watched Professor Stein and Henry get set up and slowly bring their hands together.

A rush of flame erupted around their hands. It blazed for a few seconds then slowly faded away to nothing. There was a second of silence then Professor Stein and Henry tried once more. They pressed their palms flat together. This time there was a bright rush of flame, and then there was nothing once more.

Henry frowned an intense frown, his eyes flashing with pure fury. "Something's supposed to be happening right?" He demanded. "Why isn't it working?"

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Mr. Hewitt," Dr. Hollowell said. She calmly, maliciously strolled through the doors of the Cortex, her entire left half of her body glowing a bright blue. Her eyes shifted around the room. "But there's something else I seek. Where's Caitlin Snow?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Wow, I haven't shown Caitlin and Cadence hang out in a while. And of course adding in Patty, Linda, and Iris is good, too. I have a lot of fun imagining how I'd change up this episode a bit and I'm really excited for how the girls and guys get along with their issues while split apart.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Thanks! Captain Cold is always fun to write and Mick is just as fun. Plenty more where that came from. They're not staying away too long.

 **Ethan:** As you saw in this chapter, no, Patty doesn't know that BarryCade are a thing. If Oliver were going to admit anyone was his friend, it'd definitely be Barry or Diggle out of anyone else.

 **Guest:** Thanks!

 **DarkHelm145:** Yes, Oliver is looking into him. I really liked the idea of that plot and wanted to expand it even further. I hope my route with the Rogues continues to live up, more with them soon.

 **yummers:** Thank you!

 **Babyj and spinquin142:** Thank you for your reviews. I do agree with you, I had an idea of Cade's part of the episode before but then it changes as things went on so she ended up being a little not needed. There is a slow buildup of sorts that goes more into Cade's reactions with the Rogues (Mick in particular) that's going to come to a head soon.

 **For those wondering m **y stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	19. Going Nuclear

**.:19:.**

 _Going Nuclear_

* * *

As Cadence took Sand Demon's attention, Caitlin hurried over to Iris, Linda, and Patty. "Are you guys alright?" She gently placed her fingers along the side of Linda's neck and held her breath. Not just to determine Linda's pulse, but to keep her own beating heart from making it more difficult for her to figure it out.

She let out a sigh of relief, determining it to be strong. She was going to be okay. As it was, Linda was already starting to stir back to consciousness. A low groan escaped her lips when she turned her head away. "What happened?"

"A meta," Caitlin said quickly. She grabbed Linda's arm, with Iris taking the other one, and pulled Linda to her feet. "And unless you want to get hit again, I think you should get out of here."

"What about you?" Patty asked. "This guy was taken down by The Flash before, but he's back here now." She scrambled to her feet, looking for her gun as she did so. She picked it up and turned it to its side, frowning at the grains of sand that had become embedded inside.

"They can handle it," Iris said quickly.

"No! I'm not going to let him get away with this again," Patty said.

Caitlin chewed her lower lip, looking over at the forest area beside them. Every now and then she could see flashes of light where Cadence was probably using her fire powers, but nothing that would have her identity revealed to the others. Then she looked over at Patty, whose eyes shone with determination. She definitely wasn't going to get over this, not after what Slick had done to her last time. And Caitlin understood the psychological damage being tied up and threatened could so, she had that experience with Mick and didn't want to be in a room with him ever again.

Iris ducked her head under Linda's arm and helped prop her up. "Come on, Patty. We have to go. Considering what this guy can do…nothing you have is going to stop him."

"What about them?" Patty nodded towards Caitlin.

"They can handle it," Iris repeated. "Come on." Patty finally nodded and hurried to Linda's other side and ducked under her arm, lifting her up to stabilize her. Iris nodded to Caitlin and she and Patty hurried down the path that they came up from.

Caitlin ran into the underbrush, following the sounds of a fight. She came to a stop in a clearing and frantically looked around, hoping to find any sign of Cadence and Slick. But there was nothing. The sound of the wind rustling through the trees didn't instill any peace within her rather than a tiny bit of fear. It was way too quiet for what had just been going on.

At the sound of a snapping twig, Caitlin turned around, her eyes shifting back and forth, hoping to find the source of the sound. "Heads up!"

At the sound of Cadence's voice, Caitlin tilted her head back and spotted Cadence crouching low on a tree branch above her. Cadence leapt down towards her. The second her hands lands on Caitlin's shoulders, she teleported the two of them back into the tree just as a tidal wave of sand blew by. Caitlin brought her hands over to the tree trunk to steady herself, watching as the wave turned back into Eddie Slick. He twisted back and forth to look around the clearing then up at the girls.

"Any ideas of how he managed to come back together after shattering like a china plate?" Cadence asked.

Caitlin shook her head, her mind moving a mile a minute. "Well, he's not completely made out of sand, remember? It's his human molecules coming together to act like sand. So maybe it wasn't that he actually turned into glass but that his human cells broke into tiny pieces that managed to pull itself together."

"That explains why I basically blew up his head and he managed to regenerate," Cadence said. She grabbed Caitlin's hand and the two teleported again when Eddie formed a boulder of sand and flung it their way. And she continued to teleport as Slick would turn to follow their movements. "He's definitely gotten smarter than the last time we saw him." She wiped off blood that trickled down her cheek. "Stronger, too."

Caitlin nodded. "It looks like sand isn't the only thing he can use. The elemental properties of dirt and rock work with his abilities as well, even if they're made from Earth and not the human cells, like Jay said." She sucked in a deep breath. "The more of those things he uses, the stronger he gets."

"So, what, we're supposed to take him to the lake?" Cadence asked.

Caitlin shook her head. Still too much sand there, the ocean was out of the question, too. And a pool…forget it? There'd be too many witnesses and Sandman could easily escape their clutches just by turning into a pile of sand. _Think, Caitlin, think! There has to be something that can be done to stop him._

"Well, we're going to have to stop him somehow," Cadence said. She let go of Caitlin's hand and scanned the forest floor below. "Turning him into glass won't help but at least I can wear him out." With that, Cadence jumped down from the tree once more, teleporting as she did so, appearing behind Slick to kick him in the back.

Slick stumbled forward then turned around, sending a sand fist towards Cadence's face. She ducked her head to the side and thrust out her hand, sending a rush of flame into Slick's chest. It turned to glass and she followed up her fire stream with a strong punch that shattered it. Slick brought up his other hand, trying to hit her and Cadence lowered herself into a split on the ground, the sand blowing overhead.

Then her feet erupted in flames and she did a quick sweep, blowing Slick's legs out from underneath him. With him preoccupied with growing back his missing appendages, Cadence hurried over to a nearby log. With a quick onceover she determined it to weigh at least four hundred pounds, much like the ones she'd seen used for bench presses.

Cadence grabbed the massive log and lifted it into her arms with relative ease. With a grunt of effort, Cadence whipped around and flung the log towards Slick, striking him in the upper half of his body. Slick imploded upon impact with the log, sending particles of sand in all directions. Then the dirt around his feet sucked up into his body, reforming his upper half.

Slick laughed at Cadence's stunned expression. "You'd think by now you'd take the time to learn some new moves. Like this." He held out his hand and instead of just forming a massive fist of sand, it turned into a large sledgehammer. He brought back the sledgehammer and struck Cadence across the face. She flew into a nearby tree trunk, crashing hard to it, and fell to the ground. Slick was on her in seconds, sending another slam of the sledgehammer onto her body as soon as she hit the ground.

A groaning grunt escaped her lips the moment she was hit.

Up in the tree, Caitlin closed her eyes and turned away. She couldn't stand to watch Barry and Cadence get hurt whenever they were fighting and that was back in the Cortex. Up close in person was even worse. The Earth shook when Slick struck Cadence again. Caitlin lowered herself onto the branch and slowly lowered herself down to the tree trunk, slowly shimmying down, the bark scratching up her arms before she finally reached the ground.

 _Wham!_

 _Wham!_

 _Wham!_

There was hardly a moment of reprieve before Slick would strike Cadence again. Each time his sledgehammer connected with her friend's body, Caitlin could feel the ground quake beneath her feet. It had to have been a harder hit for her each time. Caitlin closed her hands over her ears, unable to take the sounds.

Then the wind picked up, whipping Caitlin's hair around her face. Little pebbles and grains of sand struck her in the face and arms as she brought her hands up to shield herself. Caitlin looked over to find Cadence curled up on the ground, trying in vain to shield herself as Slick created a sandstorm around them. Caitlin could see little flickers of flame erupt around Cadence, ones that couldn't come to fruition from being battered around by the wind.

And still Slick stood there, smiling maliciously as he continued to wail on the fire metahuman.

Caitlin clenched her hands into fists. Her cold fingers pressing into her palms and grew colder as the seconds passed, and colder still until her hands turned numb. Caitlin lifted her hands, a icy vapor wafting around her fingers and pushed her hands forward. As Slick lifted his arm, the sledgehammer turned into a mace and he pointed it directly at Cadence's stomach. Just as he brought it down, the tip a few inches away from striking her it started to solidify into ice.

Slick's eyebrows came together in confusion as he watched then he turned his attention to Caitlin. "You!" He hissed.

Caitlin clenched her teeth, focusing on something to ground herself against the surge of power that moved through her body. She brought her arms back for a second then thrust them forward once more, sending another icy blast into Slick's arm.

Coughing, Cadence rolled onto her side and watched as Caitlin continued to freeze Slick's upper body. "No way," she whispered.

Caitlin lowered her hands towards Slick's feet, only stopping her power usage when he became completely frozen. With a startled gasp, Caitlin lowered her arms, suddenly finding herself devoid of any energy. It was the most she had used her powers, always trying to keep herself from using them due to her fear. But she actually did something right.

Still coughing, Cadence pushed herself to her knees. Caitlin hurried over to her; she wrapped her arm around Cadence's back to help her up. "How'd you do that?" Cadence asked, finally managing to catch her breath.

Caitlin gave a sheepish smile. "I guess…I'm a meta, too."

At that Cadence took a step back from her, a deep frown on her face. "How long have you known?"

"Not long."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Caitlin chewed her lip. What was she supposed to say? That she was too scared to say anything? That she didn't want to get into fights? That she didn't want that responsibility? That she couldn't handle the fighting because she didn't have a fighting spirit, she had a nurturing one. What if it got to the point that she had no choice but to kill someone, could she do it?

All of the questions raced through Caitlin's head in her hesitation, and Cadence's features softened, probably understanding it. Or at least understanding it wasn't the time to question it. As it was, Caitlin could hear low cracking sounds as Slick slowly started to break apart from the icy restraint she put over him. Turning their heads, Cadence and Caitlin could see the granolas of sand shifting within the icy statue.

Caitlin started.

That was it.

A statue.

Construction was constantly going on in Central City due to the metahumans they dealt with and that could be used to their advantage.

"You think he'd chase us if we went down into the city?" Caitlin asked.

Cadence lifted an eyebrow. "Don't they all? Their egos are bigger than anything else."

"Good." Caitlin grabbed her best friend's hand. "I know you're mad at me for keeping this a secret, but I need you to trust me." Cadence squeezed her hand back. Caitlin quickly murmured the plan into Cadence's ear, the two watching as Slick managed to finally break from his glass prison.

The shards of ice that covered him melted and dripped over his hands, dropping his fingertips to the ground in soft thumps. They quickly re-grew, causing Caitlin's stomach to shift to the side in disgust. Slick turned to face the two, his eyes flashing with in anger.

"You've made a fool of me long enough," he snapped. "I'm not going to let you do it again."

"You'll have to catch us to do it," Cadence said. Her hand still holding Caitlin's, she pulled hard, moving Caitlin over so that she could carry her onto her back. Caitlin tightly wrapped her arms around Cadence's shoulders and held on, waiting for the rush of wind that was to come.

Cadence turned to the side and started to run, using her enhanced speed and teleportation to move fast, bringing Caitlin with her as they raced down the path towards the city. Caitlin looked over her shoulder as they went, watching as Slick turned himself into a massive sand cloud and raced after them like a shadow. Caitlin held her breath, eyes tearing from the wind whipping by her. She hoped this would work.

Cadence suddenly took a sharp right and ran into the streets of downtown Central City. Caitlin looked behind her once more, eyes widening when she saw Sand Demon continuing to follow directly behind them. The sandstorm shifted and swirled as it went, knocking glass out of cars as it passed, knocking people to the ground. Those that were in Sand Demon's way…they didn't fare better. The sand shot across their bodies, across their necks. In the split second before she closed her eyes, Caitlin could see their heads roll before their bodies slumped to the ground.

Swallowing a hard wave of nausea and guilt, Caitlin pressed her face against Cadence's neck until she felt the fire metahuman come to a stop. "Stay here," Cadence said.

Caitlin nodded and Cadence teleported once more. Then the sky darkened and Caitlin turned, watching as Slick lowered from the sky and landed on the street in front of her, forming his human form once more. The citizens of Central City immediately raced from the area, scattering like ants as they went. Slick sucked in a deep breath, his chest swelling with barely concealed rage.

"I don't think you understand how badly I need to find the Flash," Slick snarled.

"I know," Caitlin said. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "To kill him and bring him back to Zoom. So you can go home." She took a step towards him, her hands trembling. "What is it that Zoom has over you?"

"My life," Slick snapped.

"Why not say you killed him?"

"Without proof? There's nothing that can be done. Zoom isn't one you want to mess with, not when he's able to do what he does."

"What? What can he do?"

Slick didn't respond. Instead, he held up his hands, turning them into maces made of sand, and pointed them directly towards her. He brought his hands back and directed them towards Caitlin's stomach. Frantically, Caitlin thrust her hands forward and sent out an icy wind towards Slick's face. He took a step back and she changed directions and pointed her hands towards his feet. The ground beneath his feet became slick with a sheen of ice. As he stumbled, trying to keep his balance, Caitlin took a step back and crouched low, bringing her hands up to cover her head.

Cadence suddenly teleported in the air above Slick, having jumped from the rooftop above, and used her momentum to kick Slick hard in the face. The kick combined with the ice that Caitlin shot at him, shattered off the left side of his face. As he took the time to grow it back, Cadence kicked him square between the legs, making Slick bend over, bringing his hands to cup the area.

"Grow those back!" Cadence declared. Then she pulled back her arm, flames erupting from her fingertips and encircled up her arm until it reached her shoulder. With a cry of effort, Cadence punched Slick hard in the face, following it with a stream of fire.

The power of the punch combined with the energy of the fire hit knocked Slick off his feet and into the air, falling into an open concrete mixer parked on the street. Cadence and Caitlin hurried over and climbed up the side of the truck. Peering inside, they found Slick rolling with the concrete, slowly solidifying. When he finished drying, Cadence pressed her hand to his outstretched arm and teleported the two down to the street.

"I didn't think that'd work," Caitlin said honestly.

"Well, by the time he gets out of this we'll have him down in the Pipeline," Cadence said. She blew her hair from her face, closing her eye as a bead of sweat dripped down. She grabbed the front of her sleeveless shirt and rapidly pulled it away and put it back towards her body to cool herself down. Caitlin reached out her hand and allowed a small blast of icy air to waft over the fire metahuman. Cadence lifted an eyebrow. "Well, at least we know that's helpful."

Caitlin gave a small smile but it didn't last long. That stung, even though she understood her friend's snark. She pulled her phone from her pocket and quickly dialed Cisco, "Hey, we've had something come up, up here. But you need to see what we're bringing back."

"Uh, okay," Cisco replied. Caitlin frowned. He sounded kind of weird. "You should probably get back soon, though. Like, right now."

"What's going on?" Cadence asked.

"What makes you think anything's going on?"

"Maybe the fact that you sound like you're trying to ask someone out," Cadence said.

"Ha. That's so funny, Cade. Yeah, you should get back here."

Then the call hung up.

"Okay, even for Cisco that was weird," Cadence remarked.

Caitlin nodded.

Huh.

There was something in his voice that was weird. Like the time he had lied to Harrison—who they knew as Dr. Wells at the time—about calling in sick at work to go to a comic book convention in Keystone city. He had given a specific lie that Caitlin was obviously a part of from the way he continued to widen his eyes while looking at her, but speaking to Harrison. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he had used her and Ronnie as a scapegoat. Harrison—" _Dr. Wells_ "—had seen right through it and he had been reprimanded accordingly.

As far as Caitlin remembered, Cisco was put through the ringer for the next couple of weeks.

But this time, it sounded like he was specifically trying not to say something. That wasn't good.

"Let's go," Cadence said.

* * *

"I'm not going to ask again," Dr. Hollowell said, walking further into the Cortex. "Where is Caitlin Snow?" The group watched as she continued towards them. Professor Stein leaned heavily against the counter behind him while Ryder, Barry, Henry, and Cisco all stared at the newcomer.

"Technically, you did ask again," Cisco pointed out.

Dr. Hollowell glared at him and swung her glowing arm down towards a nearby bench. The moment her hand struck the bench it imploded into blue light that was immediately absorbed into her arm. Cisco took a step back, holding up his hands.

"Right, I won't question you again," Cisco commented.

He exchanged a glance with Barry. Maybe this was another metahuman who was working for Zoom, or maybe it was one already on their Earth. All they knew was if she wanted Caitlin, there was something specific she was after and that definitely wasn't good.

"Caitlin's not here," Harrison spoke up.

"Right," Barry agreed. "She's not here. But we are." His eyes narrowed. "How'd you find this place? How'd you know about it?"

Dr. Hollowell clenched her glowing hand into a fist. "You believe this place is as coveted and sacred."

"Apparently not so much considering the security here doesn't work," Ryder commented.

Cisco frowned. Okay, so he needed to work on the security system of the entire building, but there were too many things going on that he needed to get through first. Namely, the manifestations of his powers, now knowing that Caitlin had some, the certain scenes he'd seen. _If only I saw this, too,_ Cisco thought. He glanced over at Ryder, who clenched his jaw, watching Dr. Hollowell pace the floor. _And not something that doesn't make sense._

Still, they didn't need to keep making fun of his craftsmanship all the time.

Dr. Hollowell ignored all of them. "There are no such things as safe spaces. That is what I've had to teach my students time and time again. To be tough and to understand that life isn't going to cater to you, you have to work hard."

Professor Stein pushed himself up, tightening his grasp on his cane. "Hard work is the basis of everything, yes, but that doesn't mean you are to demean the people you come into contact with and are to be teaching."

Dr. Hollowell smirked at him. "And to think all of this hard work that you've done throughout Central City is going to all come crashing down if you don't give me what I need." Dr. Hollowell leveled her gaze to Barry. "Don't try anything stupid, Flash."

Barry swallowed hard. "How do you know who I am?"

"I know who all of your are," Dr. Hollowell said. "Caitlin Snow works with Cisco Ramon at STAR Labs, which should be defunct since the devastating Particle Accelerator explosion. And yet, The Flash and Flare are continuously seen coming from and going to this direction with and without other metahumans in tow. There aren't many other areas within Central City that would have the means or technology for the research and detainment of metahumans. My studies went even further to determine that it wasn't long after Mr. Barry Allen awoke from his coma that The Flash arrived—"

Despite the circumstances, Barry gently rolled his eyes, remembering how Cadence had mentioned the same thing to how she figured out, also questioning how no one else managed to put two and two together. Cisco, on the other hand, pressed his lips together, listening to everything Dr. Hollowell said as she continued explaining; how it wasn't until Caitlin and Professor Stein appeared at her retirement party that she knew it was time for her to make her move as she had been affected by the Particle Accelerator as well, giving her the abilities that was now exhibited in front of her.

"What sort of power is it that you have?" Henry demanded. "And what do you want with us?"

"You see, our powers are very similar," Dr. Hollowell commented. She clenched her glowing hand into a fist, her dark face illuminated by the glow. "Quantum Energy and Nuclear Energy. The very power I need to enhance my perpetual motion infinity engine. It'd put me on the map in terms of my studies and what I can give to mankind. And I need your power to do it."

"Why not take the power that you already have with your quantum energy?" Barry demanded.

Dr. Hollowell gave him a dismissive glance. Cisco shook his head. This woman had a no-nonsense attitude, clearly she already had the same thought as to what would make her machine work. "How am I to survive if I do that, Mr. Allen? My body wouldn't be able to contain itself."

Cisco winced. Okay, clearly Dr. Hollowell didn't get the memo. You don't give away the secret to your enemies, your Achilles' heel, the one weakness you have. But then again, she might have had the right idea; with the Firestorm Matrix being unstable, having had shown its power when he and Caitlin were at the retirement party, seeing how it was unstable with Henry as well, it was the perfect place to take it and use it for her own.

"What's this infinity engine supposed to do?" Cisco asked.

He was stalling for time now, hoping Dr. Hollowell wouldn't catch on. She seemed to be more into her own crazy plan and ego, for she continued talking, allowing Cisco to slowly pull out his cell phone to text Caitlin and Cadence what was going on.

"As I said, it's something that'll put me and my research on the map," Dr. Hollowell said dismissively.

"But what would you do with all of that harnessed energy?" Ryder asked.

"And what do you want with us?"

"It's simple." Dr. Hollowell held up her hand. "Once I saw what my former colleague could do I figured he was part of the Firestorm superhero that had been seen around the city, not a far off shoot from the Firestorm project he worked with."

 _Yeah, that wasn't a far jump,_ Cisco reasoned.

"And to my surprise I find he came to my retirement party and exhibited the exact powers that I had been seeking. And to my further surprise to come in here and find it's unstable and that it is trying to be passed on to these two gentlemen. As for Caitlin, I wrote her recommendation letter to work here, I followed her back here and I know she's the only one who'll know how it all works. The rest of you are all just in my way."

Barry took the time to shoot towards Dr. Hollowell. He started to run around her in circles, kicking up dust as he went. Dr. Hollowell clenched her glowing hand into a fist and sent out a bright blue blast of energy. It struck Barry in the chest, sending him flying across the room where he landed on the ground in a heap.

"Yo!" Cisco cried, holding out his hands. "You don't need to get so aggressive!"

"You wouldn't want to use the Firestorm Matrix anyway," Henry said, voice filled with bitter regret. "It doesn't work as these guys have promised."

"Well, it works fine it's just that it doesn't work with you," Harrison reminded him.

"That's not something you want to remind him right now, man," Ryder said to Harrison.

Professor Stein cleared his throat. "Wangari, this isn't what you want."

"The place we differ, Martin, is that our wants are always the complete opposites. I can assure you, your power is exactly what I want." She started towards him then stopped, hearing the sound of a cell phone starting to ring.

Cisco held his breath, his phone ringing in his hand. Of course it would be the only day he'd forget to turn the ringer off and put it on vibrate. Of course it was the only day he would have it out in the open and be caught with it when everyone knows that when you're trying to be discrete you actually have to be discrete. A sheepish smile came to Cisco's face when Dr. Hollowell turned to him.

"I'll just…put this away," Cisco started.

"Answer it!" Dr. Hollowell demanded.

Cisco gulped and brought the phone to his ear, closing his eyes when he saw it was Caitlin that was calling him. He answered the phone and Caitlin quickly explained that something had been going on while they were gone. Cisco swallowed hard. "Uh, okay," Cisco replied. He looked at Dr. Hollowell. "You should probably get back soon, though. Like, right now."

"What's going on?" Cadence's voice came through.

"What makes you think anything's going on?" Cisco tried to put his smile in his voice but it wasn't working. He sounded like a nervous wreck.

"Maybe the fact that you sound like you're trying to ask someone out," Cadence said.

"Ha. That's so funny, Cade." Cisco's smile immediately faded. "Yeah, you should get back here."

He hung up his phone and waited. The group didn't have to wait too long and there was a sudden flurry of movement. Cadence and Caitlin teleported into the Cortex with a statue between them. As soon as they stopped, Caitlin turned towards Dr. Hollowell and her eyes widened with surprise.

"Dr. Hollowell," she gasped.

"Caitlin." Dr. Hollowell held up her hand and raced towards the girls.

"Look out!" Ryder grabbed Cadence and flung the two to the ground, when they were clear Ryder pushed himself across the floor, sticking out his right leg in a slide tackle. Dr. Hollowell fell to the ground, her glowing hand touching the floor.

A light blue glow spreading across the Cortex floor.

Once it faded, the floor disappeared in a perfect circle. Barry cried out as he stared to fall. Ryder flung himself back and threw his arm out, grabbing Barry by the wrist, pulling him to a stop before he could crash to the floor fifteen feet below. Professor Stein flung his arms out and pressed Henry back against the wall, keeping themselves from falling over, Harrison crossed his arms in front of his face to keep himself grounded and was flung back into the wall behind him. He cried out in pain, bringing a hand up to his spine as he fell to the ground.

Cisco felt himself start to fall to the floor below and quickly flung out his hands. A shimmering blue energy field, like the breach in the basement of STAR Labs, appeared in front of him and he fell into it. Seconds later he felt himself hit the floor and looked over to find his friends still sitting around him. Gasping, Cisco brought his hands up to study them. _What just happened?_

He looked over at Harrison. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Harrison nodded, wincing as he got to his knees. "Not paralyzed yet," he said. Cisco managed a small smile. Since Eobard left his body and he didn't need the use of a wheelchair anymore, Harrison had managed to successfully use the six months the team had been apart to slowly transition back to walking, stunning doctors as he did so.

"Ah!"

Hearing Caitlin cry out, Cisco looked up to find Dr. Hollowell holding Caitlin to her, her normal arm around her neck, her energy hand poised above Caitlin. "Now you see what I can do," Dr. Hollowell snarled. "You know I'm not joking."

Caitlin grasped Dr. Hollowell's arm. "You don't have to do this," she said then cried out when Dr. Hollowell tightened her grasp around her neck. "Dr. Hollowell…please."

"I know you understand how the Firestorm Matrix works, I need that power. You're going to get it for me or suffer the consequences. I'll turn you into my own personal energy source."

"Wangari, this isn't what you want to do," Professor Stein said.

Dr. Hollowell glared at him.

Cadence nodded her thanks to her ex-boyfriend and got to her feet. She and Barry exchanged a glance and started moving at the same time. Cadence lifted her hands, sending a rush of fire towards Dr. Hollowell, just as Barry raced around to create a bolt of lightning to throw at her. The two attacks combine and shot towards her.

"No!" Cisco cried.

Dr. Hollowell held out her glowing hand and absorbed the attacks then sent a blast of energy back at them. Barry and Cadence were lifted off their feet and sent flying high into the air, crashing into the ceiling before falling to the ground in a heap. Dr. Hollowell retreated from the Cortex, taking Caitlin with her.

"Okay, that didn't work," Barry groaned.

"You think?" Cadence shot back.

"We need Jax," Barry said. He raced out of the Cortex, coming back a few seconds later, holding Jax by the elbow. Jax nearly stumbled as they came to a stop.

"Whoa!" He cried. "Man, if I had your speed, I wouldn't have had to worry about getting into college." Then his eyes widened as he got a good look at Barry. "You're The Flash!"

"Nice to meet you," Barry said quickly. "We don't have time." He motioned towards Professor Stein. "You remember Professor Stein; we sort of need you to merge with him."

"What?" Henry and Jax cried at the same time with different levels of disbelief.

"We know the particle accelerator took something from you," Cisco said to him. "Your college future, your football career, but this can give you something back. The opportunity to be part of something bigger, to be part of a team that's working to protect people. An right now, we need to help Caitlin. _You_ can do that."

" _Him?"_ Henry demanded. "No way!"

Professor Stein then turned to Jax. "Mr. Jefferson, we need to try and see if your compatible with the Firestorm Matrix. We have no other time, you're the best candidate for it."

"The what?" Jax demanded. He brought his hands up to his forehead. "This is nuts."

"What's nuts is that Dr. Hollowell chick is going to hurt Caitlin if we don't do something," Ryder said. "And you're the only one who can help her right now. She wants the power you guys can create and if you can stop her then you'll save Professor Stein, too."

Jax licked his lips. He glanced at Professor Stein then at the large hole in the ground and down the empty hall that Dr. Hollowell had taken her. "What do I have to do?"

"Just touch him," Cadence said. She nodded towards the grounding mechanism attached to the front of Professor Stein's dress shirt. "It'll do everything else."

"NO!" Henry shouted. All of a sudden, the lights in the room flickered before Henry was surrounded by an orange energy. "THAT SHOULD BE ME! _I_ deserve the Firestorm Matrix!" He shot a blast of energy around the room. Cadence held out her hands, quickly absorbing part of the fiery blow before sending her own fire after him.

Henry blew from the room with Cadence racing after him.

"If he's a meta, too then we don't have much time to figure out what to do," Ryder said.

"Hewitt's abilities must have been triggered when we attempted the merger," Harrison remarked. He ran a hand through his hair. "Abilities that are very similar to that of the Firestorm Matrix."

"If he's like Ronnie he needs a grounding mechanism," Professor Stein said. "Which can prove to be his downfall."

Barry nodded. "If you're going to make a decision you have to make it now," he said to Jax.

Jax took in a deep breath and turned to Professor Stein. "All I have to do is touch him?"

"And trust that we'll make a good team," Professor Stein said. He held out his hand. Jax took another deep breath and held out his hand as well. The two grasped each other and erupted into flames that came together until Jax was left standing in the middle of the floor, eyes white, and head and hands were covered in flames.

"Alright, you guys go after Cadence and Hewitt, we'll go help Caitlin," Barry said. He raced from the room with Cisco and Ryder following him with Jax and Harrison raced after Cadence and Henry.

They ran to the seventh floor of the building, finding Cadence and Henry frantically throwing flames back and forth to each other while simultaneously dodging each other's blows. Harrison ran to a panel on the wall and grabbed a Fire Extinguisher that sat on the wall. He turned and blew it towards Henry as he flew by. Henry cried out as he was suddenly cooled and turned to face Harrison with a glare.

"Harrison!" Cadence called.

Henry shot a blast of energy towards Harrison and Jax quickly leapt in the way. He was struck in the chest and started to twist and twirl in the air, falling backwards as he did so. Flailing his arms and legs, Jax tried to control himself.

 _"Calm down, Jefferson. Focus, use your natural athleticism to gain control,"_ Professor Stein said to Jax.

"Yeah, easier said than done, Grey!" Jax snapped out loud.

" _That's Professor to you."_

Cadence teleported to Jax's side when he finally came to a stop. "You okay?" She asked him.

"Yeah, I was my high school's quarterback, I can take a harder hit and keep trucking," Jax replied. He made a show of cracking his knuckles to prove his point.

"Don't get too cocky," Cadence warned him. "This guy runs on nothing but energy."

"Like a Tokamok," Harrison said. "The anger he is, the stronger he gets. Like a controlled fusion; the more powerful he becomes, the more angry."

Cadence smirked. "Huh, that sounds familiar." She nudged Jax on the arm. "I've got an idea. Every play dodge ball?" Jax smiled and nodded. "Awesome." Cadence teleported to the other side of the room, standing behind Henry. "Hey, Hewitt! Catch!" She created a fireball and threw it towards Hewitt.

Henry turned towards her and shot energy towards her. She teleported out of the way. Jax then taunted Hewitt next. "You'll have to do better than that. Try this!" He shot nuclear energy to Henry, who blocked it with his own.

Around and around Cadence and Jax continued to taunt and attack Henry. As the seconds passed, his anger continued to increase, making it harder for him to throw his attack back at them in a combative manner. His energy bursts were sporadic and not up to its full potential when needed.

Henry sucked in a deep breath and unleashed a furious yell, pushing out as much energy as he could, filling the room with a bright light. Jax, unable to get out of the way in time, held out his hand and absorbed the blow, shooting it back into Henry's face just as Cadence struck him in the back with a fire bomb.

Henry collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Jax lowered himself to the ground, standing over Henry with a smirk. "Game over, dude," he said.

Harrison reached out and grabbed Jax's shoulder, gently shaking him. "You did good," he said.

"I had a good teacher," Jax said.

" _And I had an equally exceptional student,"_ Professor Stein replied.

It was towards the basement that Cisco, Barry, and Ryder caught up with Dr. Hollowell. With Barry electing not to use his speed proved helpful for the boys as Dr. Hollowell was waiting for them when they got to the room she was holding Caitlin. Caitlin was tied to a chair, a gag over her mouth, hands behind her back as Dr. Hollowell stood over her, merely looking up when Barry, Cisco, and Ryder appeared.

"Come any closer and I'll absorb her like I've done everything else," Dr. Hollowell threatened.

"What do you want?" Barry asked.

"Bring me Firestorm," Dr. Hollowell replied. "Let me use their power."

"We can't do that," Cisco said.

"Then Caitlin has to die. Which is a shame, really. She had the most potential I'd ever seen in any of my students. I'll set her free in return for Firestorm."

Barry hesitated.

Cisco looked over at Caitlin, their eyes locking together. Caitlin looked back at him, shaking her head. It made Cisco smile a little. Of course she wouldn't allow herself to be set free for someone else. It was the same thing she did when Snart and Mick had captured her, trying to lure out Barry, she refused to let them do it. For someone who wasn't so well versed in fighting, she was one of the strongest and bravest people he knew.

Now he had to do the same for her.

But what?

Dr. Hollowell wouldn't take him if he offered himself over. Not when all she wanted was the Firestorm Matrix, all of that energy. Cisco clenched his hands into fists, moving his lower jaw back and forth. He frowned as there was a sudden rush of energy that moved through him, the same way it had when he had managed to save himself from what would've been a particularly nasty fall to the ground.

That was it.

"Take me," Ryder said, taking a step forward.

"Ryder, don't," Barry said.

Dr. Hollowell's upper lip curled. "What would I do with you?'

"Turn me into energy," Ryder said. He slowly walked towards Dr. Hollowell, keeping his eyes on her. "That's how you'll get stronger, right? Then you can take down The Flash and everyone whose standing in your way. Then you can go after Firestorm yourself." He held out his hand. "Easy way to get stronger and take down these guys."

"You're willing to risk your life for this girl?" Dr. Hollowell's eyes narrowed. "You're as weak as the rest of them, letting your emotion take over reasonable thought. Though I must commend you on your decision, you allow yourself to stick with it. I don't sense any fear in you."

Caitlin continued to frantically shake her head.

"There's not much to be afraid of. I've done everything I wanted within the last year. I'm not afraid." He continued towards Dr. Hollowell. A wicked gleam appeared in her eye and Cisco immediately reacted.

He punched his fist forward and Dr. Hollowell's hand seemed to crash into mid air, the force of the punch causing her hand to reach back and punch herself in the face. Dr. Hollowell let out a cry of pain as she felt back to the ground. Ryder took the opportunity to grab the front of Caitlin's chair and pull her away from Caitlin then turned and did what resembled a bicycle kick to Dr. Hollowell's face.

Barry then started to run around the room, creating another bolt of lightning. He threw it towards Dr. Hollowell, but again she lifted her glowing arm and caught the bolt, giving herself more energy. She got back to her feet and threw bolt after bolt of energy towards Barry as he ran around the room, missing him by seconds.

"Barry!" Cisco called.

Barry came to a stop and turned towards him.

Cisco threw out his hand and a breach opened.

Barry stared at him in shock and surprise for a moment before nodding, catching Cisco's drift. He ran around the room a few more times, but this time, instead of throwing lightning, he projected himself through the breach Cisco opened. Another one appeared behind Dr. Hollowell and he gave her a strong punch to the face.

She fell to the ground, knocked out.

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Hollowell, Henry Hewitt, and Eddie Slick's statue were all placed into their individual cells in the Pipeline. Cisco smiled in satisfaction as he closed the door of Dr. Hollowell's and turned back to the others.

"Three in one day," he remarked. "I think that's a new record."

"Hopefully we don't ever have to deal with more than that," Caitlin said. She let out a long sigh, glancing at the pod door. "Or anyone else who used to be close to us. It's not as safe as I thought it would be."

"Our old lives are not as we used to remember," Professor Stein commented. "They're not as safe as we're used to them being. It's our new reality." He reached out and cupped Caitlin's face in his hands. "But my dear, you handled it with as much grace as ever and for that, I'm proud."

"Thank you, Professor Stein." Caitlin reached out and gave him a hug. Then she turned to Ryder and gave him a hug, too. "And thank you. If you hadn't had distracted Dr. Hollowell, she might've done something worse."

"You're welcome, Caitlin," Ryder replied, returning the hug. He stepped back and nodded towards Cadence. "You're Cade's best friend; I couldn't let anything happen to you."

Cisco brought up a hand and coughed into his closed fist. Cadence rolled her eyes and nudged him on the arm, making him smile as she remembered their little spat. Then Barry stepped up and the four came together in a group hug, gently rocking back and forth as they did so.

When the hug broke apart, Cadence reached up and grasped Caitlin's hands. "I'm sorry for what I said," She apologized.

"And I'm sorry for lying to you," Caitlin replied.

The two girls smiled and hugged each other tightly.

"So, do we get some training now or what?" Jax asked. He rubbed his hands together. "I'm ready to get this whole Firestorm thing down."

"I don't know about that," Professor Stein said. He wagged a warning finger towards Jax, who looked at it in disdain. "We've got a lot of training we need to do to make sure we're as compatible as it seems we are."

Jax rolled his eyes. "Okay, Grey, we'll go along with your plan this time, I guess."

Professor Stein took in a deep breath but didn't correct him this time. He clapped Jax on the shoulder and the two left the Pipeline and STAR Labs. "I've got to get going, too," Ryder said to the group. He shook his head. "Though I don't know how I'm going to let things go back to normal after this." He looked each of them in the eye. "How do you do this all the time?"

Barry shrugged. "You get used to it."

"But thanks for everything, Ry," Cadence said to him.

Ryder looked thoughtful. "I've got to make up fo everything somehow, don't I?" He and Cadence smiled at each other and he left the Pipeline and STAR Labs.

Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, Cadence, and Harrison walked back up to the Cortex where Caitlin and Cisco dropped down to their desks. It was like any other normal day, but it was anything but normal all at the same time.

"So, now we've got two other metas on this team," Harrison commented, coming up behind them. He exchanged a knowing look with Caitlin. She smiled, but this time didn't look away. "What are we going to do now?"

* * *

"So, with their newfound powers do you think Brady's going to be safe with Caitlin and Cisco?" Cadence asked Barry later that night as they strolled down the crowded sidewalk. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and laughed at the picture that was sent. Turning her phone around, she showed it to Barry, who laughed too. Brady had sent her a picture with her and Cisco holding onto snow cones and grinning while Caitlin looked annoyed in the corner.

Barry gave her a knowing smile. "I thought you said we weren't supposed to talk about metas during our date."

Cadence gave him a teasing smile in reply. "Ah, but the date hasn't started yet. So it's free game." She laughed and glanced up at the building they passed, coming to a stop, pulling Barry with her. "But we're here now." She pointed to the building. "Once you pass through those doors there's no turning back, I'd back out now if I were you. It's not too late to change your mind."

"No, I think I can handle it," Barry said. "Besides, after what happened today I think we deserve to have a good time." He took in a deep breath. "And I always have a good time with you, Cade."

"I have a good time with you, too, Tholly. I just hope that you continue to have a good time with me after this." Taking his hand, Cadence pushed through the doors. It took Barry a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. Then he spotted the numerous pool tables that were set up around the room. "When I beat you, I mean."

"I don't think so," Barry replied. He pushed up the sleeves of his sweater and went with Cadence to pay for use of the table—which she insisted when he started to take out his wallet—then followed her to the table. He picked up two pool cues and handed one to Cadence.

"So, have you ever played pool before?" Cadence asked. She picked up the chalk and rubbed it over the tip of her pool cue before handing it to Barry.

"Once or twice," Barry replied. "Only at birthday parties and stuff. And at college when I was taking a break from studying."

"Oh. So…never?" Cadence smiled sweetly.

Barry reached out, with chalk on his fingertip, and tapped her on the nose. "Ha ha, very funny." Cadence laughed and wiped the chalk off. "No, yeah, I've played a few times. It's always pretty fun." He then noticed a flash in her eyes. "What?"

"Want to make it interesting?" She asked.

"You mean bet?"

"Just a harmless one," Cadence said. She leaned against her pool cue, which Barry couldn't help but notice was just as tall as she was. "Liiiiike." She tapped her chin with her finger. "Like, if I win then you have to dye your hair any color I choose."

Barry's eyes widened. "Dye my hair?" He repeated. Cadence nodded. "Any color?" She nodded again. "So, like, green?"

"If I decide on green," Cadence said. She shrugged. "I might choose blue. Or maybe pink."

"I don't think Captain Singh will like that."

"He might not like it enough to leave you alone for a while." Cadence laughed and reached out, gently poking him in the stomach. "C'mon, Tholly. You have your dare if you lose, what's mine."

Barry thought for a long moment. What was as good? The things he and his friends did in college was the normal things; having to streak—how ironic—having to do everyone else's homework, having to make a speech in front of the class. But those seemed to be a little immature and if he was stuck with having to dye his hair, then he needed to make her do something equally as amusing.

"If I win you have to cut your hair in any style I choose," Barry said.

Cadence's eyes widened.

Barry laughed. "You look scared."

"Only because I'm trying to figure out how I'd look if I were bald," she admitted.

"I wouldn't make you shave your head. But I think you'd look beautiful either way."

Cadence 'aww'd and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Then she poked him with her pool cue. "That's sweet, but it's not going to get you get you out of this. Do you want to break?"

"Sure."

Barry set up the colorful balls on the table and picked up his pool cue. He balanced it against the edge of the table and struck the cue ball. Stepping back, Barry calmly watched as a couple of the solids managed to move close to the pockets while three stripes fell in. Cadence's eyebrows bunched together as she watched.

Barry smiled and moved to the side of the pool table to take his next shot, sinking a few more balls. Then he missed, giving Cadence a chance to get the solids he left for grabs on the table. "You've played before," she remarked.

"A couple of times," Barry said modestly. "And, if anything, it's mostly a game of physics and angles."

"Great, so I'm already behind," Cadence jokingly complained. But she wasn't doing too badly either, obviously having played a couple games herself with the ease she managed to get them in. "Though I don't think it's about physics, I think it's about skill."

"Well, we'll see when you lose."

"You mean when _you_ lose, Tholly."

Barry smiled.

For the next hour they continued to play game after game of pool until their time was up and Cadence mentioned she had a reservation for dinner. Barry did a quick calculation and his smile widened when he realized that he had won their little bet.

"So, I'm thinking shaved on one side," Barry teased as they left the pool hall, falling in with the late night crowd. He reached out and took Cadence's hand in his, lacing their fingers together. He laughed when Cadence jostled him in the side. "Or maybe I'll have you wear that fountain on your head. That's still a thing, right? Oh, don't be a sore loser, Cade."

"I'm not being a sore loser," Cadence replied. "I just don't like to lose. But you did win and I'll uphold my bargain of the bet. Whatever hairstyle you want, I'll do."

"Well, you _were_ close to winning," Barry said. It was true. Their wins went back and forth over and over again. And if it wasn't for Cadence having missed her last ball, allowing Barry a clear shot to sink the eight ball. "So, maybe I'll just make you shave half of your head."

Cadence lifted her foot and kicked him in the butt.

They walked for a few minutes more before arriving at the restaurant, where Cadence mentioned their reservation to the waitress and they were seated. They ordered their food and their conversation moved smoothly and quickly afterwards, each topic segueing into the next.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Cade, no!"

"Barry, yes!"

"I'm telling you, the Miners are going to take it this year," Barry insisted. He jabbed his index finger rapidly into the tabletop. "Their court coverage has been the best it's been in _years_."

"And I'm telling _you_ that the Generals are going to crush them," Cadence shot back with the same intensity. She dragged her fingers across the tabletop. "Their shooting is better than ever, their defense is on point, and even their second string is as good as their starters."

"Would you like to bet on it?" Barry rested his arms on the table, leaning forward.

"Oh yeah, I want to make a bet," Cadence shot back.

The two laughed.

"So we both know they're probably going to lose to Keystone?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

They laughed again. The waitress then came back to the table. "Would you two care for some dessert?"

Barry looked expectedly at Cadence. "You asked me out, would we like some dessert?"

"Yes, preferably something chocolate," Cadence said. She thought for a moment, comically scrunching up her face as she did so. "If I remember correctly the mousse was always good. Could we have one to share?"

"Of course."

"Thanks!"

"You've been here before?" Barry asked.

Cadence shrugged. "Kind of had to, I used to work here."

"Really?" He didn't know that.

"Yeah." Cadence rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, actually, I had a lot of jobs before I finally got into residency. Let's see; I was a waitress, a bartender, a receptionist, and I worked at a flower shop. Which didn't work so well considering my allergies. None of them lasted very long."

"Why?"

"Well, the office job slowly killed me, I got tired of having my ass grabbed when I was a waitress and bartender, and, again, my allergies didn't work out so well in the flower shop. But I needed the money so I put up with it."

Barry nodded in commiseration. Everyone had to start somewhere and he had some pretty bad jobs himself. He worked at a fast food place one year. "I think my worst job, would have to have been when I was working at my dad's office one summer." He laughed at the memory. "The job itself wasn't bad at all. I just followed him around; doing what he told me to do."

"So what was so bad about it?"

"Having so many people come around and say," Barry held his hand about four feet above the ground. Cadence's eyes lit up and she harmonized with him as they said, "I remember when you were this tall." Barry put his hands back to his lap. "I got that all day."

"I can imagine." The waitress came back with their dessert and the two quickly started to dig in. "Speaking of your dad, do you have any embarrassing childhood nicknames?" Cadence asked.

Barry thought for a moment. He popped a spoonful of mousse into his mouth and swirled it thoughtfully. His eyebrows came together. "Other than Slugger? I don't think so. There aren't many names that you can get from Bartholomew or Barry." He paused. " _Barfolomew._ " Cadence raised an eyebrow, though she was trying her hardest to suppress her laughter. "Kids aren't very imaginative. And even then, it was Iris's cousin who usually called me that."

"So, what's so embarrassing about Slugger?" Cadence asked. She tilted her head. "Your dad calls you that all the time. I thought you liked it."

"That's an entire other story that I'm not going to get into." Barry laughed. To most people, it wouldn't be so embarrassing but to him it was a moment he would rather completely block out of his memory. It didn't help that there was photo evidence either. "What about you? Do you have any embarrassing nicknames?"

Cadence gave him a look. "Other than Cadey-Cat which my mom, dad, and Ryder seem to insist on calling me?" She thought for a moment. "I guess Candy is the worst one, but no one really calls me that."

"Candy?" Barry repeated.

She nodded. "Short for Candace, which is what everyone seems to think my name is when I introduce myself."

Barry flushed, remembering when he made that mistake. Hard to believe that a little over a year before he finally bit the bullet and went to a doctor's appointment—mostly to get Captain Singh off his back from reminding him to do so—and ended up having his life changed completely. "Well, I guess you have your parents to blame for that."

"Actually,"—Cadence lifted a finger—"You'd have to blame Harrison and Tess. Their only stipulation for the adoption, other than it being a semi-closed one, is that my mom and dad kept my name as Cadence. That's all I know, anyway."

"Do you ever wonder about that?"

"Wonder about what would happen if Harrison and Tess kept me? Sometimes. I understand when they got pregnant it wasn't the best time for a baby. And who better to give it to than their best friends?" She paused. "I guess I never told you this before, but my mom and dad couldn't have children. They thought of adopting or going on the rest of their lives without children. So, when I came along it was a blessing to them." She shrugged. "Unfortunately, I think they were _so_ happy that they wanted to be sure they were there for _everything_ in my life, that I had everything I could've wanted and should've had. And in my opinion, they became so breathtakingly…" she paused. "They were sort of like helicopter parents. Which, you know made everything else happen but I've stopped blaming them for _everything_ and took responsibility for my own part in it. And I'm happier now."

"How are your parents doing?"

Cadence thought for a moment. Her eyes narrowed and shifted back and forth. Barry laughed at the expression of intense concentration on her face. "I think they're fine. But that's only if mom's not doing the 'mom thing' where you act like everything is okay when you're trying to make sure no one gets upset." She leveled her gaze at him. "You know what I mean?"

"Of course, I know what you mean. My mom did that to me all the time," Barry said.

"All the time?"

"All. The. Time." Barry pressed his hands together. "Okay, there was this one time that we were supposed to go on a field trip to the science museum or something. But my mom forgot to sign my permission slip. Now this is the sort of field trip that we were all excited to go on because it meant we were supposed to go someplace fun. Even though I thought the museums were fun. The day of the field trip comes and instead of waking me up to go to school, my mom woke me up and we went to the beach for the day. I didn't know until later that I missed the field trip and my teacher got mad because my mom didn't _tell_ her that we were going to miss and…yeah. I wouldn't have known if her guilt didn't catch up to her. And that was just for _one_ field trip. Imagine the big stuff I missed."

"You think that's in a handbook or something? 'Cause I don't think I've done it to Brady that much," Cadence said. A giggle escaped her lips. "Then again, people tell me I'm freakishly honest with him so there's that."

"It might be an older person thing; my mom says my grandparents were the same way."

"You don't talk about them much," Cadence remarked.

"My grandparents?" She nodded. Barry shrugged. "Yeah, they're not around anymore. They died when I was young. What about you?"

"They're still alive, but we don't go visit them so much. I don't know if it's because of them being so busy or if it's because of what's going on with my dad."

"How is he?"

"He's doing well enough to want to come down for Thanksgiving. So that should be fun. If what we were saying about moms before is true, then I'm not so sure if that's a good thing. But I'm trying to stay as positive as possible." She leaned back then tapped the tabletop with her hands. "Okay, what else can I ask?" Her eyes lit up. "Oh! If what happened to your mom hadn't happened, what would you have gone to school for once you finished high school?"

Barry's eyebrows rose. He hadn't thought about it that much. Forensics had been the first thing he thought of once he saw how the justice system hadn't worked well for him and his family. Still, there were some things he had been interested in way back when. "Architecture. There were a lot of plays and things I was into when I was in high school and designing sets and stuff was always fun. I was a good drawer."

"Was?"

"I don't draw much anymore."

"What did you used to draw?"

"Everything. People, buildings, animals; whatever caught my attention."

Cadence's eyes flashed. She rested her chin on her hands and exaggeratedly fluttered her eelashes. "Do I catch your attention?"

Barry smirked. "I'm not drawing you."

"Aww." She pouted. "Why not?"

"Because I'd probably make the drawing even worse than you actually are. I'd like to save you from that potential."

"Good answer."

"What about you?"

"I would've, definitely, gone to Metropolis University to be on the cheer team. That was my plan for the longest time. Then I probably would've gone on the same path and done pre-med. But knowing what I know now, maybe I would've gone into criminal law."

"You still would've been a cheerleader?"

"Yeah, back then it was my life. To the point that everyone keeps forgetting I was on the soccer and swim teams, too. _And_ I was a state athlete for them." Cadence laced her fingers together. "But everyone remembers I was a cheerleader first."

"You have the cheerleader personality; you're happy and perky about nearly everything."

"I'm not perky about everything. I'm spirited. Besides I have five stages to my perkiness."

Barry's eyebrows rose.

"There's regular Cade, cheerleader Cade, fake Cade—where I have to pretend to be nice to people, had too much caffeine Cade, and deliriously overtired Cade." She thought for a moment. "You could probably add a drunk version of me in there, too, but I haven't gotten drunk in a long while. Otherwise you've only ever seen two stages so far." She laughed. "I swear, I'm not that bad."

"You're not; you're open and inviting and you have a beautiful heart. So when people find out, it's not so weird."

"Gee thanks."

"It's a complement."

"I know. I'm honestly saying thanks." Cadence smiled warmly. "But you're full of them tonight and I haven't really been keeping up." She reached across the table and rubbed his hand. "I asked you out, I should be doing all the complementing."

Barry smiled. He didn't mind so much, he was having a really great time. Barry took Cadence's hand and lifted it so that their palms were pressed together. Then he curled his fingers over hers and looked up, studying her face, making her blush and look away.

"Can I ask you something?" Barry finally asked, looking into her eyes. He gently rubbed circles with his thumb on her hand.

"Sure."

"How'd you get that scar?" Cadence reached up and touched her cheek, almost as if she forgot it was there. She was silent for a moment. Barry quickly said, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I want to, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to say it that wouldn't break the 'don't talk about metas' rule." Cadence gave a small smile. Oh. Okay, he knew what that meant. Must've had something to do with the Assassination Bureau. Well, he didn't want to ruin the mood of the night if that were the case.

He must've been deep in thought because Cadence gently shook his hand to get his attention. "You're a million miles away, what're you thinking about?" She asked quietly.

Barry was silent for a moment. "I was just thinking that things aren't always what they seem. That our fears can play tricks on us, making us afraid to change course, afraid to move on or move forward." He smiled softly. "But usually behind those fears are second chances waiting to be seized; second chances at life, at glory, at family." He leveled his gaze at her. "At love. And those opportunities don't come around every day so when they do we have to be brave, take a chance, and grab them while we can."

"Okay?" Cadence was obviously confused.

"I had a really great time tonight, Cade. Just like I always do when we're hanging out. And I was wondering, or hoping, that you'd want to go out again next weekend."

Cadence smiled. "I'd like that, Barry."

Barry smiled back.

He leaned across the table.

Cadence met him halfway in a gentle kiss.

* * *

 **A/N:** I loved writing the fight scenes of this chapter. Usually I think they're okay, but I really liked them here.

You want to know something stupid I did? It didn't occur to me that having Eobard remove himself from Harrison, giving him the ability to walk, probably wasn't going to make things easier for him. How can a guy who 'couldn't walk' before suddenly walk again with no explanation? And I only just remembered that plot point, so I quickly used a throwaway line here to do it. Funny thing is, no one else seemed to remember it, haha. And I only _just_ remembered it.

Anyway, for those waiting…the next chapter has Zoom.

Let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

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 **Ethan:** STARLabs is his company but all the same it's a tech, science, and research company and the research has to be brought in somehow. And that's where he and Tess come in, this Harrison does more on the research side. It's not so much so that he feels bad, because, as it was stated in other chapters so far, no one knows how much was him and how much was Eobard.

 **yummers:** How do you think the date went? ;)

 **Guest:** Hope you liked it. I update every Wednesday, btw.

 **Babyj:** I hope this explained more for Dr. Hollowell. And I hope you liked how things turned out in terms of the groups being split up. I especially liked it. But that's just me. Lol.

 **For those wondering my **stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	20. Out in the Open (Enter Zoom)

**A/N:** Before the chapter starts I just want to say thank you for the overwhelming response to my last chapter. I just hope this one lives up to everything the last one was.

* * *

 **.:20:.**

 _Out in the Open_

 _Aka_

 _Enter Zoom_

* * *

As there was a knock on the door, Ryder flung the armful of trash he was holding into the trash can then smoothed down his shirt before going to answer. His flip-flops smacked against the bottom of his feet as he went. He took a deep breath then pulled the door open.

"Ryder Moseley?" The woman on the front porch asked. Ryder swallowed hard. He had never expected to have Child Protective Services at his door, but Cadence did warn him that they were going to come by at some point to ask him some questions. He was glad they called first rather than suddenly appearing on his doorstep.

"Yes." Ryder held out his hand and the woman took it, shaking it firmly. "And you're Natalie Ramos?"

"You may call me Natalie," she replied. She stepped inside, casting a critical eye over the first floor of the townhouse when Ryder let her inside. Her eyebrows rose at the line of sand and dust that sat on the base runner by the door, crunching under their feet.

Ryder noticed her look and quickly explained, "I'm an architect and also have a hand in the construction side of things. Every now and then I tend to bring some of that work home with me." He picked up a broom by the door and quickly swept away the dust. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"No, I'd rather just get right to work," Natalie said. Ryder nodded and walked the two to the living room. He sat down on the couch while Natalie opted the wooden chair that sat by the window. She opened her briefcase and started to pull out different papers and a notepad. "So, you and Cadence Nash have a custody agreement put in place?"

"Yes. We worked it out over the summer. She gets Brady during the week and I get him over the weekends," Ryder explained. He cleared his throat, rubbing his palms on the legs of his jeans. "He plays for a travel soccer team and they have a game every Saturday morning. After the game he comes with me and stays until Monday morning where I drop him off at school for Cadence to get him after school that day."

"And how do those pickups and drop offs work?"

"Usually we get him at the school."

"Carmichael Elementary?"

"Yes, that's it."

"And how are things there? His grades? School work? Friends?"

Ryder ran a hand through his hair. "He enjoys school for the most part. He doesn't really like science or math." He chuckles. "Sometimes I just think he's bored rather than him not liking school. He has some friends, thought it took him a while to get them. He can be shy at first, but one he starts talking he never stops. And never stops asking questions."

Natalie nodded, continuing to write on her notepad. Then she sat up straight and crossed her legs, resting her hands in her lap. She looked Ryder in the eye. "And how would you say he is when he's dropped off? Would you say there's anything wrong? Does he look stressed in any way?"

"No, Brady's always really happy and excited," Ryder said. He rubbed the underside of his jaw. "He's always happy when he's around his mom and his friends."

"What about when he's around you?"

Now Ryder hesitated. "Just as happy, I'd say," he said slowly. "Mmm, maybe not to the same extent. I haven't really known him long, just about a year now. And we're trying to work things out. But I wouldn't say he's ever upset to see me. They're moving slowly but—"

"—has he ever called you his dad?"

"He knows I'm his dad and has referred to me as 'my dad' every now and then. But he hasn't actually called me 'Dad', like he'd call Cadence 'Mom'." He eyed Natalie for a moment. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that has to do with—"

"—I want to be sure that everything with Brady is where it needs to be," Natalie interrupted. "When we first received the call from Detective Joe West about a citizen's concern after seeing him on a bus late at night we needed to do everything we could to determine that Brady's not being neglected or in any danger."

"Trust me when I say me and Cadence would never neglect him," Ryder said.

"But you _did_ leave for the first eight years of his life," Natalie reminded him. Ryder pressed his lips together, feeling his temper start to spike. "May I ask why you decided to come back after so long?"

"For the same reason I left," Ryder said after a moment of silence. He ran a hand over his hair, letting out a frustrated breath. He shouldn't be annoyed; he grew to expect those questions once his life story was revealed. But he didn't like the way she looked at him when he asked. Didn't like the tone of voice she took on. "How was I going to be any help to them when I was a sixteen year old boy who didn't have a job and lived off his parent's money? When my mom and dad found out that Cadence was pregnant the decided to send me away. I think people forget that about me when they hear I abandoned my child. I was abandoned too, just like Cadey was. I was sent to a boarding school in California and my parents never visited me. They called every now and then but they didn't visit.

"Then I ended up going to college out there. So from sixteen to, about, twenty-one I may as well have never existed to my mom and dad." Pain bloomed in Ryder's chest and he swallowed hard, hoping to push it away. He thought he had gotten over that, but he was only 26. Four years probably wasn't enough time. _No wonder Cade was mad at me for so long,_ Ryder thought. "Once my parents heard what I was doing with my life; architecture was when they suddenly decided to come back, saying I learned the lessons I needed to learn." Ryder rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I think they were just as embarrassed as the Nashes but wouldn't outright say it. Through the time I was gone I worked hard with what I was doing. I worked full-time at a construction company while getting a degree in architecture. It was hard not to be in contact with the, but enough time had passed where I wasn't sure if it would make a difference. How could I be in my son's life without anything to provide for him?"

"And you're here now," Natalie remarked.

"I'm here now," Ryder agreed. "As long as they'll have me."

"How does being in Central City compare to being in Metropolis?"

"It was a culture shock at first," Ryder admitted. "Just like it was when I moved from Smallville to Metropolis. Big cities can be really jarring to me at first but then I find that it's much like everything else. I've grown to love it though I'm still a country boy at heart." He smiled a little. "I've got some friends and I'm starting to adjust."

"And Cadence seems to enjoy living here?"

"She's lived here since she left Metropolis, so I think so."

"And she enjoys working at the CCPD?"

"Yes, very much so."

"Because it has come to our attention that she has multiple absences and moments of being late while working there despite continuous work for the last year." Natalie lifted her chin and looked Ryder in the eye. He suddenly felt that he was being put on the spot. "Do you have any ideas of why that could be? The absences and lateness? Everything else checks out besides that."

Ryder shrugged. He had an idea why, but definitely couldn't say it. There were enough people who knew hers and Barry's identities as Flare and The Flash, no one else needed to know. Not to mention, having someone in her field know probably wouldn't help matters much. _She's probably take Brady away for him being in danger in that aspect,_ he thought. "I wouldn't know," he finally said. "We don't talk about our jobs much."

"You don't?"

"No."

"Would you say you're amicable exes?"

"I'd say we're friends before I'd mention she's my ex, yes," Ryder said, honestly. "It took a while to get to it, but we're friends. It really helps in terms of communication when we need it. We can have a drink together after a hard day."

"But you don't talk about work?" She didn't look convinced. As a matter of fact, she looked a little angry.

"No. I assume there's a lot that the police wouldn't want me to know. As for my line of work, it gets to be repetitive considering how many metahuman attacks come along here." Ryder shrugged. "Though we do joke that I never have to worry about losing my job."

Natalie suddenly looked frustrated. "Look, Mr. Moseley. We're trying to do everything we can to make sure that Brady is where he needs to be and the only thing that neither you nor Cadence can tell me is why she isn't always at work. Her boss, David Singh, has mentioned from time to time that despite her hard work she can't always explain while she's gone and unless I don't have a reason to, I can't help but think it may be something dangerous…"

"I can only tell you what I know and it's that Cade would never purposefully put Brady or anyone else in danger," Ryder said.

Natalie nodded. She was silent for a long moment, the sound of the running refrigerator punctuating the air. Then, without a word, she gathered her things together and stood up, walking to the door. Ryder followed her to let her out. She stopped once reaching the door and turned back to Ryder, holding out her hand once more.

"Thank you for your time."

Ryder shook her hand and let her out of the townhouse. Once he closed the door behind him, he pressed his hands to his hips, making a humming sound under his breath. Something about that conversation didn't sit well with him. Either that or else he was starting to become too used to strange things happening in Central City.

* * *

Barry looked up as there was a knock on the door to his lab. He smiled when he spotted Cadence leaning against the doorway. "Lunch?" She asked.

Lifting his wrist, Barry looked at his watch. Was that really the time? He hadn't realized he'd been working so hard. Then he glanced at the bench in front of him. Or, hardly working was the better term to use. There were so many documents he hadn't even started to fill out, and other evidence from crime scenes that had been worked on over the last few days. Especially the shark teeth Patty had given him to look over. Of which he found to be interesting. They weren't regular shark teeth; they also had human DNA combined with it.

It looked like her Man-Shark theory was panning out.

"Please," he replied. Barry pushed off his goggles and snapped off his glove with a few movements of his hands. "I could use it."

Cadence laughed. "You sound really stressed," She remarked.

"I am now." Barry ran a hand through his hair then over his face. He leaned in and gave her a peck. "Considering I haven't gotten a lot of work done."

"You're the fastest man alive and you haven't gotten any work done?"

"I was a bit preoccupied," Barry said. It was the truth, he hadn't been thinking much about work. A smile came to Barry's face as he leaned towards her. "I was thinking about our date," he said. Cadence looked at him curiously, a smile starting to worm its way to her face, her eyes lighting up as a light flush appeared on her cheeks. "And our kiss. It was a good kiss."

"Yeah, it was," Cadence agreed. Then her face scrunched up. "Though, the memory's kind of foggy."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I might need a reminder." Barry took the hint and kissed her. Cadence licked her lips when the kiss ended and said, "Eh, I've had better." Barry laughed in surprise and Cadence gently jostled him on the arm before the two left his lab, holding hands. "So what were you thinking to get this time?"

"Maybe—"

" _Anything_ but Big Belly Burger."

"What do you have against it?"

"Nothing!" Cadence threw her hands into the air. "Other than it being the only place we get food from after a hard day's work at STAR Labs. Number one; I don't think there are any other Big Belly Burger's we can go to in this city and number two; I think it's giving me heartburn."

"Are you sure it's not just part of your powers that does that?"

"Shut up, Tholly."

The two laughed as they reached the lobby of the CCPD. Cadence spotted Patty standing in the lobby, looking concerned about something. "Hey Patty," She greeted her friend cheerfully. "What's going on?"

"Oh. Hey, Cadence, hey Barry," She said, sounding distracted. "Nothing much other than Joe just shut me down in a big way. I was talking to him about the Sand Demon stuff that was going on, trying to get an idea of why he attacked me before and then attacked us again on the hike."

Barry cleared his throat, feeling sweat starting to pour into his underarms, much like it did when he was stuck in a nerve-wracking situation. Anything that had to do with her coming close to his identity did that. "If anything, he probably just wants to make sure that you don't get too focused on it," he said. "With so many metahuman things going on this city I'm sure there are plenty of people starting to think they're being targeted, too." _Like me,_ he couldn't help but think.

"I understand that, but I mean…he's my partner," Patty said. "We should have trust and communication…"

"Partner, huh?" Cadence smirked. She pressed her finger to her lips and twisted back and forth as she pretended to think. "Why, oh _why,_ does that sound so familiar?"

"Don't start," Barry warned her.

Patty looked back and for the between the two of them. "Oh, I didn't realize that you two were partners, too." Barry and Cadence started to say they weren't, but Patty continued with, "I mean, it makes sense considering forensic science and medical examining aren't so completely different. There are times where the job overlaps, right? Especially on crime scenes? It'd explain why you're always together, right?" Barry and Cadence started to say something but Patty cut them off once more when Joe started to walk by. "Joe? Detective." He stopped in his tracks. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Does it have to do with Sand Demon?" Joe asked.

"Yes!" Patty nodded firmly. Then she paused. "No! No, maybe, but. I think I know why you've been shut down the last couple of days."

Joe's eyes shifted back and forth for a moment. Then he glanced at Barry and Cadence, who listened curiously to their conversation. "Really?"

"Yeah." Patty took a step towards him, widening her blue eyes earnestly. "I think you're not being transparent with me but I think that's my fault." She flashed a winning smile. "You're an excellent detective and I think you can sense I'm not being transparent with you and you're right. We need to be completely honest with each other, no secrets." She twisted her fingers together, suddenly appearing bashful. "I think that Captain Singh might've talked to you about my questions about dating in the work place…? Maybe I overstepped my boundaries but I want to know everything…there is to know about this place and…and that seemed important."

Cadence made a humming sound.

Barry paled.

Joe stared. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before starting to smile a little. He glanced at Barry out of the corner of his eye and Barry suddenly wished that he could kill him. "There's something to being too transparent, Patty."

"No, I think it's great! That everything's out in the open!"

Joe held up his hand, chuckling to himself. "Whatever you do in private is your own business."

Patty's smile waned slightly but didn't completely go away. It was still illuminating but not as megawatt as it had been before. "Okay…" her voice betrayed her confusion. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "So you're not mad at me?"

"I promise you, I'm not." Joe was still laughing a little. Barry really wanted to punch him.

"Great. I feel so much better" Patty clasped a hand to her chest, letting out an audible breath. Then silence stretched between them. She spoke up again. "…Is there anything you've been meaning to tell me?"

"Uh…nope," Joe replied.

"Are you sure?" Cadence broke in .There was a wide, amused smile on her face, her blue-green eyes flashing as she looked between Joe and Patty. "I mean, you're partners, right?"

"Yeah, you're totally transparent with each other," Barry added. He then grinned, seeing the disapproving glance that Joe sent his way. He was sure he was going to pay for it later. "Open and honest…no secrets…" He held out his fist and, without looking, Cadence fist-bumped him.

Patty nodded.

"I promise, there's nothing I have to say," Joe said. He looked at his phone as it vibrated in his hand. "Other than, we have a call to go on." He looked meaningfully at Barry and Cadence as their phones suddenly vibrated as well. Joe nodded for the three to head to the doors of the CCPD. "I'm going to kill you," he muttered to Barry.

Barry smiled. Then he looked at Cadence and frowned, noticing her jovial expression had immediately gone away. "What's up, Cade?" he asked her.

For a moment it looked like Cadence was about to deny anything was wrong, but then she said, "You can go out with her if you want." It startled Barry so much that he came to a complete stop. Cadence tilted her head back towards Patty and elaborated. "With Patty. I can tell she likes you." She reached up and scratched behind her ear. "I wouldn't be mad if you wanted to go out with her. We're not official or anything."

"Cade…" Barry started. He took a breath. "I don't want to go out with her." He thought of bringing up the fact that Cadence had once said before she wouldn't mind going out with Patty but figured it wasn't a good idea.

"But you like her."

"I…"

Cadence shrugged. "I don't blame you. You're both into science; you both have the ability to be adorkable." Barry couldn't help but smile. "You have a lot of common in terms of your school background and interests—"she suddenly stopped, as if a light bulb appeared over her head. "Now, I get why you freak out about Ryder so much."

It wasn't that he was freaking out about it, per se, but that he was insecure. In his mind, Ryder was everything Barry was not. Outgoing, a star athlete, enjoyed anything and everything sports, and everyone seemed to like him. And it was always hard to beat a history he wasn't a part of.

"I'm sorry if I ever made you feel uncomfortable about that," Cadence said sincerely.

"It's okay." And Barry meant that. "I kind of get it. I just hope you don't mind having to cut our lunch plans short; looks like we're needed at STAR Labs."

"What else is new?"

The three left the CCPD and Barry grasped Joe's arm, the three hurrying to STAR Labs. As soon as they went through the front door, Joe whipped out his gun and pointed it towards Harrison Wells. "Whoever you are, don't move," he said in a low voice."

"I can assure you, Joe that he's not the man you're mistaking him for," Harrison said.

Barry's gaze shifted back and forth. For a moment he thought he was using his super-speed and seeing double. But even when moving his gaze slowly he saw that he really was seeing the real thing, two Harrison Wells. One stood on the left side of the Cortex with Tess, Caitlin, and Cisco, while another stood on the other side, glaring at the group from underneath a baseball cap. That was the Harrison that Joe was pointing his gun to.

"Are you sure about that?" Joe growled. "We've been tricked before, who's to say that we're not being tricked again."

"Because I've already established the fact that I'm not from here," the second Harrison said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I've even taken a look at the autobiography that I did not write here. There are so many inconsistencies with my life." He pushed the rifle that rested against his front to his back. "I'm from Earth-2."

"Seriously?" Cadence asked, her eyebrows rising.

"So…" Cisco pressed his palms together and pointed towards the second Harrison. "You're the doppelganger of the man who killed his mom and is responsible for both Ronnie's and Eddies' deaths?"

Caitlin tilted her head. "Yeah, but he's not even really the doppelganger of this Harrison Wells because his body was taken over by the Reverse-Flash who was really Eobard Thawne and Eddie's distant relative from the future."

The second Harrison looked at the two in annoyance, as if they were some insignificant bug under his shoe. "I'm my own man. I have nothing to do with the deaths you're talking about, of Eddie or Ricky—"

"—His name's Ronnie," Caitlin broke in.

"Him either," the second Harrison snapped. "Your breach downstairs connects to the STAR Labs on my Earth."

"Have you run some tests?" Barry asked Caitlin.

"I'll be completely genetically indistinguishable from my Earth-1 counterpart," he motioned to Harrison, whose eyebrows rose.

"To answer the question I'm sure you're all wondering," Tess broke in. She motioned towards her husband. "Harrison and I ran into this guy not too long ago. However, he seemed to be hostile enough that he knocked us out when we first ran into him."

"Merely a precaution," the second Harrison said. "You have to admit, running into your own doppelganger that quickly can throw someone off. Not to mention, you were in my way." He addressed the room. "I'm here because I'm trying to find Zoom. I'm responsible for him, I created him. I created the Earth-2 metahumans. Something I've ignored for too long."

"Yeah, well, thanks to you we're batting 1000 against him and his breachers here," Cisco said.

"What's your sample size, Crisco?" The second Harrison rolled his eyes. Cisco rolled his eyes in response. "Zoom is obsessed with speed. He's going to keep sending these metas here to kill The Flash unless we stop him."

"And we're just supposed to believe him?" Caitlin asked.

Barry pressed his lips together. What other option did they have? This was someone who clearly knew a lot about Zoom and what he was doing with the metahumans that were coming over. Not to mention if the Harrison Wells (or Eobard in this case) on _their_ Earth had created metas, what's to say that the ones on other Earths hadn't done the same thing. As it was, there was nothing for them to believe he _wasn't_ telling the truth.

"What else do we have?" Barry asked. "Jay came here saying pretty much the same thing and we trusted him. He's helped us out, why can't this Harrison?"

"If we work together we can stop Zoom," The second Harrison insisted. Then he took a look around the room, hoisting his rifle up over his shoulder. "So, is there a room I can work out of or what?" He started to walk forward then stopped, getting a good look at Cadence. The second Harrison's eyes widened for a moment. Barry looked at Cadence and she looked back at him, before glancing at Harrison and Tess. They appeared just as troubled. Finally, the second Harrison closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry, you just…you look really familiar to me. Excuse me."

He walked out of the Cortex, leaving everyone else stunned behind him.

"This…" Harrison managed a low chuckle. "I knew we were already having issues with doppelgangers coming over here, I didn't think things would turn out like this."

"It'd be pretty cool if 'Scary Harry' over there wasn't being such a dick," Cisco muttered. Then he started to smile to himself at the joke he made. Caitlin gave him a disapproving glance and he immediately wiped it away.

Barry let out a low breath, running his hands over his hair. "So what are we going to do now? Just wait around for Zoom to realize that _this_ Harrison Wells is on his tail?"

"What else can we do, Barry?" Tess asked. She turned away for a moment. "There's no reason for him to lie. I didn't see anything in his body language that would disprove anything he had been saying." She looked at her daughter. "Did you?"

Cadence shook her head. "No. I didn't see anything; I didn't sense anything from him either." "But this is someone that could help us." She held up a hand. "Playing devil's advocate for a moment here. If he was the one who had created Zoom, it might be a good idea to have him on our side. He just said that Caitlin's tests on him wouldn't have him genetically linked to Harrison. Not to mention coming straight out and saying that our breach down in the basement connected to _his_ STAR Labs and that he's from Earth-2. If that autobiography was different, too, then this doppelganger has a different life there. A different life, a different STAR Labs…he probably has better information _and_ technological advances that can be used to catch him."

"Like what, for example?" Cisco asked.

Cadence glared at him. "I don't know, Cisco, maybe like knowing how to get your powers to work better so you can actually help us instead of keeping it a secret."

Then she turned on her heel and started to pace back and forth, silence coming through the Cortex once more. Barry leaned against a computer terminal, his arms folded over his chest, Caitlin and Cisco sat at their desks, and Harrison and Tess stood aside, exchanging glances with each other.

The humming of the machinery around them was the only thing to break the silence.

"We have to talk about this," Harrison pointed out.

"Look," Caitlin started. "I get that you're angry that Cisco and I didn't say anything about our powers—"

"I'm not just angry about that," Cadence said, suddenly sounding eerily calm. "I'm angry about a lot of things. Not just that you lied about your powers, but also that you lied about making a suit for Brady without even bringing it up to me first, not mentioning to me that he got suspended, but then going around and constantly being a hypocrite about all of it is _really_ starting to get on my last nerve."

"I can understand why they didn't say anything about their powers," Tess broke in. "From being normal to suddenly having immense power at their hands…? It must've been scary."

"Like it wasn't scary to suddenly set things on fire at a moment's notice when you're only eight years old?" Cadence shot back. She then motioned to Barry. "Or scary being fucking struck by lightning and waking up from a coma _nine months later?"_

Barry brought his hands up to his forehead and let out a long breath. She was saying everything he was thinking, but not in the same tone. Truthfully, he _didn't_ blame Caitlin and Cisco for having kept quiet about the whole thing. That would've been his first instinct as well if he had just gotten his powers, even when having been part of a team that helped him protect the city.

"I didn't ask for this," Caitlin said. She placed a shaking hand on her chest. "If I could have it taken away, I would. I don't…I don't want to fight. Not after seeing what happened, not after Sand Demon… _killing_ those innocent people because he could. I want to help heal. When I saw what I could do I got scared and I shut down. I didn't know what to think."

"With my powers," Cisco explained. "I didn't want to believe it was something I could do because I didn't want to believe Eobard," he said. "He was the one who originally told me that I had this sort of power and it's come and gone at different times. I didn't know what I could do until it…happened."

"Look, there's nothing we can do to change this now," Barry said. "What's happened has happened and we need to move on from this. If Caitlin and Cisco have powers, that just means that we need to start training them just in case Zoom starts to come after them, too."

"I feel like I missed a lot," Joe finally said. "Caitlin and Cisco have powers now, too?"

"I'm not surprised they kept you in the dark, too," Cadence said.

Joe ignored her. "And we're going to trust…Scary Harry over there? I…I really should be used to this stuff by now but this one is throwing me for a loop." He ran his hands over his hair. "Instead of trying to assign blame to everyone I think we should focus on what we can do about Zoom. Now that we know someone who knows a lot about him. Maybe it's a good thing that he's here. Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something really stupid to get to him."

"No," Barry insisted. "Because I'm going to find a way to stop him. Zoom wants me dead, the metahumans he's sending form Earth-2…he doesn't care what happens to them or anyone who gets in the way. Iris, Linda, and Patty have all gotten caught in the crossfire, what if it's you guys next?"

"But isn't going after him now premature?" Caitlin asked. She chewed her lower lip. "We don't know anything about his abilities."

"That Wells does," Harrison pointed out.

"Or we could find Jay and get him to help," Caitlin suggested. "He's the Flash from the other Earth, and he's a scientist, too. He'd know everything about this. Like…" she thought for a moment. "Like, with what's going on with Firestorm. Jax is a great guy, but if Henry Hewitt wasn't a—"

"—Psychopath?" Cisco broke in.

"He would've been the best candidate," Caitlin continued. "He was the one who really wanted to do it and his achievements—"

"—so only people who are scientists and super smart can be superheroes?" Cadence broke in.

"That's not what I meant," Caitlin defended herself. "I'm just saying that Jay could be of some real use here."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

"Enough, okay!" Barry broke in. "We can't sit around and wait for Zoom to make his next move." He motioned towards Joe. "Aren't you the one who told me that life isn't about playing defense? Sometimes the only way to succeed is to work the offense."

Joe thought for a moment then nodded. "But at the time we were talking about your football tryouts," Joe said.

Barry pointed at him. "You promised you'd never bring that up, again." A low chuckle filled the room. Cadence sighed again and turned on her heel to leave the room. Barry quickly grabbed her arm, keeping her form leaving. "Wait, Cade, what's going on? Why are you freaking out like this?"

"So wanting to actually communicate some problems I've been having, the way I've been feeling is me freaking out?" She asked. "Thanks."

"No, I don't mean it like that," Barry said. "I mean…" he paused. "This seems like it's coming out of nowhere and I…we…want to make sure everything's okay."

Cadence paused and gave a wry smile. "You mean other than knowing that some of my best friends lied to me? I can't say I'm surprised; the three of you have been doing that for a while now. You're the original trio, right?" She ran a hand through her hair. "Other than that, life is peachy. I just have another CPS meeting to go to."

 _Oh,_ Barry thought. Okay, that made sense. _That_ explained why she suddenly stated that Barry could go out with Patty. She had mentioned before she didn't want to be seen as self-centered anymore, she probably thought not burdening him with her issues with CPS was helping, despite now going in the opposite direction of her former problems.

Joe frowned. "Another one?" He asked. "Shouldn't that be done by now?"

"I got another call this morning saying Natalie needs to meet up again after talking to Ryder," Cadence explained.

"Well, is there anything we can do?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, maybe we can try talking to her," Caitlin offered.

Barry nodded at her then at Cadence, who made a face. "No," Cadence said. "I don't want any of you talking to her."

"Are you sure? I mean, they'd need to talk to your co-workers and stuff, right?" Barry said. "I can—"

"—I can handle it myself."

"Well, maybe I can talk to Brady then," Barry offered. He sucked in a breath. He didn't think he'd ever had to think about the time he had been in foster care and dealt with the Child Protective Services again. He tried his hardest to push it out of his head, all of the meetings in the Wests living room where he sat on the couch staring just to the left of the agent, knowing whatever he said would determine if he was going to end up in a foster home or allowed to stay with Joe and Iris. Knowing they were consistently coming over to see if he were still suffering from PTSD. Doing wellness checks to make sure that things really were okay and he wasn't just saying it. "It can't be easy for him either."

"I don't need you fix anything, Barry," Cadence said. "I don't need you to talk to Brady, and I certainly don't need you to save me. I can save myself." She broke off, sucking her lips into her mouth. Then she leveled her gaze at him. "Just, please…let me handle my own problems. At least I'm letting you know about them instead of keeping them quiet."

She turned to walk away but a beeping sound caught everyone's attention. Cisco hurried to his computer and found it was alerting them to a metahuman. Harry then came running into the Cortex, the bracelet on his wrist emitting a similar sound.

"It's Zoom," he said.

"He's on the roof," Cisco said.

Barry and Cadence looked at each other before hurrying into their suits and racing up onto the roof. Barry came to a stop and looked at Zoom, who stood across from him, arms splayed at his sides, as if waiting for them.

"I've had enough of these other metas trying to kill you," Zoom growled, his voice sounding like it was coming from inside Barry's head. Barry shuddered. He couldn't shake it; every time he saw Zoom it was like the Black Flash was around again. "It's like I said in the sewer…I will let anyone hurt you, but I'm going to be the one to deliver the killing blow."

There was a black of white-blue lightning and Barry and Cadence turned around to find Zoom standing behind them.

Barry's eyes narrowed. He made up his mind and started to run. He raced down the front of STAR Labs, with Cadence teleporting with him, and started to run around the building in large circles, picking up speed as he went. Cadence quickly caught on and waited as he continued to run, keeping an eye on Zoom as she did so. Zoom had followed them to the ground but still hadn't moved to attack.

Barry started to slow down, lightning crackling around his fingers as he got ready to create a bolt of lightning. Cadence turned and threw a mixture of fire and lightning at Barry without looking to see where he was. That's how in sync they were, to expect and understand the other was going to be there when they needed them to.

Barry took that energy and combined it with his own, throwing a brilliant bolt of lightning towards Zoom. Barry smirked, watching as it arched towards Zoom. Then his smirk faded when Zoom caught the bolt of lightning in his hand, raced forward, and threw it back to the two, catching them in the chest and sent them flying.

They crashed into the side of the building and Barry struggled to get to his feet. He could feel his muscles starting to spasm. "Did you guys see that?" He asked his friends.

 _"See him catch a bolt of lightning? With his demonic claws?"_ Cisco asked. _"Uh, yeah!"_

 _"Get out of there, Barry,"_ Joe called.

Barry pushed himself to his feet. "What do you want from me?"

"Everything," Zoom growled.

"So that's what you want?" Cadence asked. "To be him? To be a hero?"

Zoom stood up straight and slowly rotated his head towards her. He slowly lifted a hand and pointed to her. "I'm not your enemy," he drawled. "I am only the enemy of each and every Flash that exists. Your enemy…is much worse than I could be all because they know you…the real you. And you acting like you don't know it yourself is making your own plight worse."

"What do you mean?" Barry demanded.

Zoom looked at him. "Heroes die," is all he said before charging towards Barry.

Barry turned on his heel and started to run, faster than he ever had before. Central City whipped around him as he continued to run, with Zoom right behind him. Every few moments the two would become locked in battle, fists and feet flailing as they did so. And yet they continued to run. Barry thought fast, trying to figure out a way that would give him the upper hand over the evil Speedster, who outmatched him. _That's it, take his speed away,_ Barry thought. _Terminal velocity._ He turned and started to run up the side of the building. _The highest velocity obtainable by a falling object. Our drag force will equal a downward force of gravity making the net force zero meaning equal velocities._

Barry finally made it to the roof and continued to run up, up, up until he felt himself starting to fall. He turned in the air and looked below him, watching as Zoom slowly, menacingly, eyes filled with a wild fury. Then his eyes shifted to the side and he spotted Cadence standing on the ground, watching the fight from below. Barry glared at Zoom; when the two finally met, the fight was on.

Blow after blow rained down on the speedsters as Barry and Zoom fought. Ever punch that Barry landed on Zoom, he would receive back twice as quickly. A punch to the face would sun Zoom for only half a second before Barry's head was knocked aside, making stars fill his vision and blood come pouring from his mouth. A punch to Zoom's stomach didn't faze Zoom before the wind was knocked out of Barry's lungs in a loud, expelled breath.

Finally, they crashed to the ground. Barry took all of Zoom's weight into him as he felt, creating a crater beneath them. But Zoom wasn't finished with him yet. He pulled Barry to his feet and continued to strike him across the face, finally landing a punch hard enough that twisted Barry to the side, allowing Zoom the opening to strike him hard in the back.

A disgusting sound emanated as Barry's legs gave way beneath him. A bellow of pain ripped from Barry's lips, barely masking what mimicked the sound of someone squishing Jell-O between their fingers. Barry collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.

Zoom stood over him, barely out of breath.

Cadence teleported to a nearby parking lot and immediately set her sights on a nearby car. Bending her knees, she grabbed onto the bottom and hefted it up into her arms. After a few quick spins, much like she had done on the log when fighting Sand Demon, Cadence let go and sent the car flying towards Zoom. With a cry of effort, she sent fire chasing after it, igniting the car into an explosion that rocketed towards Zoom.

Just as it was about to hit him, Zoom grabbed Barry by the front of his suit, Zoom's hand grasping around his lightning emblem, and phased the two through the car. It crashed to the ground behind him, giving him a hellish glow. Zoom glared at Cadence.

"Just remember that I am the fastest man alive," Zoom hissed. He lifted his hand and struck Barry in the chest. Then he turned on his heel and started running with Cadence right behind him. Zoom went to multiple areas of Central City with Cadence only a few seconds too slow.

First was the Central City Picture News. Zoom ran in and slammed Barry onto a desk, as newspapers and mock prints fluttered through the air. Gasping in right, Iris and Linda turned around to find Zoom standing at the front of the room. Even under the fluorescent lighting, it was obvious that Zoom was a hellish creature.

Then Iris's eyes landed on Barry and she let out a gasp. "Barry…" she whispered, watching the limp form of her friend resting on the desk, blood pouring from his nose, mouth, and a wound on his head. Around her she could see the rest of her co-workers standing stock still, watching in horror, while one picked up a video camera to film.

"Look at your hero," Zoom whispered. He lifted Barry into the air, his head lolling back and forth. Iris gasped again, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. "This man is no God. He is _nothing_!"

Then Zoom was gone.

This time he went to the Central City Police Department where he ran up to the balcony, dangling Barry over the edge like a fish. All of the police force whipped out their arsenal, pointing them towards Zoom and Barry. "The days of the Flash protecting this city are over. Now what will you do without your precious hero?"

Captain Singh gave the order to shoot Zoom and bullets went flying. Almost imperceptibly, Zoom's hand rocketed back and forth, catching each and every bullet until the guns were empty. Then he crushed them in his palm and dropped them to the floor, the bent cartridges plinking against the ground.

Zoom then ran to Carmichael Elementary School where a school wide assembly was going on. While the principal was going over the events that were going to come up soon, Zoom ran out onstage. The principal gasped and backed away from the podium when Zoom appeared.

In the audience, Brady sat up straight, his eyes widening. "Oh no, Barry," he murmured. He reached to the pocket of his cargo shorts to get his slingshot and ammo. Then he stopped, cold horror trailing down his spine when he realized two things. One; he left them in his backpack, afraid that he would have them confiscated if he brought them to class and knew if he tried to get them now that Zoom would be gone too fast. And two; that Zoom had been the one he had seen at his school before.

"Who is this city going to turn to when everything goes dark?" Zoom asked over the voices of the screaming and crying children. "When this city falls to its knees?" There was a burst of fire onstage and Cadence appeared, throwing a fireball towards Zoom.

"Mom!" Brady said.

Cadence and Zoom disappeared from sight seconds later.

Then Zoom ran back to STAR Labs. He continued to shake Barry like a rag doll, with more fury than ever seen before. "Harrison Wells, you thought you could defeat me with this?" He asked Harry, lifting Barry's hood off his face. Harrison, Tess, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, and Harry watched, frozen in horror as Cadence appeared beside them, gasping for air.

"I..I made a mistake," Harry whispered.

"You made a costly mistake," Zoom agreed. He lifted Barry up high and brought a vibrating hand towards his front, sticking him in the stomach. Barry's eyes widened to its limit, the whites of his eyes standing out among the otherwise darkened room.

"Barry!" Caitlin and Cisco cried.

"Goodbye Flash." Zoom started to push his vibrating hand further into Barry's stomach. Sending a shock of blinding pain through his body as his hand moved inch by inch, torturing every nerve. Everything went white, then black as he passed out. "You too, weren't fast enough."

Cadence gritted her teeth as she watched Zoom hurt Barry. Her hands clenched into fists at her side. All of a sudden then burst into deep red flames and a scream of primal fury escaped her lips. In a flash she teleported over to Zoom and sent a punch strong enough to his head that he flew into a nearby wall, releasing his grip on Barry.

Barry's body slumped to the floor.

Cadence continued to attack Zoom with an animalistic ferocity, putting everything into her attack as she did so; strength, energy, love, hate, and fear in fire blasts and strong punches. Using her gymnastics and cheerleader background she continued to stay glued to Zoom, locking her legs around him to keep herself on him as he tried to throw her off. Finally, Zoom phased through her and struck her hard in the stomach before racing from the room with Harry chasing after him.

Cadence didn't seem fazed by the blow as she immediately went over to Barry and cradled his head in her lap. She pushed her goggles up to her forehead as tears came to her eyes. The dripped down her face and onto his, smoothing some blood away. "Barry," She called, shaking him. "Barry, wake up! Please! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Caitlin hurried to Cadence's other side and started to tend to him medically. "Stay with us, Barry," she said, moving frantically.

Cadence quickly pulled off her gloves and rested her palms on Barry's face to heal him. "C'mon, Barry, wake up. Please."

As Harrison, Tess, and Harry crowded around Barry as well, Cisco went over to where Cadence had been fighting Zoom. He thought it was a shadow at first, but now up close, he saw it clearly.

There was a scorch mark on the wall in Zoom's shape.

* * *

 **A/N:** I don't remember what Natalie's last name was or if I ever gave her one, so she had one here, lol. But, hey, my first time writing from Ryder's POV, it was definitely interesting. Especially with his plots with Iris and Linda. Though I also greatly enjoyed writing him with Barry and Cisco. I also kept Caitlin's remarks about Henry Hewitt, not just because it could give more to her friendship dynamic with Cadence, but to also go more into Cadence's struggles with her own plot.

So...what did you think of Zoom? Please let me know what you think; if you have anything to comment about or are confused about anything, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Yeah, I definitely did get a little confused myself when realizing that both Henry's could've been there. But Henry Allen is appearing in the next chapter. So that should be interesting, especially after what happened in this chapter. Yep, Brady's been missing out on a bit. But he has to be in school, so…he didn't miss anything here, though.

 **Guest:** Thank you, I'm glad they turned out as well as I hoped they would.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you so much, I hope this one was just as good to read. I think the ending was pretty intense, don't you think?

 **yummers:** So glad you liked their date. I hope you liked…well, I'm not sure if you would've _liked_ their moment at the end, but their earlier moment in the episode, was good, right?

 **Spinquin142:** No worries. I'm just glad that you enjoyed them. Thanks for your thoughts.

 **DarkHelm145:** Well, now everyone knows. Seeing how things move forward is going to be the interesting part.

 **PowerHero432:** Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish in my previous stories I had done more with Cadence and Ronnie, especially with Caitlin being the link between them but I never got around o it. I really regret that, so there's going to be some with her and Jax, especially as their power and personality similarities. But I especially liked Cadence's and Caitlin's part as well and I have more with that once they get through their issues. Mostly because I thought it would be cool to have the girls do something on their own. I'm glad it turned out well. Yes, the BarryCade date! You have no idea how much I was even waiting for everyone to read it. It was normal! Thank God. I think they deserve to be normal sometimes. Yes, Sand Demon decapitating those people were extreme but like you said, people are starting to fear metas and I thought it'd move that plot along. I hope this one worked as well as the last.

 **Babyj:** Yeaaaaa, I knew I wanted to bring Jax in for it and this was the best way I could think of it other than him deciding to go to STAR Labs on his own volition and then walking in on it. I know it's rushed and if I can think of a better way to fix it in terms of going back to edit at some point I may. Otherwise, Jax will show up again. Brady is definitely not going to miss much more. I've got a plan.

 **Luna:** Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	21. Hesitations

**.:21:.**

 _Hesitations_

* * *

A week later, Barry found himself starting to wonder if he truly was 'The Fastest Man Alive'. And greatly wondered why he was the one that had the speedster powers bestowed upon him when there was always someone faster that him. The amount of quiet time to himself at the West house, having Joe and Iris—who came over from her apartment—to dote on him as he tried to walk again didn't help matters much.

It also didn't help that he could still see the way they looked at him when they thought he wasn't paying attention, when they thought he wasn't fast enough to catch them. The pitying looks, the disappointment when it looked like he was getting his speed back in small bursts before he'd slow down again. His powers hadn't really been affected, the healing properties came back fairly soon after he woke up and Cadence's help adding in her own healing powers to expedite the process.

He had hoped all of that would have helped him out, and yet he was still reduced to having to do physical therapy just to make sure he was completely back in shape.

"Okay, now push against my hands," Cadence instructed.

Barry pressed his lips together in concentration and pressed the backs of his hands against Cadence's palms for a few seconds as hard as he could. She pressed back with the same amount of force, her face twisted up in the same expression. Then she nodded and took a step back, allowing him to lower his hands to the side, letting out a low breath. He then followed her instruction to get up onto the metal examining table. The cool metal burned into his skin, making goosebumps immediately pop up along his arms and legs.

 _You can feel that,_ he reminded himself, swallowing hard. _You can feel it._

It had been the worst blow to wake up after what happened with Zoom and figure out that he couldn't feel his legs. A rational part of him knew the paralysis that had regulated him to Eobard's wheelchair for the first couple of days wasn't real. He would heal in a short while. He knew that. But a bigger part of him had been terrified to know he could be hurt so badly. And not just that, to know it had all been shown in front of the people he cared about and was trying to protect.

He wasn't as invincible as he thought.

And it didn't help that it was playing out all over the news. Footage of Zoom holding him up and shaking him around like a ragdoll at the Central City Picture News. In the corner of the footage he could see Iris and Linda watching everything and if you looked close enough you could see Iris mouthing Barry's name in absolute horror. He couldn't get away from it; his failure was being shown everywhere and it was going to continue playing in his head. Every time he fell asleep it was a recurring nightmare of Zoom punching his hand into his body and breaking his spine. He could still clearly hear the sound, the sharp _snap_ of it breaking in half; still feel everything from his legs down instantly move away.

Thankfully he had blacked out only seconds afterwards, but it had been the worst pain he had ever felt.

Barry let out a low breath as when Cadence grabbed onto his calf and started to gently push his leg to his chest then stretched it out and did the same with the other. She did this for a few minutes before suddenly stopping. She glanced down and a smile came to her face as she chuckled.

"Well, at least we know that still works," She commented.

Barry's eyebrows came together in confusion and he lifted up from the neck stability pillow that sat behind his head. It took a second for his eyes to land on the erection that was making a tent in the front of his sweatpants. Cadence brought her hands up to stifle her laughter while Barry grabbed the pillow from underneath his head and placed it on his lap.

"Jesus Christ," he whispered.

"Ah, don't be embarrassed. You 'd be surprised how many times I've managed to see that," she said. Then she paused and brought a hand up to her mouth, eyebrows coming together as she pursed her lips. "Hm, I can't really think of a way to explain what I meant without making things worse."

Barry laughed.

"That's the first smile you've had all week." That made Barry stop smiling almost instantly. "Woops, spoke too soon." She grabbed onto his arm and pulled him up into a sitting position. "Why don't we try working on your walking now?"

"Whatever," Barry muttered. Still, he allowed himself to be helped off the bed, looking up just as Cisco and Caitlin walked into the medical bay. Unlike Caitlin, who appeared 'business as usual' Cisco had a spring in his step as he whistled, walking over to the cane that sat in the corner of the room.

Barry and Cadence both looked at him. Cisco turned and abruptly stopped his whistling when he noticed everyone looking at him funny. "What? Oh, this?" He pointed to himself. "Sorry, yeah, I just—I know its bad timing but—sorry, I'm just a little excited because I've got a date tonight."

"Well, at least there's a bright spot in this gloomy situation," Cadence remarked. She took the cane from Cisco and handed it to Barry, making sure he was standing up straight before moving from his side.

"No, it's fine," Barry said with a wave of his hand. He wanted to talk about _anything_ but the lack of progress he was making in his recovery. It was really starting to get on his nerves, not just from a humiliation standpoint but from not being as strong as he thought he was. Maybe if he ignored it long enough he could make _some_ sense of progress. "Who're you going out with, Cisco?"

"Kendra," Caitlin explained. "The barista from Jitters. He finally asked her out." She coughed lightly. " _After_ going to Jitters everyday for the last two weeks and trying to chat her up behind the counter. I must say it's probably the most fun I've had going to Jitters that early in the morning. And I mean early."

"She started working a different shift," Cisco defended himself. "Is it my fault that it's at five in the morning? Who needs coffee at five in the morning?"

"Nearly everyone in the CCPD," Barry remarked. He started to take a few shaky steps forward. "So what are you guys going to be doing for your date?"

"Dinner and a movie," Cisco replied. Then he reached up and started to scratch right above his head. "And, you know…maybe some breakfast," he muttered.

Barry started to smile. He couldn't resist messing with Cisco a little, so Barry pushed his eyebrows together, trying to make an expression of the utmost confusion. "Breakfast?" He repeated. "W-why, would you need to have some breakfast?"

Caitlin smiled.

Cadence smirked.

Cisco looked back and forth between the three for a moment before rolling his eyes, realizing they were all making fun of him. "You guys are so not funny."

"Well, we really did need a laugh," Caitlin remarked. That made the air around them turn serious once more. Caitlin laced her fingers together. "Come on guys, it's been a week. We really need to talk about this," she said. She took a deep breath. "At least give me a minute to explain why I didn't say anything."

"You already did," Cadence reminded her. "Because you were scared."

"And I'd hoped you all would understand that, but there's more to it than that," Caitlin said. She took in a deep breath. "When my dad died of Multiple Sclerosis my whole life turned upside down. _Everything_ changed. My mom…she became distant and I was so young that I couldn't focus on anything other than my dad wasn't going to be there for anything else in my life. My graduation, my wedding, new technological advances…we were reading the _Harry Potter_ books together and I couldn't finish them after that couldn't even go see the movie. Because what most people don't understand is that Multiple Sclerosis is, basically, a death sentence once you're diagnosed. But it's not a quick death it's something that takes a long time to happen and I watched it all happen.

"I did everything I could to help him, to at least feel a semblance of peace," Caitlin said. "And, I adopted that with the rest of my studies. I wanted to be able to figure out what was going on with people so that I could make their painful ailments much less painful. And I wanted to do that with the city, too. So as soon as I saw that I had powers, powers that completely negated everything that I dedicated my life to and I couldn't handle the thought of that. After seeing what Sand Demon did to those innocent people…I, honestly, didn't think that it would anger you so much."

"Same here," Cisco agreed. "I didn't like the idea of my powers because Eobard was the one who told me that I would have them. I wanted to prove him wrong, that I wasn't anything he thought I would be." He shook his head, lowering his gaze. "This was the man that had betrayed us, not just through what he had done with the knowledge he was gaining from us in STAR Labs, but also because of what he did to Barry and may or may not have done to Cade and what happened with Caitlin…I didn't want to give him the satisfaction that he was right."

Barry listened quietly to the two. Then once he was finished, he nodded. "I can understand that," he said finally. "I _do_ understand, the thing that I'm having the hardest time understand is why you didn't think to tell us. We could've helped you."

"Just like we could've helped Cade with what was going on with Mick," Cisco agreed.

Cadence let out a frustrated sigh. "That's different. With Mick…even with my powers I felt like I was completely powerless. That there was _nothing_ I or anyone else could do to stop him from following me around and threatening me. If I attacked him it would just get him off and he would continue to follow me around anyway. That was the scariest part. That I may as well have been a normal person being stalked."

Barry brought his hand up to his temple and rubbed it. He understood that, too. Now more than ever. Not being able to use his powers to stop someone when you had been able to before was the most humbling and horrifying feeling all at the same time. "Okay," he finally said. "They get it was a dumb idea to keep this secret from us, just like we've kept things from them before. We're all on the same page here." He looked back and forth between all of his friends to drive the point home. "None of us are perfect. So we just need to move forward now, alright? What are we going to do with them having their powers?"

Cadence pressed her lips together. "From what I've seen…Cait's powers are very similar to mine, just in a different element. So I could help her in terms of mastering them."

"I don't want to fight," Caitlin said.

"I didn't say anything about you wanting to fight, Caity, but you do need to protect yourself if and when the time comes," Cadence said. She glanced at Barry. "As for Cisco, I can help work on his powers with him, too, until you're back on your feet, Tholly."

Barry made a face and gestured towards his legs. "I'm back on my feet now," he remarked. "I think I can help him just fine. I just need to stretch my legs."

Letting go of the cane, Barry started to walk across the medical bay, taking small, shaky steps as he did so. It was slow going and Barry could tell he already had to work harder to push himself. Still, he only made it about six or seven steps before Cisco had to grab onto his arm, holding him up while Caitlin grabbed the wheelchair Barry had been using and moved it behind him so that he could sit down.

With a heavy sigh, Barry collapsed into the cushioned seat. "I can't do it," he muttered. He placed his face in his hands for a moment before rolling out of the medical bay and into the Cortex. His eyes immediately went to the suit that sat on the mannequin and frowned. It was starting to haunt him, really. He wasn't sure how much more of being wheelchair bound he could take. Still, it felt like there was something hold him back.

Failure, maybe. If he couldn't beat Zoom once before, how was he going to beat him now?

"You're doing a lot better than anyone else in your position would," Cisco reminded him as the others followed. He grasped Barry's shoulder, gently shaking it. "You just broke your back a week ago, Bare. Give yourself some credit."

"How long until I'm fully healed?" Barry asked.

"Comparing MRI's from last week to the one I took this morning…" Caitlin moved to her computer and started to pull up two different two pictures that projected onto the large screen monitor that hung on the wall of the Cortex. The one on the left was of Barry's skeletal system the week before, the one on the right was the one taken that morning. There was a significant difference between the two. "You're almost completely healed."

Barry made a humming sound. He saw it right in front of him but couldn't quite believe it. He didn't _feel_ any better. "I'm still having trouble breathing," he said.

"That's completely normal for a spinal cord injury."

"Okay, so in the meantime, what are we going to do about Zoom?" Barry couldn't stop himself form asking. He needed to know what was going on out there. Not being able to work for the last week, at the CCPD and at STAR Labs, was putting him in a bad headspace. Not to mention there had been small things like carjacking, robberies, the 'wannabe' criminal metahumans, and the Rogues breaking out of jail again that he couldn't deal with.

Not that he didn't trust Cadence at all, he knew she could handle it when the time came and had proven to do it time and time again. But sitting on the sidelines had never been something he would do, even _without_ his powers. He had chased after someone who was armed to keep Iris's bag from being stolen even though he knew there was a greater chance of danger himself.

 _But with Zoom out there, that's even worse,_ he thought. Because Zoom was capable of doing anything, he was so fast. He could slaughter half the people in the city before Barry could get there if he wanted to. As soon as the thought reached his mind Barry shook his head, pushing it away. If he thought about that, then he would think about what happened to him and it'd just start over and over again.

"We haven't seen him since Cade put the beat down on him," Cisco said, patting her on the shoulder.

Cadence managed a small smile. "Is it weird when I say I don't even remember it happening?" She asked. "One minute I'm seeing him break Barry's back and the next thing I know, Cait and I are trying to keep his vitals stabilized."

"I wish I got it on tape," Cisco said. Despite the circumstances he grinned gleefully, rubbing his hands together. "He didn't know what hit him. But at least we've got some proof of it." He tilted his head towards the scorch that continued to reside on the wall.

A grimace came across Cadence's face. "My offer still stands to get it fixed."

"No, there might be something we can get from that," Caitlin said, holding up her hand. "Besides, it's like a badge of honor. You did your best to save Barry."

"He would've done the same for me," Cadence said modestly.

"I thought you said you didn't want me to save you," Barry reminded her with a teasing smile.

Cadence gave him a look. "If I'm dying in battle then, please, come save my ass. Otherwise, I don't need you to constantly protect me, Barry. I don't need you to try and fix whatever's going on with me all the time. Sometimes I just need your support, you know?"

Barry nodded. He got that, too. Sometimes he just needed to be reminded. He reached out his hand and Cadence took it, allowing Barry to gently pull her in and give her a kiss. Cadence smiled then looked over as Harry walked into the room.

"What's going on, Dad?" She asked.

Barry grimaced as Harry stopped in his tracks at the mention of the word 'Dad'. He thought it was hard to work through the pain of seeing Harrison and thought it was Eobard, but having another person mixed in the fold made it even more difficult. Especially considering this Harry was as…straightforward as Eobard, though lacked the charm. But this had to be harder, knowing there was another man around that was easily confused for the _real_ Dr. Wells who was with them.

Cadence flushed and quickly apologized for her confusion.

Barry watched as Harry continued to stare at Cadence, something coming over his face as he did so. Almost as he if he had to remind himself of something while he looked at her. Barry exchanged a glance with Cisco and Caitlin then turned back to Harry. "Uh, Harry?"

Harry snapped to attention, clearing his throat. "Yeah, uh, I need access to your breach room and your speed canon. I'm going to go home to my Earth and figure out what it is that I can do to stop Zoom before he can kill anyone else."

"What's keeping you from doing that on _our_ Earth?" Caitlin demanded. "We need you here until we defeat Zoom, Dr. Wells."

Harry turned his attention to Caitlin, looking her up and down for a moment. Then he took in a deep breath and walked to her until the two were practically nose to nose. Barry grasped the arm of his wheelchair and stared to lift himself up. Just in case he needed to launch himself across the room to help her.

"What I _need_ Dr. Snow," he hissed, his blue eyes boring into hers. "Is to return home. To _my_ Earth and _my_ time to make sure that he can be stopped."

Caitlin didn't take the bait to move away from him. "Again I ask, what's keeping you from doing it _here_?"

Harry turned away from her but didn't respond. "There's too much going on here, too many distracting things. I need to focus entirely on getting to Zoom. We already saw what he's done to Barry and if I can keep it from happening again—"

"—you should've stopped it from happening in the first place," Jay declared as he stormed into the Cortex.

Harry rolled his eyes before turning to face him. "Oh. _Now_ comes the man of the hour! Where were you before, Jay? When Barry really needed your help?"

"Don't turn this around on me," Jay snapped. He came to a stop, clenching his hands into fists. "You know I don't have my speed and you know Zoom is the reason why."

"I know that you don't have your speed because Zoom is so much stronger and faster than you. But Barry is stronger and faster than you, too!" Harry snarled. "You've spent the last two years of your life running from Zoom."

"I've been _hunting_ him!"

"He's been hunting _you!_ "

"He was going to kill me. Just like he'll kill Barry and everyone else in here if you keep pushing him towards Zoom!"

"I'm not pushing him from anything, he's the one who's choosing to run towards Zoom because unlike you, Barry is not a coward and he's not going to let anyone die because he's afraid of going up against someone who might be stronger than him. Barry can do a lot more than you could ever imagine because _he's_ a hero!"

The last word barely managed to escape Harry's lips before Jay's fist caught him on the cheek. For a moment, Harry spun to the side, landing on the computer panel. He placed his palms against it and used it as leverage to push himself up before spinning around o strike Jay in the face with a right hook. He quickly followed it up with a strike in the stomach and reached for Jay's head.

Jay lifted his hand and blocked the punch, using his free hand to get three solid punches into Harry's stomach. The two continued to trade blows before reaching up to grab the laps of each other's jackets and started to spin in a circle, trying to knock each other to the ground.

Barry watched the two in surprise for a moment then looked at his friends, noticing they were all watching the fight in surprise instead of stopping it as well. It was hard to see two grown men get so upset over everything that was going on to see them fight. And from he had been told, it happened twice, with Joe going after Harry once Zoom immediately got away from STAR Labs, ranting and raving about how he was going to kill him for bringing Zoom over to their Earth and for what happened to Barry.

And all Barry could think about was how all of this was his fault. If only he had been able to figure out what it was that Zoom really wanted, what was it that he could do to ultimately stop Zoom when he might not be the one to actually be able to do it.

"ENOUGH!" Barry finally shouted at the top of his lungs. Surprised, Jay and Harry broke away from each other. They shot frustrated glares each other's way but didn't say anything more. Barry took a deep breath and spoke in a calmer tone. "We don't have time for this. The more we fight, the more Zoom has to work against us when he decides to come back because he _will_ come back." Barry forced himself up out of the chair. He wobbled for a second before standing up straight. "There has to be something that we can do to stop him and we're not going to figure it out if we're all fighting with each other."

 _And if you can't get back to being as fast as you used to be,_ Barry hated himself for allowing the thought to enter his head.

"That is what I was going to tell you," Harry said. "I have an idea of a serum that can be made to slow Zoom down. It's something that I've managed to create on my Earth." He glared at Jay, who glared back at him. "But there are a couple of things that I'd need that doesn't appear your Earth's scientific advances, or in this case lack of advances, has created."

"Like?" Cisco asked.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Like," he mimicked Cisco's voice in a higher-pitch before saying, "Hydroxypropyl Cellulose, Hydropropyl Methycellulose, tubocurarine…things that will work much like the acetylcholine in neuromuscular transmission."

"So a muscle relaxant?" Caitlin clarified.

"It's much more than a muscle relaxant, ours are more complex, especially with the collaborated use of diazepam, benzodizapeine, meprobamate, and glutethimide. But that's only part of the serum that would need to be created as the rest is more in a speed determinate of which I have already figured out." Harry shrugged. "But as I said, your Earth is of no use to me in that area."

"You could try the Network," Cadence remarked. All eyes turned her way and she looked a little uncomfortable. With a long sigh, she momentarily turned her gaze to the ceiling. "The Network is an underground black market where people buy, sell, or move contraband."

"And by 'people', you mean…?" Barry prompted.

"Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if Captain Cold and Mick use it to get rid of the stuff that they've managed to steal."

"How come the rest of us have never heard of it before?" Cisco asked.

"The 'good' don't usually have it come across their radar." Cadence thought for a moment. "It works out of Central and Keystone City. The Assassination Bureau have used it numerous times to get weapons as well as to communicate with others who used it as well. I'm not _quite_ sure if they're still using the same base of operations but I wouldn't doubt it. There aren't many people that would know if it unless they were told to find it."

"And you think you can get what we need from there?" Harry demanded.

"Positive."

"Good. Then you can—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll there, Harry!" Cisco cried, holding up his hands. "We don't know if this Network thing is safe."

"If it was something the Assassination Bureau used, I don't think it'd be quite 'safe'," Caitlin pointed out, using air quotes around the words.

Harry looked at her and Cisco then motioned towards Cadence. "You've got an in, why not house it?"

"Clearly they have a reason for not wanting to use your idea," Jay reminded him, eyes narrowing. "Maybe if you actually tried _caring_ about people—"

"—you don't know what the hell I care about, Garrick! Don't even try."

Barry started to say something else but was stopped by the sounds of his, Caitlin's, Cisco's, and Cadence's phones going off. They all pulled them out and Barry glanced at the message on screen. "The press conference's starting in twenty minutes," he relayed. "We have to get going."

"Press conference?" Jay repeated. "What press conference?"

"It's to determine the future of the metahuman presence in Central City," Harry explained. There was a gloating lift to the tone of his voice, as if knowing that information made him better than Jay. It didn't take him long to prove it. "While you've been gallivanting around doing God knows what while we've been working, metahumans have been terrorizing the city no matter how much Barry and Cadence have been doing to keep up morale."

"Do you think Chief Paulson's idea will go into a law?" Caitlin asked quietly.

Barry glanced at her and she looked back at him, brown eyes filled with a sad concern. Now he truly understood, if this idea was passed into law then hers and Cisco's lives would never be the same. Not only would they have to deal with the powers they just got, but then to be outed with it as well…?

"Let's just get going," Cadence finally said, breaking the silence. "We'll know once we get there." The group started to leave as she patted her pockets, finally pulling out a folded up sheet of white construction paper. "I forgot, Brady wanted me to give you this."

Barry took it and smiled at the words 'get well soon' written on the front. "Another card?" He asked. The railing by his medical bed already have four more of them.

"Wait 'til you see what's inside," Cadence pointed out.

Taking her cue, Barry opened the card. For a moment, a blast of color attacked his eyesight before he finally managed to focus on a few chunks at a time. On the left side of the page was a red and yellow scribble holding onto something blue. On the other side of the page, was a darker red blob that covered something blue, with a reddish-orange figure standing above it.

"Um." Barry pressed his lips together. "What am I looking back?"

Cadence chuckled and pointed out the left side of the page. "That red and yellow blob is you running around in circles." She then pointed to the other side of the page. "And that's me setting Zoom's body on fire."

"Then what's that I'm holding?" Barry asked.

"Zoom's head."

Barry laughed the first laugh he made in a week. "That's great." He folded the card back up and stuck it into his pocket. "I think I'm going to get it framed." He looked at Cadence, suddenly think to ask her what it meant, what Zoom had said to her. But he knew it wasn't the time to do so.

They had to go to the press conference to see what their immediate future held.

No matter if Zoom was still out there to hunt them down.

* * *

"Come on, Iris, we're going to be late," Linda said.

"I know, I'll be there in a minute, I'm just missing my press badge." Iris took a step back from her desk and pressed her hands to her face. "And I'm not going to miss this conference."

"I know, it's the biggest event of the year," Linda said. She crossed her arms and looked at Iris curiously, watching as she continued to shuffle through her things. "What do you think? About the whole metahuman act."

Iris paused.

What did she think? She thought it was completely inhumane. Or rather, completely unfair as they weren't exactly human. Barry being her best friend aside, how many other metahumans were there in the city that were good people? There had to be a lot. Not everyone decided to turn around and start robbing banks or killing other people just because they had the powers to back them up. Still, what was the city going to turn to if they all had to reveal themselves or if they had to be run out?

She wasn't even sure what was going to happen with the bill was passed or even if it would be. Chief Paulson seemed to have enough interest behind him to bring it to something that the mayor and the state Governor were interested in speaking about. And as she could tell, the entire city was going to be stopping to see what would come of it. Things had already been tense when Grodd came through, but nor with reports of a land shark combined with Sand Demon having murdered those innocent people and Zoom racing throughout the city as well as flaunting how easily he could defeat the Flash and Flare, things weren't looking good.

An image of Barry unconscious in a bed in STAR Labs popped into Iris's head once more and she closed her eyes, turning away. No, she had to stop thinking about that. He was fine now. It had been a week and he was fine. Still, once she had called her dad to say what she had seen, he told her that Zoom had done something to Barry that was worse than Barry had seen before. And Iris raced to STAR labs to find her best friend out cold, much like the way she had seen him when he had been struck by lightning the first time.

"Iris?"

"I don't know, to be honest," Iris finally said. She brushed her hair back from her face. "I get why people want to do it but…what'll that do to the families in the city? They'll be torn apart. And if Flash and Flare are revealed then their enemies will know who they are."

"But if we know who all of the metas are then we'll be able to protect ourselves better," Linda said. "I was talking to Wally—"

"—Wally, huh?" Iris quickly changed the subject. She dropped into her seat to take a closer look at her desk. "I guess your date went well?"

"Mm, before or after the kiss?" Linda asked. She laughed. "Yes, the date went well. As a matter of fact, we're going on another one tonight. He's so cool, though. Like, a lot cooler than I thought he would be. He has an awesome car but he _really_ likes to drive it, you know?"

Iris made a face. "No…I don't know."

"I mean, he likes to really open it up when on an empty road. It's such a rush, I never knew something could move so fast," Linda said.

Iris smiled. _I know something that can move faster._ "Sounds like you had a good time. You were saying he was talking about the metahuman stuff?"

"Uh, yeah, he was saying that if he were a meta he wouldn't keep it a secret," Linda said. "Why keep it quiet when there are so many people you could help quicker when they know your identity."

"Sounds like someone who wants to live out the glory," Iris remarked.

"Wouldn't you want to? Don't you think The Flash wants to have the chance to stand up in his real life and say he's the one saving everyone?"

"No, I really don't think so." _Only because Barry would probably pass out from all of the attention on him._ Iris smiled a little. Then she noticed a bright pink post-it note stuck to the corner of her desk under a thick folder filled with newspapers. Shifting it aside Iris looked over the note as it read: _Make meeting with Natalie._ That was a old note, Joe had pointed out that at some point of Cadence's CPS case that she may be asked to talk, not just for being Cadence's friend, but for being Joe's daughter as well in case they questioned whether or not he made a false claim. "That's weird," she muttered.

"What?" Linda asked. She looked over. "It's just a note to make a meeting with someone. That's not your press badge."

"I know, it's a meeting reminder," Iris said. "I was supposed to meet to talk to Natalie Ramirez, since she's running a Child Protective Case against someone. But I never did it because my dad said the case had been closed."

"So?"

"So, he told me…" Iris trailed off, realizing she was going to reveal too much if she gave the exact parameters of the conversation. "He told me that the person who has the case, was getting ready to talk to her again. Why would she do that if the case is closed?"

"Maybe it's a lack of communication." Linda reached into the mess on Iris's desk and pulled out a laminate. "Here's your press badge, let's go!"

Iris nodded and gathered her things, following Linda to her car. All the way to the press conference she wondered, if the case against Cadence had been closed, then who would she had been going to see?

* * *

 **A/N:** This portion of the story goes more into the metahuman rights though there are still show elements that are going to be worked in. I'm not quite sure yet but I think I'm going to skip most of _Gorilla Warfare_ as I have a different idea for Grodd, as well as _Running to Stand Still, Potential Energy, The Reverse-Flash Returns,_ and _Fast Lane._

I need to clarify though, that as I said I'd skip most of the episodes listed above, I mean that they will take elements of the episode but more than likely will have major changes so that it won't completely resemble the episode. For example with Running to Stand Still I've got something pretty big I've had an idea for but it won't look so much like the episode.

So if you want to think of the story progressing in arcs then chapters 1-20 were one arc, and this one starts another. That being said, we're getting really close to the start of Legends as well as the Earth-2 stuff.

 **Review Replies**

 **Highlander348:** You're welcome, I'm glad you liked the scene. The other developments for Cade that we talked about are coming in soon.

 **Josephguy217:** I'm glad that I was able to convey the ferocity and intensity of it. It was a really great scene when it first aired and I'm glad to revisit it.

 **WinterRain36:** Thanks for the faith in her. There's plenty more to come in terms of her getting stronger and what her powers can really do, so we'll see what happens.

 **Ethan:** Well, now we know Ryder's meeting might not have been good. But it did give me the chance to get more into him and his background to show that he's not as mysterious as I've unintentionally been making him. Cadence's part of what Zoom said to her will be revealed soon.

 **Guest:** Thanks!

 **yummers:** Haha, thank you so much.

 **Spinquin142:** Thanks, I'm glad it worked out as well as the last one. Well both things are going to be shown soon, so you don't have to wait too much longer.

 **Babyj:** I think the tension would only be held for so long. As I've shown here I think Cadence would try to really have it be spoke about but Barry would deflect it because the secret being kept isn't as important as that they do have powers. I do agree there was more with the maliciousness of Zoom that I could've shown and I'll bring it up soon.

 **luna:** Glad you think so

 **Guest:** Yes, the not exact fight was shown during the day, simply for the fact that as Zoom went to different parts of the city (the elementary school along with the CCPD and the CCPN) showed that the metahumans could do anything at anytime of the day and not just during the night. Making things harder for the other metahumans to continue to live life normally as everyone's starting to become more and more afraid.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	22. Taking Matters Into My Own Hands

**.:22:.**

 _Taking Matters Into My Own Hands  
_

* * *

Central City City Hall was filled to the brim with reporters, police, the mayoral staff, and residents alike. It was a monumental press conference that was due to happen, so much so that schools and federal offices had been cancelled for the day.

Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and Cadence squeezed their way inside and sat down in a darkened corner of the conference hall, waiting for it to start. Sitting up in her seat, Caitlin looked around to find Harrison and Tess sitting closer to the floor and the stage. They didn't react much to anyone around them, choosing instead to look over the notes that were in hand while waiting for the conference to start.

Almost as if noticing someone was watching them Tess looked up and flicked her head in Caitlin's direction. Their eyes met and Caitlin lifted her head. Tess smiled a little and nodded back before turning back to her notes. Caitlin noticed her shoulders rising high then dropped once more as she tried to calm herself down. Caitlin felt her palm start to sweat and rubbed them along the sides of her skirt. Their future as methumans were in their hands…the pressure had to be immense.

 _Not as much as knowing so many lives will chance if things don't go well,_ Caitlin thought. Her hands started to grow cold and she rubbed one hand over the other, trying to warm them up. She really needed to get a hold of her powers.

Sooner rather than later.

Cisco noticed her movements and reached out his hand. He grabbed one of hers and started to rub it between his hands, briskly warming them up. Caitlin shot him a smile of thanks and Cisco nodded in response, squeezing her hand gently.

Caitlin took a deep breath as a low murmur moved around the room, before it gave way to anticipatory silence. The conference was just about to start. Beside her, Cadence crossed her legs at the knee and crossed her arms over her chest. Barry stretched out his legs as far as they could go, bumping the seat in front of him, then grumbled and brought them back up, muttering something about being so tall and seats being too close together.

"Just be glad you don't ever have to take plane rides anymore," Cisco said.

"I don't know, the scenic view might be worth it," Barry replied.

"Crying babies, kicked chairs, gross headphones, flimsy blankets…" Cisco shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Shh!" Caitlin moved a finger to her lips and listened hard as Mayor Bellows got to his feet and walked to the podium at the front of the room.

There was complete silence now that he was going to start the meeting. Caitlin could hear her friends' breathing patterns suddenly change, knowing they had all suddenly started to become nervous. Their future now lied in the hands of these men and women that would be speaking that day.

"Good Morning," Mayor Bellows said into the microphone. He waited for the audience to say 'good morning' back to him before continuing. "Firstly, I want to thank everyone who had come to take time out of their day to address a very important issue that has come to us in Central City. I'd also like to thank my cabinet and the Central City Police Department for ensuring this to be a safe space for everyone to speak their opinions today. That being said, I'd like to open with the reason that we're all here today." He cleared his throat and took a long look around the room. "Metahumans have been part of our daily lives for the last two years and many of us have grown to become accustomed to it. However, there are other fixations we have grown accustomed to as well.

"Fear. As well as hope. We can't know that there are days that we'll walk out the front door and it won't be our last. Then there are those that are well enough to know that there is no point in living in fear of what could be the last days of their lives. However, there is that moment of fear when you are robbed, when you are attacked, when you are in as scenario you have never thought yourself to be in. You haven't been prepared for those moments other than the age-old suggestions of being aware of your surroundings. How are you to be aware when you don't feel it wouldn't happen to you? With The Flash protecting our city we know there is the chance that he will come and save us. However, along with the Flash there are other metahumans that have been and continue to realize their powers as time goes on and that is why we're gathered here today.

"We as a city need to address the attacks that evil metahumans have thrust upon our city as well as the beacon of hope that is the Flash since the Particle Accelerator had gone online and exploded. We as a city need to determine if the metahumans are a threat to our way of life, our humanity before we can move on a city. We have a representative from the Central City Police Department and Central City University's Psychology Department here to speak about their sides of the issue at hand." Mayor Bellows motioned to the left and right sides of the audience. "Police Chief Craig Paulson and Professor, excuse me, Dr, Tess Morgan and her partner Dr. Harrison Wells."

A low murmur moved around the room at the mentions of the names all for different reasons. Chief Paulson had a very respectable career within the Police Department and Harrison didn't especially. Not after it had been revealed that he knew there was a chance the Particle Accelerator would explode after he turned it on. Not to mention that for a moment there was speculation that he had, indeed, killed Barry's mother years ago. Of course she and everyone else at STAR Labs knew it was Eobard Thawne that had done it, and that Eobard was the prime suspect in the case despite the fact that he would never come back to Central City.

Still, word and rumor was almost as good as the truth as far as most people were concerned.

"We'll begin with Chief Paulson who will have ten minutes to speak, then Dr. Morgan will have ten minutes to speak before questions are opened for both sites as well as free commentary from those in the audience.

There was a brief smattering of applause as Chief Paulson to up from his seat and moved to replace Mayor Bellows at the podium. Cameras flashed and shutters clicked in a flurry as he stepped up to the microphone.

"Within the last two years we have seen an increase in costs of spending in Central City. Costs towards materials needed to rebuild, costs towards hospital bills and inventory for those that need to be treated, costs towards funerals that need to be held. All because of the metahumans that have come upon this city. Because of the evil that has been released upon this city. How are we to know that the person next to us isn't planning on killing us with the powers they have. How are we to know everyone in Central City can be protected when they're the ones with the superhuman abilities to make themselves stand apart from the rest of us?"

Caitlin held her breath, hearing everything Chief Paulson was saying. Tried to breathe out and breathe in but found her lungs weren't working. It felt like she had been punched in the stomach. He was saying everything she had been afraid of, everything she didn't want for herself. All because she couldn't control her powers and may not ever get the chance.

 _Ronnie hadn't been able to control them at the beginning,_ she reminded herself. _And he had been known as the Burning Man, as the menace that terrorized people until he gained his ability to control it. Will that happen to me, too? To Cisco?_

She looked over at Cisco and found him already looking at her. He still held onto her hand and she squeezed his, reassuringly. He squeezed back, doing his best to stay as calm as possible, but she could see the hesitation swimming in his eyes. Then Caitlin looked over at Barry and Cadence, who exchanged worried glances as well.

She wondered what they were thinking. How they may have to reveal themselves to all of their enemies. How little kids like Brady and Leah would have to be revealed to everyone in their class as well as the rest of the school. But how many of those kids had been traumatized already from Zoom's presence at their assembly, throwing The Flash around?

Since then, extra measures have slowly started to take place at the school as Cadence had said from the letters she received home. The PTA meeting were starting to put those measures into practice by first stating the need for an update to their security. So far the school locked multiple points of entry into the school so that the receptionist would be the first to greet the visitors to the school. There were talks of putting metal detectors on the doors of the school as well as putting up multiple security cameras. So far the school seemed to be in align with the ideas as there were constant meetings of ways to make money for those measures to be put into place.

Caitlin jolted back to attention as there was another loud slap of applause.

"How are we to make these criminals hold themselves responsible for their crimes when they have the means and technology to defy the very laws that are put in place to keep the city safe?"

Cisco gulped, lowering down in his chair. He brought up his free hand to move his hair into his face, as if trying to keep himself from being seen despite being in the shadows of the conference hall. If things got brought back to STAR Labs they may be shut down again.

 _Then what?_ Caitlin thought.

"How are we to be sure that they won't be able to figure their ways out of Iron Heights with the powers they have. Yes, there are specific cells being designed to hold them but should we have them be held when we should treat them like every other criminal? We have the death penalty in this state, will that work on the meta-humans or will they continue to keep themselves alive with every measure we use to take them down. What I'm all about is making sure the city is as safe as possible and it won't be until we know the identity of each and every metahuman!"

His time ended and then it was Tess's and Harrison's turn at the mike. Harrison walked up first. "Firstly I'd like to thank Chief Paulson for giving his rather narrow point of view of the topic at hand." He ignored the frown and intense glare Chief Paulson shot his way. "I can understand that, most people tend to be afraid of those things that they don't understand. But I understand everything that has to do with metahumans because, well, as you all know I'm responsible for them being around." He smiled in a rather humorless way, and pushed his clear glasses up his nose. Then he paused for a second, his mouth dropped open lightly in his smile as he moved to form the correct words to make his point. "Yes, I was the one who created the Particle Accelerator; it had been my lifelong work, my coup de grace as it were. I knew I wouldn't do anything more worthwhile than that in my life. Oh sure I managed to work through so many other breakthroughs that no man thought possible but no, I had to go with the big guns."

Harrison's smile faded. "Yes, I knew there was the possibility that the Particle Accelerator would explode but anyone who is not in the science field doesn't understand that there is always that possibility of things going wrong and you have to push forward anyway. Do you believe Thomas Edison would have halted his research into the incandescent lamp if he knew there was a slight possibility of his entire lab exploding? Not when there was a significant scientific breakthrough to be made. Like I said there's always that threat and when it does happen, that's when you have to work through and see how you will progress from there." He turned and motioned towards Tess. "Which is where Dr. Morgan's studies come in."

"Thank you, Dr. Wells," Tess said to her husband. She cleared her throat, stepping up to the microphone. "Yes, it is true when Harrison says that as a scientist you have to be prepared for things going wrong. What happens within that is that you have to then research what went wrong and how to prevent it for the next time, or you can take what you have and still consider it a breakthrough. With my classes at CCU I prepare students in the psychology field to understand behavioral sciences and communications practices. I tend to people watch even when I'm not working as I continue to fascinate myself with the way humans works. It is because of that that I'm intrigued with metahumans, how do those that identify as metas continue to work. There are those that don't change their demeanor at all, continuing to be their spirited and determined selves while utilizing the talents that were give to them. OR they could become a better form of themselves, someone who may be a little meek and non-confrontational during their everyday life can become more confident and a man the public could be proud of."

Caitlin felt herself starting to grin, knowing Tess was referring to Cadence and Barry. Then she was surprised to find that she and Cisco managed to have their shout out as well. "Then there are those without powers who manage to find themselves with the utmost power to aid and save those who are working through their powers." Cisco made a show of lifting his hands in a 'raise the roof' gesture, making Caitlin, Barry, and Cadence chuckle to themselves. "Which proves that having powers does not signify you are a menace or some sort of a monster. That is something that is learned not wired intricately into our DNA." She cleared her throat. "Those that have these powers…there aren't many cases to indicate that they were present when one were born."

Caitlin nodded. They still hadn't figured out if Brady's birth made it so that he was already a metahuman due to Cadence's DNA or if it was something that manifested later due to being in Central City at the time of the explosion.

"However, from what we've seen the exhibitions of those metahuman powers seem to manifest at points where they are triggered by periods of heightened stress. But none of these powers have made anyone intricately evil."

That caught Caitlin off-guard. She hadn't noticed that, but it seemed to be true. Barry's powers first truly manifested when he needed to save those at the CCPD from being shot by someone they were bringing in. Cadence's showed during a bout of uncontrollable sobbing. Brady's showed around the time he was struggling with figuring out who his father was. Cisco's when they were originally fighting the Assassination Bureau and Caitlin's around the same time as well.

That was most definitely a link between them all.

Tess's time on the floor ended and the floor was open to questions. Chief Paulson stood up and stared to rapid-fire questions towards her. "You've managed to throw a lot of scientific discoveries and buzzwords around however, you still have not answered the question if metahumans dangerous."

"I have stated that they're not—"

"—you have stated their not inherently evil but what about dangerous."

Tess pursed her lips. "The topic of danger is a difficult one to determine as anyone has the potential to be dangerous. Getting being the wheel of a car every day can be dangerous."

"But we test everyone who wants to drive before we give them their licenses," Chief Paulson pointed out.

"Yeah, but,"—Harrison raised a hand into the air—"You can't test people to give them the right to life."

"Those metahumans that have been revealed due to video recordings, blog posts, and powers from other metas have been received with fear, hostility and violence." Caitlin lowered her head to find Iris. She stood with the others that held press passes, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. Even if she didn't mean it, Tess had just implicated Iris's blog and the comments, posts, and videos posted to the site as a reason for metahumans to be feared.

Barry pressed his lips together and crossed his legs at the knee. Then, like Iris, he brought his hand up to cover his mouth as he gently shook his head. Caitlin knew what he was thinking then, too, when Becky Cooper had been in Central City and her manifested powers made metahumans around her start to inadvertently show what they could do. There were many people who were detained claiming they hadn't meant to use their powers and were sorry for what happened. But it didn't help the public perception of them.

"It is because of that ever present hostility that I'm urging the vote against metahuman registration. To force themselves to expose their identities—"

"—Expose?" Chief Pauslon asked. "What is it that they have to hide that makes them so afraid to identify themselves?"

Tess shook her head, her eyes flashing. "I didn't say they're hiding."

"Well, we have a list of names of identified metahumans that have been taken down by The Flash and stuck within Iron Heights. They all have different forms of abilities. One who can turn himself into vapor. One who can multiply himself as much as he wants. One who can control others with his eyes. Ladies and gentleman, what's going to stop them from robbing a bank, robbing others, hunting people? What is going to stop Zoom from going back into another elementary school and attacking all of the children there rather than parading The Flash around? I think everyone here deserves the right to decide if they want their children to be in school with metas, to be taught by metas, to be _hunted_ by metas. The truth is that metas are very real and they're among us…we must know who they are and above all we must know what they can do."

"The Metahuman Registration Act is unnecessary as metahumans have been largely effective and trustworthy in their actions," Tess insisted. "The Flash is known as Central City's Scarlett Speedster while Flare is known as Central City's Dancing Flame." She gestured wildly, speaking to the audience with clear emotion in her voice. "Why would those monikers be bestowed upon them if they were a threat? Government regulation would only stifle their ability to protect us. It is those who act irresponsibly with their powers who are likely to be super villains and wouldn't be candidates for the registration anyway as they'd already out themselves."

"Like Captain Cold and HeatWave," Chief Paulson said.

"Again, they're not metahumans. They're criminals who have egos bigger than their guns," Tess remarked.

"They're a threat to our city's security! We need the Metahuman Registration Act to require those with metahuman powers to disclose their abilities to the government. It is similar to the Vigilante Registration Act that was passed and vetoed before it could be moved into law. Instead of revealing those that were trying to help, we need to reveal those that are trying to hurt."

"God. If assholes could fly, this place would be an airport," Cadence murmured.

Despite the circumstance, Cisco snickered.

Tess and Chief Paulson started to speak over each other, growing more heated as the seconds passed. Finally, Captain Singh had to get up on stage and physically restrain Chief Paulson and move him further away from Tess while Harrison grabbed his wife's arm and pulled her back behind him.

"That's enough!" Mayor Bellows declared, moving back to the podium. "The floor is closed for further remarks, my staff and I will come to a decision by the end of the week." With that, the audience started to work their way from the room, but Team Flash continued to sit where they were.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Cisco murmured, running his hand over his face. "There's…they used to much good that we've done against us."

"Iris's blog has helped more than hurt," Cadence agreed. "You think the CCPD are going to go after her now?"

"For what? Spreading information that would've been posted online anyway?"

Caitlin reached up and pushed her hair back behind her ears and let out a long breath. She lifted her chin and nodded towards Joe and Iris as they walked over with Tess and Harrison behind them. Harrison kept his hand clasped tightly over Tess's, which was visibly shaking.

"Tess," Caitlin said as she stood up. "Things aren't over yet. There's still a lot we can do."

"The only thing we can do now is wait," Tess said calmly.

Iris shook her head. "No, there's more than that. The Central City Picture News are going to be showing more and more of both sides in our articles this week. If we find enough people who would show how metahumans aren't evil, it might sway enough people."

Joe reached out and put his arm around Iris's shoulders and hugged her to his side. "Chief Paulson is just running hot, he'll come around."

"Are you sure about that?" Barry asked. He brought his hands up to rest on his head. "You know as well as I do that once Chief Paulson sets his mind on something it's hard to change his mind."

"Yeah, and you're the exact same way, Bare," Joe reminded him.

"But I'm not trying to destroy lives," Barry defended himself. "I'm trying to _save_ them." He motioned back and forth between himself and Cadence. " _We're_ trying to save them. Every day. And there're so any people that can see it, but fear…fear is a big thing that's hard to overcome." He dropped his hands from his head and looked at Caitlin, Cisco, and Cadence. "We've all done terrible things to each other, but we have to learn to forgive each other or else everything we ever were will have meant nothing."

"I agree," Caitlin said quietly.

"You got it, bro," Cisco said.

"No problem," Cadence agreed. She paused and looked like she was about to say something else when Cisco's phone suddenly went off.

All eyes turned to him as he flipped it around. "What? You think I'm going to leave STAR Labs without having something that'll warn us if something's going on?" He glanced at the screen and rolled his eyes. "It's Harry," he relayed before putting the phone to his ear. "What do you want, Harry?"

"Well, it's more of what _you_ want," Harry pointed out. "There's a meta that's in the process of robbing the Central City Bank as we speak and…there's a suit missing from here. And one that's so small you'd usually miss it but I think you'll want this one back."

Cisco's eyebrows came together. "What are you talking about? I don't have any small suit—"he immediately broke off and turned and alarmed gaze to Barry and Cadence. "There's a meta-robbery in progress. And one of my suits are missing."

"We don't have our suits," Barry said to him.

"Brady," Cadence immediately replied.

"Wait, why would he go after them by himself?" Caitlin asked. She could feel her heart rate start to increase in her fear.

"If he knew we were at this meeting without knowing how long it'd go, then he would've gone himself. Especially knowing that it'd be pretty obvious if we were to suddenly leave this meeting and the next thing you know, Flash and Flare on the scene," Cadence quickly explained. She grabbed Barry's shoulder, digging her fingers into it. "Let's go."

"On it," Barry replied.

The two left the aisle and hurried to a nearby pillar. Once they were out of sight they raced from the scene.

Caitlin finally took her hand back from Cisco's when they left. She clasped her hands together, holding them in front of her. Tilting her head, Caitlin looked down at her hands. They weren't glowing blue anymore, they weren't cold.

Nothing.

If only she could turn her powers on and off.

Then she wouldn't have to worry about what would happen when they inevitably came for her. Would she pretend she didn't have any powers at all or would she have to add herself and Cisco to the growing database at STAR Labs?

Was this truly something they could fix?

* * *

Brady was at Ryder's townhouse when the new bulletin flashed across screen. He hadn't been paying too close attention to it really, he and Conner, whom Samantha had dropped off finding she still had to go to work while their school day was cancelled were rolling across the floor as they wrestled with each other.

"Take that Captain Cold!" Brady declared, leaping off the back of the cough and landed on Conner's back, knocking the two to the ground. Conner rolled out of the way and held his hands up, fingers pressed together to make the shape of a gun. "Your cold gun won't work against me!"

"That's what you think, I know ice slows you down," Conner shot back. He made 'pew' sounds with his mouth and flipped his hands back as if shooting at him. Brady rolled out of the way of the bullets and charged back at Conner where the two wrapped their arms around each other and started to wrestle on the ground once more.

They continued to roll over and over, trying to make their way on top to pin the other on the ground. "Oof!" Conner shoved his knee into Brady's back, pushing him into the ground. Brady thought about using his powers to phase through the floor and back above Conner but two things stopped him. One) Conner said he wasn't allowed to use his powers if they were going to play. Two) If he wasn't paying too close attention he might've gotten stuck.

Brady lifted his arm and stuck his hand into Conner's face, pushing him backwards, allowing himself space to get up. "Ryder," he called to his father. "Come play with us! You can be Heat Wave."

"That'd be ironic," Ryder said. He pulled his Metropolis Generals cap and ran a hand through his hair before replacing it. "I'll play as soon as the press conference is over."

Frowning, Brady got to his knees and looked at Conner, who shrugged back. Brady leaned over to glance at the screen. "You're watching the news," he pointed out. "The news is boring." He opened and closed his hand, miming the newscaster who was currently speaking, making Conner laugh.

"Yeah, but this is important, buddy," Ryder said. He reached out and ruffled Brady's hair. "If this Registration Act goes through, then all of your friends will know you're a metahuman."

Conner tilted his head. "Is that bad?" He chewed his lip as Ryder answered.

"It can be depending on the way you look at it," Ryder said. He thought for a minute. "It might cool if your friends knew you were a metahuman. You don't have to hide. But then their parents will know, so will your teachers and they might treat your different because they know. They might treat you terribly, like you were nothing."

Brady pursed his lips. "Like if I were gay?" He asked. "Mom says that not everyone is accepting of gay and lesbian people. She even said that some people treated her badly when they knew she was bivegetable."

"Bisexual," Ryder corrected him.

"Oh, I know. That's just what we called it when I couldn't pronounce it."

Conner laughed and Ryder grinned. "Yeah, sort of like that. But with having powers…there's a lot of things they could decide to do," Ryder said. "But of course, being a metahuman isn't a bad thing. You just want to make sure that no one else becomes scared, buddy," Ryder said. "Like Leah and that other classmate. They got scared and accidentally used their powers."

"But what do you do if we can't get them to go to STAR Labs?" Brady asked.

"Barry and the others will figure something out. So far what you're doing with Leah, trying to help her, being her friend. That's the best thing you can do." Ryder turned back to the TV screen and frowned when he saw a news bulletin moving at the bottom of the screen.

 _Central City Bank under Attack._

Brady tilted his head to the side and watched as the newscaster reported on the bank robbery.

 _"The perpetrator has been identified as John Corben, former reporter for the Daily Planet. So far we don't have any word on the motive behind the attack but with the cell phone footage we have from one of those inside we can see it doesn't look like he's worried too much about The Flash or Flare showing up, wherever they are."_

Grainy cell phone footage showed a tall man marching over to a large vault on the other side of the lobby and ripped the massive door off with a simple tug of his hand. Then he leapt inside and marched over to the bags of money inside. When security ran over to stop him, guns drawn, he simple hefted a bag over his shoulder, striking a cop in the face with a sickening crunch.

Conner winced and looked away.

"Oh, man," Ryder said.

"We have to do something," Brady said.

Ryder turned to his son, eyebrows coming together. "We can't do anything but try to get Barry and Cade there as soon as possible. Otherwise, the CCPD will have to hold them off until they get there."

" _I_ have to do something," Brady insisted.

"No, you're going to stay here." Brady shook his head. Ryder must've seen something gin his eyes for he moved forward to grab his son, to hold him still. But Brady used his powers to phase Ryder through him, making him fall to the floor. Brady took a step back. "Brady—"

Without waiting, Brady ran over to the coffee table and swiped up his sling shot before he dove to the floor. What no one knew about his hanging around STAR Labs so much was that he picked up a few tips and tricks in terms of using his powers. He knew what it meant to overexert abilities on one fancy move that should be kept in his back pocket rather than thrown out as soon as he got the chance. He knew how to focus his energy so he didn't gas out too soon.

And knew how to fight.

But the biggest thing that no one knew was how much stronger his phasing powers had gotten, not just being able to now phase up to at least two people, not including him, at a time but also that he was now able to move greater distances when moving underground.

Brady banked on that skill as he picked up enough momentum to dive towards the ground and phase. It was a strange feeling, knowing that he was moving great distances at great speeds when pashing. He could see the dirt of the earth moving around him rapidly while navigating himself to STAR Labs, seeing the odd rock, bug, worm, and bone as he went. Finally, he made it to STAR Labs, the world around him suddenly going from dirt to metal.

He dropped to the floor and took a quick look of his surroundings before running to the Cortex. Once there he ran through Harry, who whipped around at the sound of rapid footsteps. "What are you-? What the hell!"

Brady grabbed his suit and quickly pulled it on over his clothes. He patted the pockets of his suit and found ammo inside. Then he turned towards Harry, who was gaping at him, almost torn. He looked like he wanted to stop Brady, seeing a young boy clearly about to go out into a fight wasn't good, but all the same, the bank robbery needed to be stopped.

Brady tilted his head and waved before phasing through the next flew floors and down to the basement, where the vehicles for STAR Labs were housed. He found his supped up ATV with the keys still in the ignition and swung his leg over it while turning it on at the same time. Flipping on the headlights, Brady started up the ATV and peeled out of STAR Labs, heading towards the bank.

The ride over was jittery with Brady shifting back and forth from the asphalt road to the sidewalk, dodging people and cars as he went, body vibrating so much from the massive engine that it felt like his teeth were about to be rattled from his head.

Finally, he made it to the bank and pulled hard on the handlebars to move the ATV to the side in a skid, allowing himself to lose momentum to stop just inside the bank doors after phasing through them. Brady climbed off the ATV in time to see John Corben walking from the bank vault with multiple bags clasped in his big, meaty hands.

Brady's eyebrows lowered as he got a good look at him. He looked like a normal guy. About in his thirties, dark hair, green eyes, a goatee, and a leather jacket over a button down blouse, jeans, and motorcycle boots. The only strange thing about him was a contraption that resembled Ronnie's—Jax's— _Firestorm's_ activator. But in the center was what looked like a green rock.

 _There has to be something else about him that makes him a Meta,_ Brady thought. _He did take off that door like it was a piece of cheese._

"So The Flash is sending pipsqueaks to take people down now," Corben asked. He sniffed. "Makes sense considering how he has to lie low now that people are after him. Best time to come and rob the joint, huh? While all of those snooty politicians think they're helping people they're leaving themselves open for vulnerabilities."

Brady continued to watch him.

"What's your name anyway?"

"Shadowhunter," Brady replied.

"Great. It was nice knowing you." Corben started walking towards Brady but Brady didn't move. Corben slowed a little, his eyes narrowing though he continued walking. Then, realizing Brady wasn't going to move he said, "You realize I'm stronger than I'm look."

"We'll figure that out," Brady said. He ran towards Corben and extended a leg, sliding on the ground when Corben swung a bag of money towards him. Tilting his head back, Brady felt the air from the bag woosh by his face and he grabbed onto Corben's legs. Using his phasing abilities, Brady dragged Corben down until his top half was sticking out of the ground, bags of money resting on the floor. Brady rose out of the ground behind him. "Thank you!" He reached through Corben's arms and grabbed the bags of money…and nearly faceplanted when Corben brought his arms forward.

Brady flew forward and slid across the floor. He looked over and curled into a ball, the heavy bags of money nearly missing his head as they crashed to the floor with a dull _THUD._ What? A thud? Flipping over Brady looked at the spilling bag and noticed half of the bag was filled with gold bricks.

"Oh," Brady breathed. "Okay."

He flipped back around and watched. Corben lifted his arms high above his head and slammed them to the floor. The ground cracked open and Corben hefted himself up and charged towards Brady, his footsteps making the ground shake as he went. Brady ran back to him, passed through him, then used his momentum to grab Corben's arm. Using his weight, he wrenched him backwards…and nearly hurled when he heard a mechanical grinding sound as Corben's arm pulled backwards at a grotesque angle, making Corben fall to the floor.

Corben used an enhanced burst of speed and flipped back to his feet. Then he turned on his heel and kicked Brady hard in the side. Brady flew back and landed on the ground, rolling away. He got back to his feet, ignoring the pain in his side, when Corben ran to him once more and started to wildly swing punches at him.

Brady ducked out of the way of one punch while the other he made phase through him. Each swing that missed crashed into a teller's desk or a innocent bystanding coat rack, wall, leather chair, and pillar decimating them in seconds. Splinters of plaster, wood, and leather flew around, scratching Brady's face as each item was beaten to a pulp.

"Hold still you little termite!" Corben cried with effort.

Still, Brady found his first tactic worked well. When Corben was about to back him into a corner he would phase through him and grabbed a body part, using his momentum to swing him to the ground. Then Brady leapt up onto Corben's neck and held on tight as Corben reached up his hands and tried to punch Brady, punching himself in the side of the head. With the strength he had, each punch should've cracked and splintered the bones of his face but Corben hardly reacted, only moving to swing again.

Then he reached up and grabbed Brady frown around his neck and hefted him to the floor. Landing on his back, Brady looked up as Corben brought back his fist. "Say nighty-night!"

Brady reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of ammo. Scrambling with his other hand, he grabbed the Shadowshot and put the ammo inside the pocket, lifted it up, and fired. Corben cried out in surprise as a net suddenly wrapped around his fist and head, holding him still.

Brady rolled out of the way and clambered to his feet. He started to run again, this time to the vault. He looked over his shoulder to find Corben running after him, just as he thought he would. Once Corben entered the vault, Brady started to pick up bags of money and hefted them at Corben. Corben punched a few of them out of the air. Taking out another piece of ammo, Brady shot it towards Corben, who shifted his head to the side. The ammo hit the wall and a burst of wind knocked around the room, sending the loose bills flying around, cutting Corben's skin like razors.

Knowing it wasn't going to affect him, already having seen him take a lot of hard punches to the head and not flinch. But it was the distracting he needed. Rapid-fire, Brady sent more pieces of ammo towards Corben but this time they did the sort of damage he was looking for.

Hearing the grinding sound while pulling his arm back as well as noticing how Corben had been able to punch himself, Brady quickly deduced his insides had to be reinforced with some sort of machinery or metal. _Thank God for Cisco,_ he thought, finding the pieces of ammo that held metal penetrating shrapnel inside.

Corben screamed with rage each time he was hit directly, skin tearing open to show sparking machinery inside. And yet every time he was hit, Corben reached up to protect the green rock sitting in the middle of his chest. Eyes narrowing, Brady re-focused his attention to the green glow and shot at it.

Everything happened at once.

The split second before his ammo hit the green glow Brady saw red lightning and a flicker of flame appear in the vault. Then the ammo connected with the glow and there was a massive surge of power. Brady felt himself get lifted off his feet and crashed into the ceiling then fell hard to the ground, his slingshot flew out from his grasp and skidded across the ground.

He saw Corben lying lifelessly on the floor. The green glow was gone, an empty space in the center of the reactor that sat on his chest.

The edges of Brady's vision grew dark and he suddenly felt hands on him.

 _"Brady? Brady!"_

 _"Oh my God."_

 _"Brady!"_

Then everything went dark.

* * *

Cisco walked into the medical bay, pulling his hair back from his face. "Any change?" He asked quietly.

Cadence shook her head, sitting next to Brady's bed, gently stroking his forehead. Ryder stood on the other side, arms crossed as he stared down at his son. Tess and Harrison stood at the foot of the bed while Caitlin and Barry hovered nearby.

"No," Caitlin relayed. "But his vitals are holding fine. Barry and Cade got there in enough time to bring him back here." She motioned to a heart monitor that sat on the wall. Cisco glanced at it and his eyebrows rose. "For a little kid the numbers are fine, Cisco," she reassured him.

"That's good," Cisco replied. "I'd hate to think how quiet it'd be around here if he wasn't up and running around."

"Well, he might not be running anytime soon," Cadence said. She ran her palms over her eyes. "I healed his broken rib pretty well and he's young so he'll bounce back fast. But with growing pains and as he gets older there may be some complications to keep an eye on."

"Did you get anything on the Corden guy he was facing?" Barry asked.

"You mean Metallo?" Cisco asked. He smiled at the nickname he came up with for him. "It's just a work in progress. But, yeah, get this. That glow Brady was talking about, it was from a meteorite."

"A meterorite?" Caitlin repeated.

"Yeah, he's from Metropolis, used to work for the _Daily Planet,_ and that meteorite was green kryptonite." All eyes turned to Cadence and Ryder.

"Just because we're from there doesn't mean we know _everyone_ from Metropolis," Ryder said easily, making Cadence smile.

"Anyway, it worked as s sort of energy source for the cybernetics in his body. And when Brady cracked it, he deactivated him."

"Deactivate?" Barry repeated. "Like…"

"Oh!" Cisco held up his hands. "No! Nothing like that. He's fine. There were enough pieces of the kryptonite left over to weld back together to resource his energy. He's just fine in his own vault in the Pipeline."

"The kryptonite was the energy source for his reactor?" Harrison repeated. Cisco nodded. "Sounds like it was being used as a sort of heart. Once it was broken he fell apart. More likely by a sort of adrenal flaw that made him rob the bank and attack like that."

"You think that's the reason why?" Ryder asked.

"Why else would a journalist try to rob a bank like that? Especially when there's nothing in his background that would show holding any sort of grudge in Central City?" Harrison asked. "Especially at the point of time it happened."

"Could be a ploy by Zoom," Tess pointed out.

Barry snorted a little. "For real?"

"I wouldn't put anything past him," Harry said. He tentatively approached the room, staying in the doorway, as far away as possible. "I've warned you, Zoom isn't someone to take lightly. He will go after each and every person you love no matter how big or small. Any way to break you down as much as possible before he kills you." His eyes shifted over to Barry. "You just need to be prepared for when it happens to you." With that he left the medical bay, his head hanging.

Cisco lifted an eyebrow. "Talk about dramatic."

"He's probably right thought," Caitlin said. "Zoom already worried the city from what he did to Barry, and now with the Metahuman Registration Act…he's trying to turn the city against him, to lower his morale to make it easier."

"Thanks, Caitlin," Barry said.

"Sorry, Barry. But you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know."

There was a low moaning sound and Brady turned his head to the side. Cadence immediately got up, stroking his forehead. "Hey bud, can you hear me?" She asked quietly. "You're okay, everyone's here for you."

"C'mon buddy, say something," Ryder added.

Brady's eyes slowly opened. He blinked a few times and his eyes closed once more. Then he blinked and looked around the room, eyes narrowed into slits combating the bright light above him. Brady's eyebrows came together. "Do I have to go to school tomorrow?" He mumbled.

A collective sigh of relief and laugher moved through the room. "It looks like you might have another day off, baby," Cadence said to him. "Just to monitor you for a little bit."

"Okay," Brady said quietly. "What happened?"

"You took down Metallo, that's what happened," Cisco said.

"I did?" Brady started to look a little excited, then sank lower in the bed, as if in danger of passing through it to the floor. He looked stricken for a second then glanced at his mother and parents. "You're not mad?" He asked.

"Scared to death, maybe," Ryder replied. "But I think that comes with the territory of being a parent."

"But we're also very proud of you," Cadence said. She stroked his cheek. "You knew there had to be someone to stop him even if Barry and I couldn't get there in time." Then she stood up and crossed her arms, letting out a low breath. "I knew at some point you were going to go out on the field. I just didn't think it'd be this soon."

"Well…if Zoom is out there and he attacks my school again, I have to do something."

"Right now you should get as much sleep as possible," Caitlin said.

"Yeah, before you know it everyone's going to want to know who Shadowhunter really is," Cisco said. "And you might not be ready for that." He reached out and tapped Brady's feet, making him laugh and pulled his feet back. "Good job, kid."

"Now that we've got someone else to help us, maybe Zoom'll hold back for a little while." Barry reached out his hand and Brady gently gave him a high-five. "Get better soon."

"Thanks, Barry," Brady replied. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the side, curling up into a ball while Cadence pulled the blankets up higher over his shoulder.

Cisco started to back out of the room. "I'm just going to update our database with our new cyborg friend. Maybe he can give us some ideas of what Zoom's going to do next." He reached out and patted Ryder on the shoulder, then shuddered as things flashed across his field of vision.

He quickly pulled his hand back from Ryder's shoulder, his eyebrows coming together. Ryder turned and looked at him in concern. "Are you okay, Cisco?"

"Yeah, yeah, just…" Cisco grabbed Ryder's shoulder and pulled him a few feet away. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "I know this is going to sound weird but…I need to ask…You were at the hospital the night Brady was born, weren't you?"

Ryder's eyes darkened. "How'd you know that?"

* * *

Later that night, Barry let out a long sigh as he walked into the West house. He pulled of his jacket and rested it over the rail of the stairwell, glancing at a picture of him, Joe, and Iris when they were young. Very young, not long after he moved in with them. It was hard to believe it was so long ago knowing how his life turned out.

If he knew that then…? Barry rubbed at his eyes and turned to Joe, who was reading the newspaper on the couch.

"Hey Bare," Joe greeted him in a resigned tone. "Long day for you, too, huh?"

"You have no idea." Barry dropped down onto the couch next to his adoptive father, slouching low. "Once everything calmed down, I had to go back to the bank to clean up what was left of some of the security guards and…let me say it's days like these that I wonder why I went into forensics. It's hard to see people continuously get hurt like that and not have any answers when I finally know what happened to my Mom."

"Well, you know the answer to that one, Bare," Joe said. "You wouldn't be you if you weren't helping other people. No matter how much it may hurt." He reached out and patted Barry on the knee. "Speaking of, how's Brady doing?"

"Much better now," Barry replied. "He's woken up and talking up a storm. He's pretty excited to have taken down his first meta." Then he snapped his fingers. "And he says to tell Iris that if she's still offering to bring him some 'get well cookies' he'll take them."

Joe laughed. Then he sobered. "It's so hard to think that kids this young are starting to get caught up in all of this mess."

"I was about his age when I first saw the Reverse-Flash," Barry reminded him. Even with answers Barry could still picture that night perfectly. How his mother's screams woke him up, the image of his fish floating up out of the aquarium, how his father yelled at him to run and leave his mother and get to safety.

And how scared he was.

His feet were rooted to the floor at the image of his mother stuck inside the swirling vortex, reaching out for him, screaming at him to get away. Screaming for her husband to save her. Screaming in terror at the colorful whirlwind that blew around her.

And Barry trembled, his legs quivered, and yet he could do nothing but scream, "Mom' over and over again.

He had never felt fear like that since then, not until he realized Brady had gone off to face Metallo himself.

"I can't imagine how scary that must've been," Joe said.

"Yeah, we were all afraid something really bad was going to happen," Barry said. He suddenly felt really tired and rubbed at his eyes. "I know it was going to happen at some point but…to actually see it. Cade handled it better than I thought she would."

"Well, it's probably the same way you guys handle your relationship," Joe said. He shrugged. "When you're not Flash and Flare you have no problem exploring that relationship, but when you _are_ Flash and Flare you focus entirely on your partnership with each other so you don't jeopardize your real life. It's probably the same way, she was probably scared to death but doesn't want anyone to know Shadowhunter's her son."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Barry said. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him."

"I don't doubt it. I'm sure it's much of the same way that Henry or I feel watching you run out into battle all the time. Not knowing if you're going to come back or not. As a parent, it's the worst feeling."

Barry frowned. Something about the way Joe said that was weird. Turning his head, Barry found Joe starting directly at him. "What?"

"Nothing, Bare," Joe said. He reached out and patted Barry once more, this time leaving his hand on his son, almost as if reassuring himself he was still really there. "What do you want for dinner?"

Barry chuckled lightly. "Nice subject change."

"It's not a subject change, I'm hungry, and I know you are too. You're always hungry. Even before you got your damn powers you were always hungry. Eatin' me out of my home…"

"Oh, whatever!" Barry shoved Joe on the shoulder and laughed along with him.

He settled into the couch, turning his attention to the episode of Wheel of Fortune that was playing. He and his mother and father used to watch it together all the time and laugh at the strange and far off responses they'd come up with when there were only a few letters uncovered when not planning what they'd do if they won the money the contestant had at the end of the show.

Barry made a mental note to visit his father soon.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sometimes I don't think I'm able to show lighthearted/happier moments as equally as drama throughout the story. I understand sometimes things can't be 100% happy just as things can't be 100% drama. How do you think I'm doing?

And, Brady took down his first meta! Woo-hoo! And everyone reacted to it very well; I think he was pretty brave.

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Hopefully I've kept up the good work, lol.

 **DarkHelm145:** I'm already working to make sure things with those eps work out.

 **Ethan:** Well, he did have feeling back in his legs by that point so maybe, lol. I've been meaning to show more of Cisco so that plot will help move things along. Wally and Linda are iconic (if you want to use that word) from the Flash comics after Barry and Iris and I would've liked to see it happen on the show. So I worked it out here.

 **Guest:** Hope it was to your liking.

 **Spinquin142:** You're right, actually. She _is_ going to explain things with the Assassination Bureau soon. I couldn't think of how to make their fight go on even further so I stuck with the skeletal form of it. I am working to have them around more.

 **PowerHero432:** Haha, at least someone picked up on Nathalie. Wally and Linda didn't happen on the show but it happened in the comics so I'm throwing it to that before Jesse arrives.

 **Highlander348:** Haha, she's got her work cut out for her but I think she can do it. :)

 **Babyj:** Glad you like them working together. I thought it'd be pretty cool as time went on, along with Wally being there too, of course. Rogues are coming back.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	23. We're Family

**.:23:.**

 _We're Family_

* * *

Brady fell onto his back on the practice mats below him and flipped back to his feet in time to block the kick Barry tried to land on him. There was a low thudding sound that shot through the room before Barry's screaming followed it. He grabbed his left heel and hopped up and down as Brady rolled away from him. Watching the fight, Cisco, Caitlin, and Cadence all winced.

"You've got to watch out for that, Barry" Cisco called. "Brady can use his phasing powers all the time while you have to concentrate to do it. You need to anticipate what he'll do."

"Sorry," Brady said, watching as Barry lowered his foot back to the ground, already healed from slamming it to the ground.

"Its fine," he said through gritted teeth. He moved his hands up into fists. Brady did the same and they started sparring again. Neither of them were skilled fighters, Cisco's suggestions came from martial arts movies he'd watched, Caitlin's input was a few swinging punches and winces when the two would land a hit on each other, and Cadence just watched silently.

She had taught Brady how to throw a football, how to throw a baseball, how to play roller hockey, soccer, how to count, read, write, and kept her patience through copious amounts of potty training. But what she made absolute sure he learned was a little bit of dance and a little bit of gymnastics. Of which seemed to help him take down Barry, or at the very least frustrate him more than he already was. It had hard enough that he couldn't get a firm grasp on Brady as he would phase the body part the speedster was trying to grab, but the nine year old wiggled more than his calm demeanor would've showed.

Barry gave up trying to get a direct hit in then turned and started to windmill his arms, sending two vortices towards Brady. Brady crouched low to the ground, the wind whipping at his hair and face. Bringing up an arm, he shielded his face the best he could, though glittering tears started to stream down his cheeks from the onslaught against him.

Then he slowly melted down through the ground. Barry abruptly stopped his movements and looked around and behind him, trying to figure out where Brady had gone. Then the young metahuman phased up through the ground and grabbed onto Barry's legs, forcing him down into the ground as well.

"Wha?" Barry placed his palms on the ground and struggled to pull himself up. Then he was pelted in the face with dud pellets, of which Brady used just for practice. And from the way he was repeatedly struck in the forehead, Barry was sure Brady had been putting good use to it. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

Brady laughed and gave Barry the phase to vibrate the cells in his body to phase back out of the ground. They were back to hand-to-hand combat in a few seconds.

"I don't know," Cisco said slowly. He rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure how much of a punishment this is."

"Yeah," Caitlin said. She shook her head. "How many people would think that being able to fight against The Flash is a punishment?"

Cadence held up a finger. "Wait for it," she said. In a few seconds Barry superpseeded around Brady, flicking him behind the ear. Then he took another lap and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ow!" Brady pouted, bringing his hands up to rub the back of his head.

"Wait for it…."

"Alright." Barry came to a stop and crossed his arms. "Let's try that again."

Brady sighed heavily. "Do we _have_ to?"

Cadence pointed. "And there it is."

"We've been practicing all morning," Brady continued to whine, all but stomping his foot and throwing a complete tantrum. "I'm tired. And I'm tired of getting my head flicked." He continued to rub his head and walked over to his mother, wrapping his arms around her waist for protection.

"Do you want to help Caitlin do inventory in the medical bay instead?" Cadence asked.

She laughed in surprise when Brady nodded. That was the first option he had of a punishment after having gone after Metallo. Barry, Cadence, and the others were very proud that he took on his instinct to save the city when he was needed, but also got a healthy dose of fear and reality when realizing they were setting up a nine year old to try and help save the city.

It was one thing to have him get started training, but another to have him sent out in the field with little to no experience. Barry suggested instead that he start shadowing them—no pun intended—and that seemed to go over well with everyone.

Brady had admitted ho scared he felt through the whole thing, his adrenaline hadn't gone down until a couple of hours after Caitlin released him from the medical bay with a clean bill of health. And he said he understood how important and serious Barry's and Cadence's responsibilities in saving the city were. If that were the case, Cadence said, then he deserved to know how the rest of STAR Labs worked; so she gave him the option of continuous training until they felt he was at the level they needed to be to go out in the field or learning the ins and outs of STAR Labs.

Of course he optioned for fighting, thinking it was going to be fun.

"Well, I'm not going to actually punch you," Barry pointed out. "Chances are I'd miss and end up breaking my hand."

"It'll heal," Cisco pointed out dismissively, then smiled sweetly when Barry glanced at him.

"Then why don't you punch my mom, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of that," Brady said, his voice taking on a slight southern accent as he did so. Cadence smiled, recognizing it was mimicking Ryder's own accent when he wasn't using his 'professional voice'.

But that was an interesting thought. "You haven't actually fought each other since the whole meta-spider thing," Caitlin agreed. "Most of the time you're working out on your own."

"You mean flinging Barry off the back of a treadmill while I've been teaching my classes and lifting weights at the CCPD?" Caitlin gestured vaguely towards the ceiling where the Cortex was one floor above them. "As entertaining as that is, it got old the fifth time."

"I haven't fallen off the treadmill that much," Barry defended himself. He stretched his arms. "Besides, you're just trying to get out of it because you know you're not faster than me."

Her head whipped towards him like a rattler's, a smirk pulling at her lips. "I _am_ faster than you," she declared.

"Please."

"Instantaneous teleportation, Tholly. That's faster than running."

"Really? 'Cause the last time it looked like you were walking so slowly, too." Barry grinned. "Almost like you were standing still, even."

"Are you sure you saw what you were trying to see?" Cadence tilted her head to the side, making her hair fall off her shoulder and frame her face. "I mean, with how bright my flames can get…"

"Guys, can we get back to work?" Caitlin said trying, in vain, to stop the impending battle. Cisco, however, continued to egg them on.

"It'd be one for the record books," Cisco said. "An all out fight between Flash and Flare. So far on our score board we have it tied one to one."

Barry and Cadence both asked him, "You've got a scoreboard?"

"Yep. One point went to Cade when she helped take Barry down after being whammied. And the other went to Barry when he took you down with the Meta-Spider bite." Cisco slowly started to bring up his cell phone, as if he as about to take a picture or video. "Though, technically, neither of those count because you were under the influence of something and weren't really fighting at your full strength." He held up his hands. "But what do I know? We have a lot of work to do, right?"

But Barry and Cadence looked at each other. Brady stepped back from his mother. At the same time Barry and Cadence, guns blazing, leapt towards each other. Cisco threw out his arm in front of Caitlin and pushed the two back, while grabbing onto Brady's shoulder to get him out of the way as well.

It was a flurry of movements that started them out, a punch here a kick there. Then their powers kicked in and they moved at lightning speed. To keep up with Barry's speed movements Cadence incorporated her teleportation in a bit more. Each swing was countered with a dodge, each dodge countered with a swing until they were moving in a sort of dance across the floor of the practice room.

Then Barry turned on his heel and raced out of the cortex with Cadence hot on his heels. All around Central City they raced, stopping at ever few point to launch an attack. When Barry raced around a corner, Cadence caught him by surprise by suddenly punching him hard in the face. He fell to the side, nearly crashing through the glass of an office building. He used his superspeed to lift his feet and place them on the glass, lifting himself up until he was running along the face of the building.

"Tag!" Cadence called.

Barry arched back around and shot down the face of the building, following her as she took off to teleport. He raced after her, hardly breaking a sweat as he followed her sporadic teleportation bursts. One minute she was in front of him, then she teleported and was running down another street.

Still, Barry kept on her tail. Finally, he figured out where she was going next and ran ahead of her. He generated enough electricity for a manhole cover to come flying out of its spot and stick to Barry's hand. Barry spun in a quick circle and used the force to throw it towards Cadece.

She saw it coming and skidded to a stop, bending backards out of the way. Barry ran forward and tackled Cadence hard in the chest, sending her head over heels across the ground. "Tag!" He called back.

Cadence came to a stop and turned to him. "Is that all you got?" Her eyes flickered with flame.

"Bring it on," Barry replied. His eyes flickered with electricity.

"Alright, if that's what you want."

Flames erupted around Cadence's wrists. She thrust a hand out in front of her and Barry leaned out of the way as fire erupted past him. He leaned up in time to see Cadence leapt atop the flame and surf it as she arched through the streets. Barry grinned and bolted after her, leaving an electrified streak as he went.

They raced along, twisting and turning through the streets until Cadence came to stop on an apartment rooftop. She turned around to see if Barry was still behind her and frowned, seeing nothing. Then she turned back around and caught another punch to the face. This one made stars appear in front of her eyes.

It wasn't a supersonic punch but close enough.

Barry chuckled. "Hasn't anyone ever told you to case the place? Survey everything before you go into a fight?"

"Yeah." Cadence rubbed her cheek. "And I'm sure there are some things Oliver has taught me that he hasn't taught you." With that she ran forward, lifting her arms over her head and launched herself forward in a cartwheel. Then she turned it into a front flip, rounded off, and backhand springed towards Barry.

Confused, he watched her, waiting to attack. Instead of attacking him as soon as she got close enough, Cadence flipped over his head and landed on his back. Using her body weight, she leaned back, lifting Barry off his feet and over her head, slapping the two to the ground, placing her head on his shoulder to keep from cracking her head against the ground.

Then she rolled over and straddled his waist, aiming punches at his face. Barry easily fended her off and Cadence's smirk widened, he fell into her trap. Barry continued to knock her hands aside and the two laughed, almost falling into a playfight, until Cadence grabbed his wrists in her hands. She flipped to her feet and with a grunt of effort, threw Barry over his shoulder.

Barry arched through the air and crashed into the brick wall of the rooftop stairwell, leaving a Barry-sized print behind him. Rubble loosened around him and Barry shook his head, then dropped to the roof once more. He brought up a hand and rubbed the back of his head. Rocks fell out of the wounds in his scalp, blood making his fingers slip and slide. But they healed in a matter of seconds and he blinked the stars away.

Then Barry started to run in circles around Cadence, charging up as much electricity as he could muster. Cadence closed her eyes as she concentrated on creating a fire aura around her. When she opened her eyes they blazed orange and her fire aura continued to grow in strength, shimmering the air around her.

Barry came to a stop and with a cry of effort, swung his arms forward. Electricity crackled and sparked along his arms, down his wrists to his fingertips, shooting forward in a horizontal bolt of lightning. Cadence mimicked his movements and sent a fire bomb back at him. The attacks collided and sent a funnel of hot wind through the air and swept Cadence and Barry apart.

Cadence lifted her hair off her face and found Barry had leapt to a nearby rooftop and stopped, resting his hands against the ledge as he looked down at something. She followed behind him.

"You're giving up that easy?" She asked.

Barry gave a somber shake of his head. Then he lifted his head and examined her for a moment, as if unsure of what to say. Finally, he let out a quiet, "Look" and nodded in front of him. Confused, Cadence walked over, looking at him. She noticed he kept his eyes in front of him and followed his gaze.

It didn't take more than a second for her to see it, a second longer for it to register, and one more second for it to make her feel smaller and more insignificant than she had ever felt before.

For graffitied on the side of a brick building, a sign for all to see, said _Death to Metas._

* * *

Barry and Cadence immediately went back to STAR Labs and told the others what they found. Cisco shook his head and muttered something about 'crazies and psychos and they wanted to focus on metahumans'. Caitlin just gave a small, reassuring smile before going back to her work with the inventory of the medical bay.

"Does that mean we're going to die?" Brady asked.

"No, nothing like that's going to happen," Barry reassured him, ruffling his hair as he did so. "We won't let it." Then he turned at the sound of the door to the Cortex opening and smiled when his father walked inside. "Hey, stranger! What are you doing here?"

"I thought that you said STAR Labs would welcome me with arms wide open whenever I wanted," Henry replied. Barry grinned and opened his arms, engulfing his father in a long hug. Henry hugged him tightly, one hand on the back of Barry's neck, the other grasped round his waist, squeezing him every few seconds.

"Come on dad, you know it is," Barry said. He stepped back and patted his father on the shoulder. "We're always happy to see you."

"How's it going, Dr. Allen?" Cisco called.

"Cisco," Henry called back. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his beige leather jacket, walking over to the engineer. "I thought I said everyone could call me Henry. As it stands, I'm not a doctor anymore."

Barry twisted his mouth to the side, letting out a long breath through his nose. "You know we can get you your medicine license back. It'll take some time but…"

"Yes, well…" Henry mimicked Barry and took a breath through his nose as well. "With all of the time I've spent incarcerated as well as the time I've had to myself once being released, it's given me the opportunity to think long and hard about whether or not going back into medicine is what I want."

"I know the feeling," Cadence agreed. She looped her arms around Brady's shoulders and rested her chin atop his head. Brady smiled and reached up his hands, gently tugging at her arm.

Henry gave her a warm smile. "If I remember correctly from one of Barry's vissts, he mentioned you used to work in pediatrics."

"I was in residency for it, yes."

"What made you stop?"

Barry watched warily, wondering what Cadence was going to say. Would she tell the truth and say that most of the time she left it was under control of an organization that tried to kill him. Give the public friendly answer and say she left after figuring out it wasn't what she wanted to do. Or give a combination of the two; that she was kicked out for being continuously late or leaving early to deal with metahuman stuff?

"I got kicked out," she explained.

"You ever think of going back?" Henry pressed. "To a different program?"

Cadence thought for a moment. "No," she said honestly. "Well, yeah, sometimes. Through it I was able to help a bunch of little kids and teens feel better and talk to them and give advice, but…I really like my job at the CCPD and I can't imagine working anywhere else."

"Wow, the CCPD." The wrinkles by Henry's eyes deepened. "They're lucky to have you."

"Got the badge and everything." Cadence smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear. "It was great to see you again, Henry. But Brady and I are going to meet Harrison and Tess for lunch. I have my cell in case any of you need us."

"Where are you going?" Cisco asked.

"I just said I—"

"No, I heard that, I meant are you going to a restaurant or…?"

"Probably some place on campus. Why?"

"If you can bring back, like, a cheesecake or something, that'd be great."

"Should've known that you'd move away from my Pizza Pockets at some point," Caitlin remarked, leaving the medical bay. She tucked a clipboard under her arm and reached out to slap the back of her hand against Cisco's stomach. "I wasn't sure how much you could take." She turned to Henry with a sweet smile as Cisco frowned and rested his hands on his stomach. "Henry, we're glad you're here. Did you come by just to see Barry?"

"To see how everything has been going on around here," Henry said. He looked at the high tech gear around the Cortex. "Looks like everything is in top shape." He cleared his throat and looked at Barry, motioning to him. "Is there any place around here we can talk?"

"Yeah, come on."

Barry shot his father a curious glance. But his fears were quelled when Henry gave another smile and reached up, putting his arm around his son. Barry put his arm around Henry's shoulders and he led the two down to the basement, showing off the machine Jay had been working on to open the breach to the next Earth.

"So this Zoom fellow can come in through this?" Henry asked. He pointed to the blank space between the spires.

Barry stuffed his hands under his armpits and lowered himself down to the steps that led to the floor of the basement. "Theoretically," he explained. "We haven't had proof that it's where he's coming in from but it seems to be the only explanation."

"And can you go through there to find him?"

"Not that we know of." Barry rested his arms on his legs and leaned forward. He clasped his hands together between his knees. "But once we get some more answers we'll know what to do." He cleared his throat. "Is that what you wanted to come in to talk about? Zoom?"

"And you." Henry walked over and sat down next to Barry. He groaned as he did so, moving so slowly it was like he melted rather than sat.

Barry smiled a little. "Looks like you're getting a little old there, dad."

"I'm still as fit as I've ever been," Henry defended himself. "But there's only so much you can do when you're stuck in an eight-by-eight cell for twenty hours of the day with nothing to do but lie down and read. A piece of advice, make sure you remember to stretch."

The two laughed.

Henry stopped laughing first. "So, I saw what happened with Zoom on TV."

"Mhm."

"And I've seen what's been going on with this whole metahuman rights thing. I'm starting to get really worried about you, Slugger. I know there's a lot that you can do but surely there's a limit to your abilities. And it looks like Zoom's stronger than you."

"He's not stronger than me, just faster." Barry ran a hand through his hair. "And I'm working on it. I'm working to get faster."

"What if that's not enough?" Henry asked quietly.

"Then I'll have to do something else," Barry said.

A long silence stretched between the two. Henry unfolded his long legs and pointing his toes towards the floor, grimacing as he stretched out the muscles. Barry smiled behind his hand when he noticed the Converses his dad was wearing, the very same shoes that Barry almost exclusively wore and tried since he was young to get both of his parents to buy a pair. There was no reason behind it really, just that his mother had commented how he was constantly growing out of his and she was sick of buying them and he said they'd understand if they had their own. Then Barry got a good look at Henry's face and noticed the extra wrinkles that had seemed to appear overnight, the gray hairs that were starting to permeate the mop of blondish-brown hair atop his head, the drooping of his skin.

He knew his father was going to get older. It was inevitable. That was life. What was difficult was seeing how so much of him had changed when he was behind bars. It took Barry a long time to realize how much time passed and for his father while he was in jail. He had to put on his glasses and hold his cell phone an entire arm's length away from his face as Barry tried to show him how to use a smart phone.

Now that they were talking about more serious things, Barry realized how grown up he had become, too. The last time they were in a room together, before his mother died, before he had been put to sleep that faithful night, they were planning a fishing trip. How mundane and simple life was back then. Fishing o the weekend, school on the weekdays.

Now it was how to take down a metahuman and what Henry was going to do about his medicine license.

"What else can you do?" Henry asked. He turned to Barry and passion sparked through his eyes. "Once this speedster is done will another one come up? It seems to me that there's always going to be other metahumans for you to fight."

"What do you want me to do? Leave them to Cade? We're partners; I can't leave all of the work to her. That's not fair."

"I'm not telling you to give up being The Flash, Barry; I'm telling you how scared I am for you." Henry looked at Barry seriously. "Every day I watch on the news, waiting to see if that day is the day that someone has managed to best you and you're gone. You may have healing powers Barry, but you can still die. _Everyone_ can die, even superheroes. You're not invincible."

"I know that, Dad," Barry said. He ran his hands over his face. "I know. And I don't ever want that to happen. I don't want you to…" Tears came to his eyes and he hastily turned away.

"You don't want me to lose anyone else," Henry continued his sentence. Barry nodded. "I don't want to lose you either. But I want you to understand how it felt for me to see the footage of Zoom touting you in front of the news reporters like that. You were completely lifeless; I could see the fear and desperation in your eyes."

"He broke my back," Barry explained.

Henry sat in shocked silence. Then he reached out and placed his hands against the sides of Barry's face. "When I was first put in jail I made you make a promise to me. That when I got out, you'd be there waiting for me. This is the same thing—"

"—Dad," Barry broke in.

"—this is the same thing I'm asking of you now," Henry continued, ignoring Barry's attempt at interruption. "I want you to promise me that no matter what happens you'll still be there for me, okay? Because I don't…" his voice cracked. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. Flash or not, you're still my son. You're still my Barry Allen and I need you." Tears filled Henry's eyes. "Your mother would be so proud of you, you know. We spent many times talking about the man you were becoming. Even at eleven years old. You always cared so much about everyone else, willing to go without to make sure others were comfortable. And I know you'd do that for every resident in the city if you ever needed to."

Tears were already streaming down Barry's cheeks. Not just sad tears, but happy tears. Happy that he could be having this conversation with his dad. Happy that he could stand there and touch him and hug him all he wanted. To be able to visit him when he wanted. To actually, finally have his father, his _family_ back.

Barry sniffed hard, reaching up and grabbing onto Henry's hands. He rubbed his fingers over the leather skin, noticing the calluses on his father's fingertips, the scars on his arms. When had he gotten these? When he was in prison? Had he ever gotten into a fight? Barry wasn't sure;they tried to talk about everything but the fact Henry was there. How much of his father's life had been wasted away that Barry hadn't even noticed?

How many fights had he been in? How many times had he been hurt?

Anger swelled within Barry. Anger and frustration at all of the times he opted not to go visit him all because there was something else he wanted to do. What if he decided that now that he was out and something happened to him? He'd never be able to live with himself.

Barry closed his eyes, allowing the tears to continue to fall. _No, don't think like that,_ he thought. _He's here right here. Right now. Focus on that, not on what you don't have._

"Barry, I need you to make the same promise to me now. I need you promise that you'll be the best Flash you can be, continue to be the man that I'm undeniably proud of. But I need you to promise that you'll come back."

Barry couldn't speak, he was crying too hard. Crying for his lost family but crying for the family he continued to have in his father. He nodded and grabbed onto Henry's arms as tightly as he could, to prove it. Henry nodded back and pulled Barry to his chest, pressing a kiss to the back of his head and hugging him tightly.

"I love you, Slugger," Henry said.

"I love you, too, dad," Barry replied.

He held onto his dad as tightly as he could.

* * *

"So what are your thoughts on nature versus nurture?" Tess asked. She paced back and forth at the front of her lecture, moving her eyes over the students that sat in front of her. "The heavily debated topic of whether a person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or if a majority of it is influenced by life experiences and environment?" She looked around at the students that raised their hands to respond. "No need to raise your hands, when have we ever been that formal? I want your ideas?"

"Nature, definitely," a female student said. "There are many things that I do or say or think because of my parents."

"Yes, but is it because of your parents or because of the way they _raised_ you?" Tess pointed out. She lifted her hands, palms facing upwards like a scale. "Do you hate broccoli because it's encoded in your father's genes or because you grew up in a house without broccoli?"

"Neither," a male student joked. "Broccoli is a disgusting vegetable. Period."

Tess laughed along with her students. Then she fell silent, crossing her arms. She sucked her lips into her mouth and continued to pace. Her eyes moved over the students in front of her. Some were looking at their laptops, some were looking at their phones in their laps—why else would they be smiling so much—others were completely checked out, but majority were watching her.

"So let's talk about something current," she said. "Something that's going on in all of your lives. What do you think of the metahumans?"

There was a noticeable difference in the tone of the room.

She had everyone's attention.

Good.

"Again, you don't need to raise your hand. We're in an open forum style class as I've always had it." She clapped her hands together. "Let's talk."

There was a moment of silence before a smaller girl who sat in the back of the room spoke up. "I think they're all dangerous."

"What makes you say that?" Tess prompted.

"They're always hurting people."

"Not all metahumans hurt people," a tall Hispanic boy said in a snide tone, complete with a roll of his eyes. "What about Flash? And Flare? And that Burning Man? They've helped the city, not hurt it."

"You're saying they've never messed up an hurt people?" The guy next to him asked. "When that vorte thing opened people _died._ And they gave The Flash the freaking key to the city. How do we know he didn't cause it?"

"He _ended_ it!"

"That doesn't mean he didn't cause it. Every single metahuman we've come across has been evil and caused trouble. Sure, The Flash and Flare have been cleaning up their messes but how long until they create an even worse mess or turn against the city?"

"Why would they do that?"

Questions and comments started to fly around the room.

"I know plenty of people who've died or gotten hurt because of what these metahumans do. We need to protect our city by having them say who they are, so we'll know ahead of time what they'll do."

"For _every_ metahuman? How are we going to prove it?"

"I don't know, make them take a test."

"Like a vision test? That's so retarded."

Tess held up her hand. "I don't allow the use of that word in my class," she said. Then she continued to let them converse among themselves.

"What do you think will happen when they reveal themselves? The Flash and Flare will have to do it too and they'll keep getting attacked because everyone knows who they are."

"I've heard rumors that that school that was attacked? Carmichael? That there's some little kids in there who are metas. Little kids. _Little ones._ What are you going to do to them? Force them to be tortured because they have powers they don't understand."

"Really, this is all Harrison Wells's fault anyway."

A hushed silence moved around the room as the students that knew Tess was Harrison's wife, bored down on them. Those that didn't know looked around in confusion. Finally, something interesting had happened.

"Now that you have your grievances about metahumans out there, let me ask you another question." Tess cocked her hip, shifting her blue-green eyes from face to face. "Do you think prejudice is something that people get from nature or nurture? Prejudice doesn't necessarily mean you're a racist, I want to get that clear first. Because the definition of prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. So you could be prejudice against…" she thought for an example. "Dogs and cats if you wanted to be."

A low chuckle moved around the room.

"And we all have our thoughts and opinions about these metahumans. Do you think it's brought on by nature or nurture? Do you think it's encoded in our DNA or do you think our environment and experiences and people we surround ourselves by create us?"

No one could respond because the sound of doors opening in the classrooms around them and students spilling out into the hallways.

"Don't forget to read the chapter and that you have a paper due next week. It's only seven pages, not that bad for a freshman class," Tess called as her students started to pack up. "If there's anything you want to speak about that we didn't get to in class, then please feel free to send me an e-mail or drop by my office hours. Thank you."

She walked to the desk that sat in the room and gathered her things together, hovering in case there was a last minute question to be asked. Then, when the room was empty, Tess rested her hands against the desk and let out a long breath; leaning forward so far she practically rested her forehead against the wood.

At the sound of a knock on the doorframe, Tess looked over and found a bouquet of flowers with legs. Then the bouquet lowered and Harrison smiled at her.

"What?" Tess asked.

"Nothing, just that I think my father would've loved you," Harrison replied. "As much as I do."

Tess lifted an eyebrow, recognizing the line. "Your father is still alive, Harrison," She pointed out.

"I know, I was going for a moment, here." Harrison smiled and pushed his glasses up his nose with his fingertip then handed the flowers to his wife. She smiled and gave him a quick kiss. "I heard the last part of your class. Sounds like a lot of people are opinionated on what's going on with the metas."

"Can you blame them?" She asked. "They're all scared. And confused. But mostly scared, I think. I heard rumors around the staff that there may be a city wide curfew put in place soon. You know, to make sure there aren't any other innocent people out who may be caught in the crossfire."

"Yes, well. I believe once we figure out what's going on with Zoom it'll be easier to focus on the city's opinion of metahumans as a whole." Harrison crossed his arms. "Before then we have to keep our wits as we handle Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows. One they see the research you've gotten…" He shook his head. "Let's not talk about this now. We have to go to lunch, remember?"

Tess nodded. She then took a delicate sniff of her bouquet and smiled. "This is very sweet, Harrison. Thank you." She looped her arm through his, making sure she had her bag slung over her shoulder, and the two left the classroom, stopping by her office to drop off her things before going to a nearby restaurant.

Cadence and Brady were already sitting on the patio, blowing the paper from straws at each other. Brady turned and blew one into Harrison's face as he and Tess sat down. "Hi Grandpa Harrison," he greeted him.

Harrison's eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second. "I already told you, just Harrison is fine."

Cadence pretended to study his face. "You're right; you don't have any more wrinkles yet." Tess laughed and Harrison made a face that instantly reminded Cadence of Eobard Thawne. It was really jarring how he still had tendencies from the man, making it more and more discernible where Harrison started and ended.

She wanted to ask him about it but could never bring herself to do it, knowing she'd have to face the origin of her gaining her powers and she still didn't want to know. She shook her head, turning her attention to the waiter that walked up to take their orders. She waited until they were gone before lowering her voice to ask.

"Has there been any changes with this Zoom thing?" Tess asked.

"Other than me realizing I may need to change my will?" Cadence asked. She gave a hollow laugh at her own joke. Then, without looking, she held up her hand to block the paper that Brady was blowing her way. "No, nothing else. But we've been training more; to make sure we know what we're up against if and when Zoom comes back. Something happened this morning though."

And she explained what she and Barry had seen with the graffiti and how they cleaned it up as quickly as they could. Tess shook her head. "If the climate of my classroom says anything, there are some people who are really terrified of what metas can do and others are really for at least The Flash."

"That's the general consensus from the press conference," Harrison said. "The news though…they're bringing up some pretty good points but if Zoom continues to haunt the city it's not going to help anyone. The CCPD will have no choice but to step up their metahuman task force."

"Hopefully not with more force though," Tess said. "School are already starting to be affected."

Brady nodded. He rested his chin on the table, blowing a straw out then bringing it back to his lips to blow out again. "Yeah, they're talking about adding security to school."

"Like cameras and stuff," Cadence said.

Brady shook his head. "A security guard, too. Armed."

"Really?"

"Mhm. I saw him. The principal told us it's for our protection." Brady held his breath, as if he was afraid to say something. His eyes narrowed, and then his eyebrows lowered. "They keep saying that it's Harrison's fault."

"Really? I just thought I was the 'scary hermit man' to them," Harrison joked. Tess lightly hit him on the arm.

Then she sighed. They had already explained this the best they could. Harrison even used his Wells charm on those at the press conference to explain to everyone what it truly meant to be a scientist and the risks that were taken. If it was that everyone had turned into a meta it probably wouldn't be a problem. _But people died,_ she reminded herself. _In the initial explosion and through everything afterward. And people keep dying because of the metahumans. It's not hard to see how they've hurt the city but there's been help, too._

"Do you think STAR Labs will be shut down?" Brady asked.

"No, that will never happen," Harrison said.

"Never?" Cadence looked amused. "So when you die you'll jus continue to haunt it?"

"Cool!" Brady smiled.

Tess laughed and pushed Brady's hair back off his forehead then leaned back when the waiter came back with their food. They quickly dug in and ate in comfortable silence for a long while before Harrison cleared his throat. He sat up straight. "Speaking of STAR Labs, there is something we'd like to bring to your attention considering its future."

"What? Do you expect it to blow up? I may be a fire hazard but I'm not that bad." Cadence smiled.

"That was so lame, mom," Brady murmured.

"We don't know what could happen to STAR Labs, but we want to be prepared in case we're not around." Harrison rested his elbows on the table, and laced his fingers together. "Tess and I were talking and we were thinking that if we were to leave STAR Labs to anyone, that we'd leave it in Barry's name."

"Just because we feel that he'd have the vision and foresight into what we want STAR Labs to be," Tess quickly explained.

"Not Caitlin or Cisco?" Cadence asked. "Because I totally agree that it shouldn't be me. I'm not well versed in the sciences or sales, unless you count retail. So I wouldn't know how to keep things afloat. But Caitlin and Cisco have worked there almost since the beginning, you wouldn't want it leave it to one of them?"

"With Cisco I feel that it'd be more difficult with him to run only because I feel he hasn't reached his full potential yet," Harrison said diplomatically. "Caitlin has everything she'd need to run STAR Labs but…I see bigger and better things for her."

"You don't think we'll be Team Flash all the time?" Brady asked.

"It has to stop sometime, bud," Cadence reminded him. He nodded but still looked concerned at the idea. The she turned back to her parents. "I think if you want to leave it to Barry and you have good reasons for it, then that's fine. Though I'm sure some people out there will be surprised you're not leaving it in the family."

Tess started to smile. "Give it a few months and—"

"—you're not funny, Tess," Cadence interrupted. "Next thing I know you're going to try and invite him to Thanksgiving."

"Why not? Why not invite all of STAR Labs and their families?"

Cadence paused for a minute. "Why not invite mom and dad?" she asked quietly.

Tess paused. She hadn't seen Kent and Maya Nash in years. Not since right before her accident. She didn't even know if they knew she was still alive. How horrific it must've been to think they lost their friends then find out they were still alive. Back from the dead. Like zombies.

On a good day Tess did feel like a zombie. With her permanent limp that seemed to get worse at night, keeping her up longer than she'd hoped—which came in handy with her research—and then having to re-acquaint herself with those that new her before and thought her to be dead…it was exhausting and very isolating.

"If that's what you want," Tess said.

Cadence made a humming sound. She looked over at Harrison. "Do you talk to dad?"

"I call your father once a week," Harrison explained, surprising her. "After our weekly dinners we talk. Mostly about the games that are on, but we talk. I'd love to have them over."

"Okay then." Cadence whipped out her phone and immediately called her dad. "Hey, daddy."

Kent answered almost immediately. "Hel _lo,_ Cadey-Cat! How's it going, sweetie?"

"Things are fine over here, dad."

"We saw what's been going on out there over the news. I hope you all are holding up."

"We're doing our best." Cadence took a deep breath. "Um…how do you and mom feel about coming down to Central City to spend Thanksgiving with us? I know it's kind of last minute to ask since it's in a few weeks."

"That sounds…that sounds like it'll be a really good time. If you really want us there."

"We want you there. As long as mom promises not to embarrass me."

"I don't think I could ever get her to promise that, but I'll do my best, okay?"

"Okay. How are you dad?"

"I'm doing just fine. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay, bye." Cadence hung up the phone and it started to buzz in her hand a second later. She looked at the caller ID on screen. "Oh, it's Captain Singh." She quickly answered it again. "Nash," She said into the phone. Then her posture immediately stiffened. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes." She hung up her phone. "Sorry, there's something at work I need to take care of. Like, right now."

"Is everything alright?" Tess asked.

"Yeah, I just need to do some last minute paperwork for a case I was working on. Some lab results came in. Brady, come on."

"Do I have to?" Brady asked.

"Yeah, it's just going to take a few minutes then we can go home."

"Okay."

Cadence took Brady's hand and waved to Tess and Harrison before leaving the restaurant.

Tess leaned back in her seat, looking out over the campus. She brushed her blonde/brown hair back from her eyes and watched as students continued to stroll around. Walking as if nothing torrential was going on in their lives. How they could continued to move on while things around them were slowly falling apart. How they felt so safe in a city that was very subtly starting to fall to ruin.

"You okay, Tess?" Harrison asked gently.

"Yeah," she replied. "I will be."

* * *

Cadence and Brady ran into Patty nearly as soon as they came through the door of the CCPD—literally. Cadence had to jump backwards to keep from being hit in the face by the door flying open. Brady immediately moved in front of her, holding out his arms to protect her from the door.

Patty's eyes flashed with mirth as she apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm in such a rush."

"So do you live here are you always in a hurry to get out of here?" Cadence joked.

Patty laughed along with her. "No I'm just…excited to get to this next scoop." She looked at the notes she had on a pad of paper in her hand. "Simple robbery, but you never know what happens in this city, huh?" She then lowered her gaze to Brady and her friendly smile widened. "Hi, Brady!"

"Hi," Brady said, in the same flat tone he had when first meeting her. He barely glanced at her before whipping out his phone to look at the screen.

"How are you?"

"Fine." Brady turned away from her.

Patty's eyebrows came together and she looked up at Cadence blinking rapidly. "Huh, usually kids love me."

"Brady's…he can be really particular about who he lets around him," Cadence said gently. Brady made a snorting sound and Cadence cuffed him on the back of his head, making him pout and take a few steps away from her.

"I can understand that, can't be too careful, right," Patty said. Cadence smiled. "Hey, so I heard Captain Singh say that you had to finish up on one of your cases. Something that janitor right?"

"Janitor Brown!" Brady snapped. "His name was Janitor Brown!"

"Right. I heard that his autopsy didn't show anything about his death. Which is kind of cool," Patty said. She held out her hand. Cadence tilted her head. "Not that it's cool that he passed, but, you know, that the body can be kind of cool like that. Kind of like this man shark thing that I'm looking into. Is he a meta or did it just happen? People thought people with webbed toes and other abnormalities were impossible and look at them now." She frowned, glancing upwards. "I mean, I don't know any personally, but there must be some truth to it, right?"

Cadence laughed. She reached out and patted Patty on the arm. "I hate to tell you this, Patty, but sometimes you have a little bit of an obsession with what I do for my job. To the point that I worry about you at times."

"What can I say? Science fascinates me."

Brady lifted an eyebrow. "Like Barry, right?" He asked snidely. He sighed heavily and turned back to Cadence. "Can we go in now?" He moved behind Cadence and pressed his hands to her butt, trying to push her inside.

"I'm going, I'm going," Cadence said. "I'll see you later, Patty. We'll get some lunch or something."

"Just as long as it's not hiking again," Patty said. She swatted Cadence on the arm, said goodbye to Brady, then left the precinct.

Cadence immediately turned and grabbed onto Brady's arm, marching him towards her office. "I did not raise you to be rude," she hissed to him. "You can't be rude to people like that."

"I don't like her," Brady said.

"I know that. You don't have to like everybody, you said that." She walked him into her office and pushed him down into a chair across from her desk. "What is your problem with Patty?" She held up her hand. "And I mean something other than you don't like her."

Brady let out a long breath. "I think she's trying to take Barry from you and I don't want any more people to leave you."

Cadence smiled. "That's sweet," she said. "In a slightly destructive way. I won't bring her around you anymore if you really don't like her. But she's my co-worker and she's my friend, I can't ignore her. And as an adult and an authority figure you have to at least respect her, you can't be rude."

Brady shrugged and nodded.

"Do you want to count medical syringes again?" Brady's eyes widened in horror. "I didn't think so." She picked up the lab results and looked over them. "This will only take a second." Cadence leaned back in her seat and looked through the pages, silently reading to herself.

It took a few moments for her to get to the part that jumped out at her, all because of the numerous tests that had been run on the tissue samples she had sent off. She made a mental note to ask Barry to run over it with her later then focused on the test result. There was a specific DNA strand that looked very similar to her, to hers, Barry's, and Brady's. If they tested them now, she was sure Caitlin's and Cisco's would look similar too.

"Brade, come here," Cadence said.

She got up from her seat and went to the medical room attached to her office. The double doors on the far side of the room led to the street where funeral services would come to pick up bodies after they'd been identified and cleared to be removed. But she didn't need to see the body to determine what she found, it made sense to her now.

He was a metahuman.

The crime scene had been so weird, scorch marks on the nearby stalls of the toilets in the locker room he was cleaning. But nothing on anyone else or on him. She had opened his body and found nothing strange or out of place. Until now. Until the lab reports.

Signs of cells that had been burned, but not so much that could be seen at eye level.

From what she deduced, he was a meta that didn't know his abilities. Something fire powered maybe, having to do with energy or heat. Someone came into the bathroom or locker room at a time it was supposed to be empty and scared the janitor. Through that burst of fear, of heightened emotion and stress, he had burnt the areas around him, leaving the scorch marks. But what did that mean for the way he died?

His metahuman energy had burned him from the inside out, like a microwave. Microwaves were unable to be seen and as it didn't have a radiative source to be picked up. His fear had to have heightened when he saw what he could do before accidentally killing himself.

Cadence took out his file and marked _accident_ on the incident report and added 'meta' on the form. She sighed, looking at the words. _At least he isn't around to be persecuted by it,_ she thought.

Then she turned to the form that listed his emergency contact information and stared. She blinked. Once. Twice. Then blinked again.

 _No living relatives._

Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Harrison, Tess, Joe, Iris, Cadence, and Brady gathered around the small grave created in the corner of the Central City Cemetery. It was far enough away so that no one would come to disturb it, but close enough to still feel a part of it all the same.

None of them other than Brady had known Janitor Brown, but it was symbolic all the same. He was a metahuman and he was someone who lived and died alone. No living relatives, the report had said. He would've otherwise been cremated and his ashes spread anywhere that would've been the least inconveniencing.

But Brady asked for him to have an actual funeral. Because he was a metahuman and needed to know that, in some way, he wasn't alone. It had been just what they needed to solidify Team Flash's dedication to each other and to Central City. No matter what happened they couldn't allow anyone else to be prosecuted and potentially isolated for being a metahuman. Of course it wasn't the same scenario but it was a possible future for all of them.

They finished the funeral by releasing brown balloons into the air and they kept a long moment of silence. Then the group dispersed to go back to their own lives, working hard to keep pushing the equality for metahumans they deserved and keeping the city safe. Still, it was a hard blow to see that a man who had been living his life normally suddenly passed all due to fear.

The same fear that was trying to strike them all down.

Cadence looked over at Barry as he continued to stare at the memorial marker—which was nothing more than a slate slab with his name printed on it. His eyes shifted back and forth over the name. Caitlin, Cisco, and Iris stood nearby, watching him as well.

Barry took in a long breath. "We're his family now," he said. "Us as metas. We're family."

The others nodded.

Cadence walked up and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. Barry squeezed it back then lifted his hand, pulling hers up as well, and kissed the back of her hand in thanks. She started to pull him away from th grave but he stood firm, crushing her hand in a tight grasp.

"Don't," he muttered.

"What's wrong, Barry?" Brady asked him.

"I can't…" he swallowed hard. "I can't go that way."

Iris nodded in understanding. "His mother's grave is that way," She explained. "He hasn't been there since…"

"Never?" Cisco asked.

Iris shook her head. "Never."

"Oh, Barry," Caitlin said. She stepped up and rubbed him on the shoulder. "You know we're all here for you if you ever need to talk about it."

"Yeah, it's like you said, we're family, bro," Cisco agreed.

Barry nodded. "Yeah….we're family."

Cadence looked down at the grave then down the rows that stretched before them. How far down was his mother's grave? Was it treated well or graffitied liked the brick wall? Did it have nasty words written on it about her family or was it kept in pristine condition. It struck her just then that until that day she had never been to a funeral.

And there was one looming in front of her, coming closer than she had expected. But that day made her realize it could be anyone's; hers, Barry's, Oliver's, Caitlin's, Cisco's…all because of the looming war they were facing.

Her dad's.

All because life was so cruel.

Cadence hadn't realized she was crying until Barry wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his chest, gently rubbing her back as he murmured to her, "It's okay, I got you." He continued to rub her back, whispering to her until she calmed down.

Then he took her hand again and reached his other one out to Iris. Iris took his hand and held her other one out to Cisco. Cisco grabbed on then took Caitlin's hand. And Brady moved and took Cadence's free hand.

And they all stood around the memorial marker in silence, grieving those metas that had to suffer in silence as well as silently supporting each other.

Because they were a family.

And it was then that Cadence decided, she needed to tell them what happened when she was in the Assassination Bureau.

* * *

 **A/N:** I had planned something else with this chapter, but while working through things (and after last night's episode; sidenote, I had Cade's fire surfing ability written down before the episode and KF being able to do that with ice) I thought this was better. Just a way to really cement that this group are going to work together to make sure things don't fall too far down the rabbit hole even when Zoom is around.

I know it was really Cade heavy but there was a lot of things that needed to be addressed with her, specifically her relationships with all of her parents and how they stand this far in the story as I've managed to only show it in the background or off-hand comments. Plus it's never bad to have more of Henry, right?

So, what about that Savitar reveal? Was your theory right? Was your theory wrong?

Please remember to review. I'm very serious about my writing and my stories so if you have anything to comment on, mention, suggestions, or constructive criticism I would love to hear it. It motivates me to write more, I respond to every review even if its anonymous.

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** I know, I loved that line! Glad to see you caught it! :)

 **DarkHelm145:** He's from this version/Smallville's version of Metropolis because in this series (with things being changed around for obvious reasons) Smallville/Arrow/Flash are in the same universe.

 **Ethan:** The fate of the metahumans hasn't actually been decided yet. It'll take some time to get there. Chief Paulson just wants his city to be safe. Yes, you've said that Shadowhunter is a good name for him a few times. And I believe it was time for him to go out and experience a fight on his own. I feel too much longer to wait would've been too long.

 **yummers:** Lol, he did a good job.

 **Spinquin142:** Yeah, I've been unintentionally ignoring Cisco but I'm working on bringing him in more. Especially with the next chapter.

 **Guest:** thanks!

 **Babyj:** I always feel that if I try to extend a fight scene I just get repetitive or it doesn't show in my writing the way it plays out in my head. So sometimes it lacks but other times I think I hit it. I just need more practice. Thanks for the input!

 **PowerHero432:** So what'd you think of that punishment?

 **For those wondering my **stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday. Follow us on twitter at DarkElements10 for updates on statuses of stories and chapters.  
****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	24. Could Be Worse

**.:24:.**

 _Could Be Worse_

* * *

 _Barry pushed himself to his feet. "What do you want from me?"_

 _"Everything," Zoom growled._

 _"So that's what you want?" Cadence asked. "To be him? To be a hero?"_

 _Zoom stood up straight and slowly rotated his head towards her. He slowly lifted a hand and pointed to her. "I'm not your enemy," he drawled. "I am only the enemy of each and every Flash that exists. Your enemy…is much worse than I could be all because they know you…the real you. And you acting like you don't know it yourself is making your own plight worse."_

 _"What do you mean?" Barry demanded._

 _Zoom looked at him. "Heroes die," is all he said before charging towards Barry._

 _He moved faster than Barry thought possible, catching him before he could think of getting out of the way. The next thing he knew he was being dragged around the Cortex at such blinding speed that he slowly became nauseous. As he raced around, he shook Barry like a rag doll, with more fury than ever seen before. "Harrison Wells, you thought you could defeat me with this?" He asked Harry, lifting Barry's hood off his face. Harrison, Tess, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, and Harry watched, frozen in horror as Cadence appeared beside them, gasping for air._

 _"I...I made a mistake," Harry whispered._

 _"You made a costly mistake," Zoom agreed. He lifted Barry up high and brought a vibrating hand towards his front, sticking him in the stomach. Barry's eyes widened to its limit, the whites of his eyes standing out among the otherwise darkened room._

 _"Barry!" Caitlin and Cisco cried._

 _"Goodbye Flash." Zoom started to push his vibrating hand further into Barry's stomach. Sending a shock of blinding pain through his body as his hand moved inch by inch, torturing every nerve. Everything went white, then black as he passed out. "You too, weren't fast enough."_

Hardly muffling a strangled cry, Barry shot up out of bed. Eyes wide, he brought a hand up to his chest, realizing then how much he had been sweating. His bed sheets clung to his body, tangling amongst his legs. That must've been what made him feel like he had lost feeling in them in the dream all over again. Just to be sure, Barry reached out and rubbed at his shins, gently pricking himself with his fingernails. He winced with each prick, though was glad when he felt the pain.

"It's just a dream," he whispered. "All just a dream."

Barry flopped back against his pillows, letting out a long breath. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment, staring at the shadows that rested there. They started to twist and turn as the seconds passed. Sliding over each other and morphing before resembling the shape of Zoom. Closing his eyes tightly, Barry took in another deep breath.

"He's not there," he whispered. "You'd know it, that blast of blue lightning would blind you before it reached you." He brought a hand up to his neck, trying to brush away the feeling of his cowl being yanked backwards from Zoom's tough grasp.

His words echoed in his head.

 _Heroes die._

The growl that reached his ears sent a chill down his spine. Barry's heart rate increased, even more so than his powers already made it. A queasy feeling came to his stomach and he brought a hand up to his forehead to check if he had a fever. Nothing.

There was a sudden peel of sound that made Barry jump. He flung his arm over and smashed his palm into the source of the sound, banging his hand against the top of his alarm clock as he did so. A curse escaped his lips and he rolled onto his back, rubbing his palms over his face.

He was late for work.

* * *

Caitlin waited for the doors of the elevator to open in the Cortex. When it finally did, she took in a deep breath to steady her nerves before picking up the numerous bags of Big Belly Burger and walked into the Cortex. Harry, who was sitting at a nearby computer desk with a screwdriver in hand and some sort of a contraption in his hands, looked over at her with raised eyebrows but an otherwise disinterested expression on his face.

"I know metahumans have some pretty different physiologies as normal humans, but I don't remember you having so much of an appetite to constitute so much Big Belly Burger," he remarked.

Caitlin managed a scowl then opened her mouth, forgetting she had a bag between her teeth that dropped to the floor. She let out a heavy sigh and used her feet to push it away from her, closer to her desk. "For your information, this is all for the meats we have down in the Pipeline."

"Big Belly Burger?" Harry questioned.

"They have a breakfast menu, and as it is, if we spent too much time trying to get everything they wanted, it would be too expensive. Big Belly Burger is closer and it's the cheapest." She dropped the other bags on her desk then walked over to the medical bay to grab a cart to load it all on. "It's my turn to feed them." She looked around. "Where's Cisco?"

"I don't care, considering he's finally stopped following me around everywhere, tying to touch me," Harry said. His tone of voice betrayed his annoyance, no matter how stoic the expression on his face. "I've got a lot of work to do."

"What kind of work?" Caitlin asked.

"Work."

Caitlin let out a breath. She placed her hands on her hips and walked over to Harry, twisting her mouth to the side. "Look, I know it's' difficult for all of us to have you here."

"Really?" Harry snorted. "I hadn't noticed other than, you know, Jay's presence here. I'm telling you he's not a nice person to have around, the guy can barely string together a few sentences to make Barry a better hero than deciding to be one himself."

"Look, we know you want to go home—"

"—I made a mistake coming here. My plan was to get the Flash's help, and use that help to stop Zoom." Harry turned to look at her, his blue eyes boring into hers with a formerly unseen pain and fury he otherwise was able to hide. "That plan failed. I don't have another plan expect to go back home and face Zoom myself."

"He'll kill you," Caitlin said.

Harry chuckled. He leaned back in his seat and ran a hand through his hair, doing all but rolling his eyes. "He'll kill anyone that gets in his way; it doesn't matter if he kills me."

Caitlin felt her temper start to flare. This wasn't what she expected from him, a fellow scientist. "The best way to help everyone is to stay here and work with us as a team."

Harry look at her for a long moment. He looked her up and down then looked her in the eye. The two stared in silence at each other for a long moment. Finally, Harry shook his head. "No. Now leave me alone while I figure out which one of these breaches will take me home."

A blue glow started to emanate around Caitlin's fingertips as she clenched her hands into fists. "You're a _scientist_ and said you're the one who has been saying that you're responsible for Zoom being created on your Earth. If that's the case, then you're the one who's responsible for Zoom having had hurt Barry the way he did. And if he kills Barry, that's all on your, too." Harry continued to study the contraption he was creating in his hands. "The _real_ Dr. Wells would never—"

"That's what you've got to wrap your mind around," Harry interrupted. He stood up and towered over Caitlin, making her take a step back. " _I'm_ not the Dr. Wells you knew. The Harrison _here_ isn't the Dr. Wells you knew. The Dr. Wells you knew was a murder and a man who was willing to take on everyone who got in his way and sacrifice them to get what he needs done. Going so far as to watch Barry turn into The Flash all the while knowing he was the one who made it so that Barry's life was put into turmoil. Let alone anything else he did to yours and Cisco's and…" Harry swallowed hard. "Cadence's lives that you may not realize. And yet you continue to sit back and worship him like he's some sort of God while the Harrison he took over seems unable to walk into STAR Labs without a visible wall of guilt sliding over him.

"And yet you stand here and call me a coward while I plan on going back to _my_ Earth and try to figure out a way to stop Zoom with my technology and power. If anything, _Dr._ Snow, I would ask what it is that _you're_ willing to do when you're the one who's afraid of your own fire power to help."

Caitlin chewed her lower lip, taking in everything Harry had been saying. Was it all true? That she and Cisco and the others had become so blinded over what they thought was the real Harrison Wells that they were pushing away the one who had his life destroyed by it as well? And her powers…what was there that she could do to help Barry when she didn't know how to have her own powers start and end? She hadn't even had any training to figure out how to use it yet.

Maybe they weren't as good as they tried to be.

Harry seemed to notice something in Caitlin's expression for he took a step back, dropping his hand—which had been pointed into her face—down to his side. "If you need help with feeding those you have locked down there, then I'll help you," he said.

"No, I don't want to take you away from the work to get you home," Caitlin said. Even she was aware of how much ice she held in her tone. She turned and started to load up the cart with food.

Harrison leaned over and grabbed the bag by Caitlin's food and another one that sat on the counter. "My home's not going anywhere and right now I'm not making any progress. Like I said, Cisco's been following me around all day trying to touch me." He looked at Caitlin out of the corner of his eye as he turned away. "And, yes, it's as weird as you'd imagine."

 _Not so weird when you realize what his powers are,_ Caitlin thought. Cisco was obviously trying to vibe him. Maybe trying to figure out if there was anything Harry wasn't telling them about Zoom. But what else was there to tell? They'd seen how Zoom raced around, taking down Barry and Cadence faster than they could blink, even faster than Barry could move. What else did they need to know other than what it is that he wanted with Barry when it was his speed that he wanted to take?

"Fine."

Caitlin could tell he wasn't doing a good job of trying to apologize. He probably hadn't ever had to do so before. She grabbed the handle of the cart, noticing how her hand stuck to the metal, and walked it to the elevator. Harry followed her and the two went down to the Pipeline where each of the pods had been set up with the metas they had caught over the years.

Harry followed along behind them as she carefully opened the chute that would allow her to send the food down to the metas. Caitlin barely reacted when they glared at her or tried to use their powers against here. There wasn't anything they could do to get out; they made sure the power dampener was reinforced every now and then. Still, Caitlin couldn't help but feel like she should be in one of the pods. What would keep her from accidentally hurting someone while she tried to figure out her powers?

"For what it's worth, you're very much not supposed to be in here," Harry said, watching her closely.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you say that?" Caitlin wasn't going to make things easy for him. Not when he had snapped at her earlier.

"These guys, are you've said before, are big time criminals, creating as much havoc on my Earth as yours," Harry said. "You all working here…you're not doing anything that would make it so that you'd be locked into one of those pods. Not unless you consider yourself to be an immediate danger to everyone around you."

"I think anyone figuring out their powers would be an immediately danger to anyone around them," Caitlin said.

Harry's next words stopped her cold. "So what's your stance on the metahuman rights issue?"

Caitlin whipped around to face him, her eyes narrowing. "I'm on the side of them having their rights," she pointed out. "They're human beings down to the biology of it. Everyone deserves to have their own rights."

"But you just said that anyone figuring out their powers would be an immediate danger to anyone around them," Harry reminded her.

Caitlin opened and closed her mouth, trying her best to figure out how to respond to that. She _had_ just said. But that wasn't what she meant. If there was anyone who was doing their best to make sure they didn't bring harm to anyone around them they were okay. It was the ones who had no regard to other people's well-being and wanted to exhibit their power then…

"I'm just saying this issue isn't as completely black and white as everyone is making it out to be and you have to take into consideration that both sides might be making a point." Harry shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks and nodded over to four pods they had passed. "What about those?"

Caitlin took a deep breath and followed Harry's gaze. "Those are the pods that hold the Breathtaker, Mindboggler, Stratos, and Incognito," She explained. Then she looked at Harry once more. "They're the Assassination Bureau."

"Ah."

The simple way Harry said that made Caitlin pause. "You've heard of them," she remarked.

"If they're as bad as they are on my Earth…" he trailed off.

"Got it," Caitlin said. She ran her hand over her hair. "We don't interact with them as much as we have to. So their feeding times are different." She pushed the now empty cart back out of the pod and closed the door behind her with her palm scan. "So they're on your Earth, huh?"

"Nearly as nasty as Zoom, but they don't bother anyone unless they're the next victim."

"So they kill for pay on that Earth, too?"

"Amongst other things."

"But—"

"Cait, there you are!" Cisco came hurrying around the corner. "I've been looking all over for you." He came to a slowed stop when he saw Harry standing behind her. "Hey Harry," he said in a almost robotic tone. "Whatcha doing?"

"A favor," Harry replied. He narrowed his eyes at Cisco. "But it looked like you have something you'd like to speak with her about."

"Yeah…sort of," Cisco drawled.

"Anything as long as you're not constantly trying to bug me," Harry said. He held up his hand. "Do me a favor and the next time you see I'm busy, don't bother me." He turned on his heel and walked away from the two, not after giving Caitlin a parting nod.

Caitlin nodded back and tucked her hair behind her ear before turning to Cisco; She let out a long breath and asked, "So, what's up?"

Cisco eyed her. "I was about to ask you the same thing," he said slowly.

"Cisco."

"Right. Yeah." Cisco clasped his hands together in a pleading position. "Kendra and I finally managed to re-schedule our earlier date for tonight. Dinner and a movie. I was wondering if you wanted to come along with us. So it could be a double date, take the pressure off?"

Caitlin smiled teasingly. "Aww, you're a little worried to go by yourself. Afraid that she'll see the real you?"

"Yeah, the real me that's so much of a nerd that he wears novelty t-shirts to work every day," Cisco said. He made a sigh, gazing down at the _Big Bang Theory_ shirt he was wearing.

Caitlin shook her head. "The real you that any girl would be lucky to go out with," she said.

"Even you?" Cisco asked. Then his eyes shifted back and forth. "As a double date, I mean. I totally meant that."

A laugh escaped Caitlin's lips. "Yeah, Cisco, even me. But I don't know, I wouldn't have anyone to go with. Why don't you ask Barry and Cadence to go with you guys? I'm sure it'd be fun and that way you already have two people on your side to help you out in case things with Kendra get to be a little too nerve-wracking." She reached out and shoved him on the shoulder. "We don't want you blasting her across the room on accident."

"Sheesh, you think having some new powers would be cool, you don't think how it'd affect every other part of your life," Cisco said with a roll of his eyes. His shoulders slumped and he looked pensive. "Yeah, tha's probably good idea."

"And besides," Caitlin smiled. "If you're ever attacked, you have The Flash and Flare right there to save you."

Cisco grinned back.

* * *

"So what's been going on with you?"

Barry continued to spin his fork around his plate, gently stabbing at the pieces of lettuce of his salad. It was only the first course and for once in his life he didn't really feel very hungry. If anything, he felt sick. Flashes of Zoom continued to appear in his head when his mind started to wander, almost as if he was being haunted. Every time he noticed something out of his peripheral vision he would whip his head around, heart race increasing immediately, steeling up his muscles in preparation to fight off whomever was coming after him.

But every time there was nothing there.

He was starting to wonder if it was his powers or if he was really going crazy. His mind already moved at warp speed due to his quick trains of thought, who knew if that meant his eyes could move fast enough to make him hallucinate, too.

"Hello? Earth to Barry Allen!" Iris threw a balled up napkin at him. Barry jerked in surprise and blinked rapidly, looking at his friend. Iris crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat. "Where've you been? Your mind is a million miles away."

"I'm right here," Barry said. He smiled back at her. "Just…not hungry, I guess."

"And that's what's weird," Iris insisted. "You're _always_ hungry. Even when you didn't have your powers you were eating everything out of the house. Do you know how many times dad stayed up doing bills and constantly muttering to himself wondering why you had to eat so much when you weren't that great at football."

"Again, you and Joe _both_ said that you'd never bring that up again," Barry said.

Iris chuckled. "Sorry. But seriously, Bare. What's going on? Is it Zoom?"

"Only that we don't know where he is," Barry replied. That was still the truth, no matter how much of it he was keeping quiet. So he wasn't sleeping very well every now and then. It wasn't a big deal, really. He didn't sleep very when since his mother died anyway, no sense in bringing too much attention to anyone else. "That's what I hate the most about this. We know what he wants, but we don't know where he is. Harry and Jay would probably be able to help out more, help us figure out how to trap him, if they weren't constantly at each other's throats."

"Well, they do blame each other for Zoom's existence all together," Iris pointed out. She crossed her legs at the knee. "Like a couple of babies, I might add."

Barry chuckled. "Yeah, but there's a plenty of blame to go around in terms of Zoom running through Central City like this." _Like me being the big one,_ he thought. Instead, he cleared his throat and sat up straight. "But that's getting boring. What's going on with you? How're things at the CCPN."

"They're okay," Iris said. "I have enough Flash stories to last a lifetime so I'm not going to be out of a job anytime soon." Barry grinned and Iris stuck her tongue out at her. "Other than that, not much. There are a couple of leads I'm going through of some stuff."

"Anything I can help with?"

'Not that the moment, but if I get caught in a jam, you're be the first to know." Iris took a breath, her eyebrows coming together. "There's something else that's a little weird, though. Linda's going out with this guy that she met a couple of weeks ago—"

"Oh." Barry looked away for a moment. "How _is_ Linda?"

"Not being coerced into dates from guys eating super hot peppers," Iris teased. Barry rolled his eyes. Okay, so that wasn't his best move. But they _did_ go out a couple of times after that before ultimately breaking up. It's not anything he was too embarrassed by but Iris definitely made sure he didn't forget it from time to time. "No, this guy's cool. His name's Wally. West, if you'd believe that."

Barry's eyebrows rose.

"Yeah, it's funny right. He's actually pretty cool. He's into cars and is studying engineering at CCU. They've been going out for a bit now and I've hung out with him whenever he's come into work to pick her up."

"So what's wrong with him?" Iris looked at Barry curiously and he shook his head, saying. "I've known you for a long time, Iris. And you're so much of a daddy's girl that you listen to a lot of what he says. Don't get me wrong, Joe's right when he says you deserve the best. But that also meant that you managed to…scare away a lot of guys who had been interested in you. And you always try to find something wrong with every guy you meet."

"Well…" Iris twisted her hair around her finger. "Not _all_ of them."

"So what's wrong with Wally?" Barry asked.

"Nothing! That's it. There's nothing wrong with him. But…it'd weird. Whenever we're around each other we get along really well. Like, _really_ well. It's almost like I'm talking to you, Barry." Barry gave her a look. "Yeah, I know, what's wrong with that. It's just a feeling I have."

"What sort of feeling?"

"That…I don't know…that he seems really familiar to me. That we've known each other a long time."

"Like you're soulmates or something?"

Barry and Iris chuckled, both knowing he was referring to their statement of being each other's soulmate when they were younger. It wasn't very long after he moved in with Joe and Iris and Barry had first said that Iris was his best friend and she said he was his as well. All complete with a disastrous attempt at the whole 'blood brothers' thing. The moment the two pricked their fingers and started to apply pressure to make the blood come out, Barry realized they had made a mistake. There was too much blood; they had poked themselves too many times. It started to get everywhere. Iris freaked out, seeing how much blood was getting everywhere and went screaming off to Joe to figure out what to do while Barry fainted at the sight of all of the blood.

Joe had laughed for a long time, then grounded them for weeks after staining the carpet, which had to be steamed and replaced, then continued to laugh.

"You know you're my only soulmate, Bare," Iris reminded him. "I just mean, that it's like we've met each other before or something. I don't know," she waved her hand. "Now I'm starting to feel like I'm crazy or something."

"It took you that long to figure it out?"

Barry laughed when Iris reached across the table to smack him on the arm.

He reached into his pocket when his cell phone started to vibrate. Barry leaned over and pulled it from his pocket; he quickly read the text and started to pull out his wallet. "Oh, that's work, I have to get going. I'm sorry."

"No, don't worry about it," Iris said. "I'm glad I got at least a salad course out of you before you had to leave." As if to prove her point, Barry looked over before superspeeding the rest of his plate into his mouth, taking a few bites before swallowing it all. "No matter how gross it can be sometimes."

"I owe you for the next one," Barry said. "I'll see you later."

"Bye!"

Barry left the restaurant and started to superspeed trough the city, heading back towards the precinct. He passed by a construction site, knocking down a set of roofing supplies as he ran by. "Thanks a lot," Ryder called after him. Barry turned back and re-constructed the pile before running off again. "Show off," Ryder added jokingly.

Barry smiled to himself as he went. He glanced at his watch as he went. He was going fast enough that he still had some time before absolutely needing to be back at the CCPD. He continued running around, then stopped when something blinding shot by him. Barry watched as Zoom ran by, looking back at him as he went. Barry gritted his teeth and immediately took off after him.

Their lightning streaks shot back and forth across the city as Barry chased after him. He pumped his arms and legs as hard as he could. And yet, Zoom still sped off ahead of him, disappearing from sight as quick as a flash. Desperately, Barry kept running and running. He had to catch Zoom. Had to beat him down, had to get him down into the Pipeline to figure out what it was he wanted and what he was doing, what he was planning.

He ran and ran.

He could feel his body growing tired, but couldn't stop. Not until he at least caught up with him.

Something started to drip down Barry's face. He reached up and brought his fingertips to his nose, pulling them away. His eyes widened when he saw the blood that stained his fingertips. _"Aah!"_ Barry tripped over his feet and started to fall, head over heels until he came to a stop in an alleyway.

Groaning, Barry pulled himself up into a sitting position and ran his hand under his nose, staring at the Scarlett streak that smeared across the back of his hand. He had never bled when running before. Barry sat on the ground and brought his hands up to his head as his vision swam and started to tilt.

If this was his body telling him that he needed to slow down, it was the worst time for it to happen.

* * *

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Conner frantically pressed and swiped his thumb across the screen of his phone. He groaned, tilting his head back when the game ended, putting a large block on the front of the screen. "Ugh! Not again!"

"Ha, ha, you got stuck again." Brady reached over and grabbed his phone, starting up the new game of Sir Match a Lot. He hummed to himself as he moved his thumbs over the screen of the game with Conner hovering over his shoulder to watch. "The game's not that hard." He frowned as he made a wrong move then had to start over.

"You were saying?" Conner teased.

"Shut up," Brady replied. He handed the phone back and huffed, picking up his lunch tray and started to eat his slice of pizza. He looked up as Leah hurried over, racing around tables as she did so. "Hey, Leah."

At the mention of their friend's name, Conner practically threw his phone into his backpack and faced her with a smile. "Hey Leah, what's up?" Brady gave him a funny look but Conner ignored him as Leah sat down with them.

"I got it! I got it!" She squealed.

Brady blinked at her for a second. "Chicken pox?" He guessed. "Ow!" Leah kicked him in the shin as she frowned.

Conner laughed. "I thought you were supposed to be able to phase things."

"I can when I see them coming," Brady said. He scowled, rubbing his shin. "So what'd you get?"

"Yeah, what'd you get?" Conner repeated.

Leah clasped her hands together. "I got the part of Wendy in our play!"

"That's awesome, Leah!" Conner reached out, hesitated for a moment, then patted her on the shoulder. "That's the part you really wanted, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"I still think you could've been Peter Pan," Brady said. He grinned. "I mean, your levitating powers would make it easier so that you could fly across the stage." He lifted his arms and mimed flying, along with making a bird's caw. He and Conner laughed and high-fived.

Leah laughed sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Ha ha. Very funny."

"It is," Conner teased.

"About as funny as a toenail sandwich."

"I don't know, that sounds good."

"Ugh, you're so gross." Brady continued to laugh with Conner as the three dug into their lunch. "So what did you get on the science test."

"B," Conner said.

Brady let out a heavy sigh. "I got a D," he said. He blew his hair form his face, it already starting to grow out from its Mohawk style, so the front spike repeatedly fell into his eyes. "And my mom's going to kill me."

"With a red pen you can change it to a B," Conner said helpfully.

"Not when our teacher marked what we got right and wrong," Leah reminded him. "And considering Ms. Nash works with the police, I don't think she won't notice." Conner stuck his tongue out at her and Leah stuck hers out in reply. She turned back to Brady, her eyebrows lowering. "You're usually pretty good in school."

"I hate science, it's boring," Brady muttered.

"But you hang out at STAR Labs nearly every day," Conner pointed out.

" _That's_ fun."

Leah started to say something else but suddenly stopped. Her head shifted upwards and she stared straight ahead of her. "Leah?" Conner leaned over and waved his hand in front of her face. She didn't blink. "Leah?" When she didn't move, Conner grinned and stuck his finger in his mouth to wet it and moved it towards her ear.

Leah suddenly turned and punched Conner hard in the arm, knocking him over and onto the ground. Around them, students turned their way, eyebrows coming together in surprise. Conner let out a cry of annoyance as he rubbed his arm, looking up at his friend. Brady twisted his head around and noticed their teacher, who was also the lunchroom monitor for that day, striding over to them.

Brady turned back to Leah and frowned, noticing the intense expression she was giving him.

"Le—"

Brady let out a cry of surprise as Leah stood up and took a step back away from the table. It lifted up between them and shot towards Brady. He fell to the ground and was pushed backwards at the same lifting his feet to press against the table, bringing up his arm to shield his face as he slid across the floor of the cafeteria. Then he came to a stop against the wall behind him and pressed his hands against the table, keeping it from hitting him in the face before it fell to the ground.

The cafeteria immediately erupted into chaos with screaming kids running away, flopping their chairs over as they went.

"Brady!" Brady looked up as Conner appeared at his side and grabbed onto his arm, hauling him to his feet. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. What's going on?" Brady and Conner hurried from around the table and watched as Leah continued to stand in place. When she noticed the two boys hadn't been hurt, she lifted her arms. Chairs levitated off the floor and shot towards them. Brady tightened his grasp on Conner's arm and phased the two. The chairs rocketed through them and crashed into the wall so hard that they got stuck by their chair legs.

"Why is she using her powers like this?" Conner asked.

"I don't know. But we need to get out of here." Brady nudged Conner and they started to run from the cafeteria. Leah turned her head, following them before taking long, determined steps to follow along behind them. Students immediately raced into nearby classrooms, the teachers throwing the doors shut as the lockdown siren blared over the alarm system. They hurried to the emergency exits, stopping when a metallic chair flew in through the glass window on the door and wrapped around the handles. "You know, if she didn't learn how to do that."

" _How_ did she learn how to do that?" Conner asked. "She has gravity powers not…freaky metal ones."

Brady shook his head. He turned back as Leah lifted her hands again. Conner was lifted off his feet and flung across the hallway, crashing into a row of lockers behind him. Then Brady found himself lifted up and flung to the other side of the hallway towards a locker bay. Closing his eyes, he phased through the door and crashed into the back of the locker.

Stunned, Brady shook out his head. He quickly pulled out his cell phone and created a SOS text message to his mom and Barry before phasing back out of the locker. He landed on the ground in a crouch and with a quick sweep of his legs, knocked Leah over. She fell forward, arms outstretched the empty expression still on her face. Then she turned her head and reached out her hand, grabbing Brady by the throat.

He gasped at the sudden strength that crushed around her windpipe and brought his hands up to grab hers. But Leah continued to lean over him, squeezing as tightly as she could. Conner picked himself up from the ground and grabbed the handle of a locker door beside her. He flung it open and it smacked Leah directly in the face, knocking her backwards off Brady.

Brady rolled back to his feet. "Nice job," he said.

"I just hope she's okay," Conner said with a frown.

"Considering she's getting back to her feet, I think she's fine," Brady said. He brought his hands up into fists and Conner looked over at him before mimicking his friend's stance.

"But if she has gravity powers, what are we going to do?"

"Use it to our advantage." As soon as the words escaped Brady's lips the two were lifted off their feet and held above the ground before painfully slammed back down. Brady then cried out as he felt his body continued to increase in pressure, forcing him harder and harder to the floor Leah holding her hands up, palms down, lips pulled back into a snarl of effort.

Brady phased through the ground, bringing Conner with him. He grunted as he tried to lift the two back up through the ground, Leah's powers definitely made it that much harder for him to work through the ground but he could still do it. Finally, they broke through the ground and appeared behind her. Leah whipped around and tried to punch them. Her fist swung through them and she turned and punched a dent into the locker beside them.

Leah tilted her head to the side in confusion then turned back to punch again. Her fist swung through him once more. She started to swing repeatedly with her fists and Brady ducked out of the way or allowed her to phase through him, making the conscious effort to keep his feet from sinking into the ground, making the fight that much harder.

"Check the lockers!" Brady called. "There might be something inside we can use." He then grabbed onto Leah's shoulders. "Snap out of it!"

Leah then reached up and grabbed onto his shoulders, the two spinning around as they tried to throw each other down.

Conner nodded and started to rifle through the lockers. He searched through backpacks and the hooks inside. Finding an umbrella, he turned towards Leah and brandished it towards her. Leah threw Brady into a set of lockers then turned and grabbed the umbrella, snapping it over her knee.

"Okay, that's not going to work," Conner muttered. He searched through a few more lockers then found a soccer ball. "Yes!" Grabbing it, Conner placed it on a the ground and gave it a strong kick.

 _Thwack!_

Leah's head bobbed backwards as the soccer ball connected with her face. Turning, she reached out a hand and the ball levitated over the ground then shot back towards Conner. He chested the ball and dropped it to his feet, giving himself room to kick it again. It collided with the side of Leah's head this time, rolling to Brady's feet.

Brady smiled and rolled the ball up onto the top of his foot. He flicked it in the air, arching over Leah's head. She turned to follow it and Brady hurried towards her. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he leap-frogged over her head then landed with bending his knees to absorb the blow. Then he followed the arc of the ball and timed it correctly to do a bicycle kick, sending it back into Leah's face.

Conner reached out his hand and pulled Brady to his feet. "Nice one."

"Thanks."

The ground rumbled beneath their feet and the two boys looked over in horror as a locker ripped off the wall and shot towards them faster than they could anticipate. Brady knew it was going to hit them before he could even think about phasing and closed his eyes, turning his head away.

 _Bamf!_

Flare teleported in front of them and used her heat vision to break the locker in half. Then there was a sudden bolt of lightning and The Flash raced by, grabbing the pieces of locker out of the air and threw them towards the other side of the hallway. Barry came to a stop next to Cadence and the two turned to ask, "Are you okay?" at the same time.

"Yeah, we're fine," Conner replied.

"Good, now we—" Barry was lifted off his feet and slammed into the ceiling before being slammed into the floor. Cadence was swept off her feet and crashed into one side of lockers before the other, landing on the ground along with Barry. Barry lifted to his feet and started to run towards her.

"Don't!" Cadence called, causing him to stop. "Don't hurt her."

Barry arched away from Leah, standing on the other side of the hallway. "What are we supposed to do then?" He asked.

"Subdue her, somehow," Cadence said. She shook her head. The ground started to rumble again as more lockers ripped off the wall and headed towards the heroes with Barry and Cadence making quick work of them as well. Leah scowled.

She started to open lockers and fling out the contents that were inside towards them. "I didn't know she could do this with her powers."

"She can't," Conner said.

Barry thought for a minute. "We've got to get her to STAR Labs. Her powers may be manifesting to new ones." With that, he whipped his arms around, creating a giant blow back that knocked into Leah, knocking her into a row of lockers.

She fell to the ground, her eyes closed.

Cadence hurried over to her. "Leah," she called. "Leah! Wake up!"

Leah's eyes snapped open and she punched Cadence hard in the face, knocking her over. Cadence gritted her teeth and stood next to Barry. She sent a wave of smoke into Barry's wind vortex, causing a gray haze to slip over the hallway, making it harder to see. Leah lowered her hands, turning her head this way and that, trying to find them.

"Good call," Barry said to her. "I'll get the others out of here." Turning on his heel, Barry started to run through the school, taking the faculty, staff, and students out onto the school grounds in seconds.

Brady took a step towards her. "Leah!" He called. "Snap out of it!"

Leah whipped her head towards them, her eyes narrowing into slits. She held up her hand towards them, knocking them down to the ground again. She pulled closed fist towards her chest and they slid along the ground towards her. Once they were by her side she dropped her arm to her side and shook her head.

"Brady? Conner?" Her voice shook with fear as she looked around. "What's going on?"

"You won't believe us if we told you," Conner said, pushing himself to his feet.

Once again the ground rumbled and there was a groaning metal sound. The row of lockers above them started to shake and creak, vibrating faster and faster as the seconds passed. Then with a metallic groaning they shifted and started to fall towards the three kids. They screamed in terror, holding up their hands to shield themselves.

Cadence teleported above them and grabbed the row of lockers, kneeling down to keep it from falling on top of them. She gritted her teeth in effort, arms shaking to hold off the metal. "Hurry," she said to the three. "Hurry and get out."

Brady nodded at his mother and scrambled backwards from the lockers, pulling Conner and Leah back as he did so. Once they were free there was a flash of lightning and they were swept from the hallway. Cadence pushed the lockers back up onto the wall when Barry came to a stop in front of her again.

"Is that everyone?" She asked.

"That's all of them," Barry confirmed. He placed his hands on his hips. "What do you think this one was?"

Cadence crossed her arms. "A kid who just discovered their powers is the most likely answer."

"But there was no one else around," Barry pointed out. "And it looked like she was in a complete trance." He looked over his shoulder. "We should probably get her to STAR Labs to see what's going on." Cadence gave him a look. "I know, her parents don't know she's a meta and don't want her around any of them but she'll be even more of a danger to them if we don't figure out what's going on."

Cadence nodded. "Looks like they're getting out early today, anyway."

* * *

Cadence turned off the lights to the surgical area off the side of her office and closed the door behind her. She took the papers that were in her hand and placed them in the filing cabinet in the corner of her office. Then she let out a sigh and walked back to her desk, looking at everything that had been left when she got the SOS call to head to Carmichael Elementary earlier that day. Thankfully, with all of the police force that had been sent to the school to help with the 'metahuman incident' as they were calling it, no one noticed she and Barry had left earlier.

Now the only thing she had to do was make sure she avoided the news reports to see what bad things they were saying about metahumans and the Metahuman Registration Act this time. _Probably blaming us for global warming at this point,_ she thought.

She turned back to what she had been reading before being called out, re-reading the pages a few times, before being interrupted again. There was a rush of wind and Cadence quickly slammed it shut and pushed it into her desk before lifting her chin to look at Barry.

He stood up from his crouched position and tugged down the bottom of his cardigan. "Hey, are you ready to go? We're going to be late to meet Cisco and Kendra at the mall," he said. The he noticed Cadence's movement and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Cadence laced her fingers together and rested her hands on her stomach. Barry looked at her curiously. "Nothing!"

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm."

Barry smiled and motioned towards her. "You know I can just super speed and—"

Cadence held up a finger, cutting him off. "—you can try but it won't end well for you, Tholly. You may be able to move fast but I'll know and set your pants on fire."

Barry laughed. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I was just finishing up some work." Cadence pushed back from her desk and pulled off her blazer, resting it on the back of her chair. "Thankfully I didn't have to do any autopsies today or else this outfit would be a waste," she commented on her red strapless cold shoulder blouse, black skinny jeans, and matching boots.

"I don't know." Barry shrugged. "The medicine smell isn't much different from how you already smell."

"Ha ha." Cadence shoved him on the shoulder. Then she took his outstretched hand and the two left the CCPD, heading to the mall. "Did you get anything from checking out Leah's powers at the CCPD? I wish I could've stayed to help her calm down or something."

"It took her a bit to realize we weren't going to hurt her, but Caitlin was able to run some tests," Barry explained. He let out a long breath. "But nothing that would even _begin_ to explain what was happening today. She couldn't replicate anything she was doing with her powers other than being able to lift someone off the floor and lower them again. Her powers are really weak otherwise; I don't think she's used them much."

"Considering how scared she was the first time around," Cadence pointed out. "And I don't think most kids are like Brady where anything that's not normal is cool to him. Did I ever mention there was one point in his life he was obsessed with aliens?"

Barry laughed. "Space, I'd understand. But not so much aliens. Just don't tell Cisco I don't believe in them or else he'd kill me."

"Sounds like Cisco has a lot of ammo to potentially kill you with," Cadence remarked. "Remind me to ask him about it the next time you tick me off."

Now it was Barry's turn to laugh sarcastically before looking at his watch. "Hey, we got to hurry up or we'll be late."

"Coming from the 'Fastest Man Alive'," Cadence used air quotes around the words.

"Shut up."

Cadence allowed Barry to sweep her off her feet then hurried to the mall, stopping right behind Cisco and Kendra. Cisco turned around just as Barry was putting Cadence to the ground, his eyes narrowing suspicious though unable to keep the excitement from his face.

"Hey, there you are," Cisco said. Nervousness tinged at his tone. "These are the guys I was telling you about, Kendra. Barry Allen and Cadence Nash."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Cadence said, shaking her hand firmly.

Barry held up his hand. "Hey, hi, Cisco's told us…" Cisco stood behind Kendra, bringing a finger across his throat. "Not so much…" Cisco frantically started to wave his hands. "I mean a lot…a _little_ about you?" He phrased it as a question. Cadence rolled her eyes, Cisco slapped himself on the forehead, and Kendra managed a smile.

"It's nice to meet you guys, too." She hooked her purse up her shoulder and smiled shyly. "Cisco's told me a lot about you guys and your other friend Caitlin, too. It's too bad that she couldn't come with us."

"Oh, you know Caitlin, she's really into her work," Cisco said.

Barry smiled a knowing smile.

Cisco glared at him.

"So what movie are we going to see?" Cadence asked.

Cisco shot her a thankful smile and said, "The Princess Bride."

"Oh, I _love_ that movie!"

"I haven't seen it in forever," Barry added.

Kendra smiled as the group started to walk to the movie theatre. "I've never seen it, is it a good movie?"

" _Is it a good movie?"_ Cisco repeated. "Girl, you haven't lived until you've seen it. It's a tale of a true love set in the basis of a kid's bedtime story told to him by his very cheery and loveable grandfather." He spread his arms wide as they arrived under the marquee. "It's got giants, monsters, chases, escapes. Fighting, torture, revenge. True love," Cisco said. Kendra smiled. "And miracles…and it's ranked one of the best date movies of all time."

"Sure, if you're not laughing too hard," Barry said. He cleared his throat and said, "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."

Cadence grinned and said in response, "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die." She, Barry, and Cisco started to laugh while Kendra slapped her hands over her ears.

"Spoilers, spoilers," She cried. "Don't ruin it for me. If it's supposed to be a good date movie…" she held her hand out to Cisco. "Well, let's see if that's true." Cisco smiled and took her hand. As soon as their hands touched his face went slack and he stared into space.

Barry immediately tensed, exchanging a glance with Cadence. She looked just as concerned as he did. Was he being possessed like Leah had been earlier that day? Or was he vibing something. It had to be the later, for when Kendra dropped her hand away from Cisco's he snapped out of his trance.

"Cisco, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah uh, I saw…I saw a birdman."

"What?" Kendra asked.

"A-a birdman?" Cadence repeated.

Barry reached out and grabbed onto Cisco's shoulder, squeezing it tightly. "I mean, that's not what you really _saw_ was it?" He asked, lowering his voice. Cisco gave an imperceptible nod. Barry nodded back but widened his eyes, shifting them to Kendra then back to Cisco.

Cisco immediately got the hint. He nodded and cleared his throat. "Uh." He briefly closed his eyes. "I mean, birdmen…they're in the movie, right? But, I know they're not…they're not real things, not like angles. Because, you know…you're an angel to me," he said to Cisco.

 _Nice save,_ Barry thought, chuckling to himself when Kendra, obviously touched by his comment, blushed. Then she led the four inside and the guys got the tickets while the girls went to get the food. "A birdman?" He asked Cisco as soon as they were alone.

"I know what I saw, man," Cisco defended himself.

"I know, but…a birdman? Really?"

"Complete with the gold wings and the…the mask and…the talons…" Cisco shook his head. "It's not that strange. Have you seen this city? Strange things happen all the time here. I mean, you're the 'impossible' remember?" He took a long breath, pushing his hair back from his face. "What do we do?"

"It was just a vibe, Cisco. That doesn't necessarily mean anything's going to happen. It could've just been a vibe about…her Halloween costume or something."

"Barry, its November."

"I know, I'm just saying…it doesn't seem like anything that we should be too worried about right now. You're on a date, with someone you really wanted to go out with. If we're not getting called back to STAR Labs you don't want to do anything that could potentially ruin it. Or stick you in a situation you can't explain yourself out of."

"Yeah, and what if I continue to vibe when I touch her?"

"Well, if you _vibe,_ " Barry put specific emphasis on the word, making Cisco roll his eyes. "Then…just try to play it off. Play it cool. Say something like…she makes you nervous and you've got sweaty hands."

"That's not exactly a lie," Cisco said. He rubbed his hands off on the sides of his jeans. He smiled as the girls came back, Kendra with a small bucket of popcorn and two sodas and Cadence with a ridiculously large bucket of popcorn.

Barry laughed when he saw it and the amused expression on Kendra's face. That bucket was hardly going to last him more than an hour before he was hungry again but at least she thought of him to do it. Cisco continued to wipe his hands off on the sides of his jeans before hesitantly reaching out to take Kendra's hand again. Barry watched curiously and when he saw Cisco relax he smiled at Cadence and the two followed after them.

They watched the movie, laughing at all of the right parts and becoming a little emotional at the others. At one point Barry looked over and found Kendra wiping tears away from Cisco's cheeks. Cisco caught Barry's gaze and while he looked embarrassed to have been caught crying, he couldn't help but smile back, rising his eyebrows towards Kendra. Then once the movie ended they sat until the last credit rolled before leaving the theater.

"So? What'd you think?" Cisco asked once it ended.

"I have to admit, it definitely is a good date movie," Kendra said. She laughed. "Okay, I have to admit, I have no idea why I waited so long to watch. I already want to see it again."

"Well, this is the only theater in town that plays the classics," Barry said. "It's probably going to be here for another week at the most."

"Then I know what I'm doing next weekend," Kendra said. She nudged Cisco's shoulder with her own. "Would you like to accompany me?"

"You mean you didn't find my history trivia to be annoying?" Cisco asked, eyes lighting up.

"No!"

"Then she's the only one," Cadence muttered, scratching at her temple. Barry gave her a look and she smiled in reply.

"So, you said something about dinner and a movie," Kendra said. She glanced around at the group. "Any suggestions of where to go?"

"Oh, right, I was thinking maybe we could go to Fergusons," Cisco said. "It's got a great view of the bay."

Cadence brought up her hand to cough into her fist, "Too expensive."

A nervous smile came to Cisco's face as he said, "But that view is terrible overrated, we could go to Jolie's."

Another cough. "Too fancy."

"But none of those can compare to the age old Cheesecake Factory." Cisco turned back to Cadence who coughed, but this time turned as if to excuse herself and held a thumbs up. He smiled. "You've been to the Cheesecake Factory, right?"

"Yeah, I love it there," Kendra said.

"Well, we're just going to have to join you another time," Cadence broke in. She forced another cough. "You know, it's just…my allergies are acting up."

"It's November," Cisco said.

Cadence glared at him. "They're seasonal allergies, Cisco! God! I can't help the way my body reacts to them!" She turned to Barry and gave him a pointed look. "Would you mind just taking me home?"

"Yeah, no, it's no problem," he said. Then he turned to Cisco and Kendra and nodded. "I hope you guys have a good time. Sorry we couldn't make it this time. We'll catch you again, alright?" He looped his arm through Cadence's and the two started to walk away at a high speed. "You're not actually sick are you?"

"Boy, Tholly, you catch on quick," she said sarcastically. Then she laughed lightly. "I thought things were going well for them and didn't think it was a good idea to stick around."

"I was thinking the same thing," Barry said.

"Well, you know what they say. Great minds think alike."

The two fist-bumped and laughed.

"You still hungry though?"

"Starving," Barry admitted. "My place isn't too far from here, we can go there."

"Sounds good."

Barry super speeded them to the West house and Barry let them inside. He looked around, noticing how dark it was and checked the table by the couch for a note from Joe. He glanced at it for a moment. "Huh, looks like Joe's working late at the CCPD tonight. Darn, I was kind of hoping he would have made some of his special meatloaf."

"You would've eaten it in about five seconds anyway, Tholly." Cadence walked around the living room, looking at pictures on the wall.

"Maybe twenty, I'm still a little full from the Mega-Jumbo bucket of popcorn." He walked up behind Cadence to look at the picture she was studying and smiled. "Oh yeah, that's me, Iris, and Joe shortly after I moved in. It's probably one of the biggest snowmen we were able to build." He tilted his head. "Then it melted and we turned it into a ramp for a sled and Iris broke her arm."

"Going off a sled?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah, she crashed into the mailbox."

Cadence laughed. "Classic. I bet she hadn't gotten over that in a hurry."

"Not when I don't let her. She's always so gung-ho about everything that half the time I don't think she has that part in her brain that tells her to be careful." He reached out and tapped Cadence's cheek. "Just like someone else I know."

"Ha."

Barry smiled and pulled out his phone, looking through the fast food numbers he had stashed in his phone. "Is pizza okay with you?"

"It's fine."

"Anything you really want?"

"Not particularly."

"Cool."

Barry started to pace as he dialed the number for the pizza place and gave his order to the deliveryman. When the call ended he looked around and found Cadence wasn't in the room anymore. Confused, Barry looked through the rooms on the bottom floor before heading upstairs. He checked Joe's room, the guest room—which used to be Iris's room—and the office before finding her in his room.

"Cade?" He asked.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snoop," she apologized. "I was just looking at all of your pictures." She held one that was on his bedside table of his mother, father, and himself when he was young, and a recent picture of him and Henry once Henry got out of jail. She smiled up at him. "Trying to get to know you better."

"Trying to get to know me better?" he repeated.

"There are times I think I don't know you at all, then others where I feel like I've known you forever," She explained. Her eye shifted. "I guess, I mean…I used to watch the Princess Bride with my mom and dad every New Year's Eve. I don't know when it became a thing but it used to be tradition. I was thinking about that and realized that, like me, you don't really talk about your childhood so much. I get why, but I mean, you don't talk much about what it was like after you moved in with Joe."

"You want to know now?" Barry asked.

"Doesn't have to be now, it can be whenever you want." Cadence sat down on the edge of his bed. Barry sat down next to her and looked at her warily.

"You're not dying are you?" He asked.

She laughed. "Not that I'm aware of. Though, realistically, I think we both know every time we step out the door we're seconds away from death."

"Mmm, yeah, I try _not_ to think about Zoom or any of our other enemies coming to attack us."

"Last I checked, they're _your_ enemies. Mine are down in the pipeline."

"Good point." Barry peered at her. "You okay? You've been kind of…down since the funeral."

"Just a lot to think about, Tholly, that's all."

"Like what?"

"Like, sometimes I feel like I get in your way."

Reaching up Barry ran a hand through his hair. "You're not in my way, Cade, you're by my side. And that's exactly what I need when I'm out there on the field." He bobbed his head back and forth. "This is going to sound so lame but…you kind of remind me of my mom."

Cadence blinked. "That's not lame, that's kind of creepy. Or else I'd seriously wonder whether or not you've got some Oedipus complex going on."

Barry laughed. "No, I mean…my mom was as nurturing as she was strong. And that always kept me grounded. You do the same thing for me even, if we have different opinions of what to do in certain situations."

"Well, I have to keep you on your toes somehow." Cadence grinned.

"Yeah, you do. And that helps me better a better Flash. And the thing is, Cadence Nash," Barry smiled. "You're my hero."

"And you're my hero, Bartholomew Allen."

Barry's smile almost split his face. His eyes searched hers. "You look like you want to tell me something."

"I do," she replied, honestly. "You and Cisco and Caitlin…but I don't want to think about it now. I don't want to ruin the mood."

Their kiss started off soft, with Cadence gently placing her hand on Barry's neck and, warming the skin and Barry leaning into her, keeping his hands on the bed, not wanting to move too forward too fast. Then their kisses turned more passionate; Barry leaned forward until Cadence was lying on her back and crawled on top of her, one hand on her hip, stroking the skin beneath her blouse.

Cadence brought her hands up to his cheeks and pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him still. Barry leaned back to catch his breath, pressing his forehead against Cadence's. Then Cadence opened her eyes and he stared at the orange hue they took on, seconds before he started to vibrate.

The Cadence grinned and burst out laughing…and couldn't stop laughing. She let go of Barry and wrapped her arms around her stomach.

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "It's not that funny," he said.

But she kept on laughing and soon Barry joined in.

* * *

Central City.

"Doesn't look much different than the others," the man said as he walked along the streets downtown. His eyes bright eyes shifted back and forth amongst the many faces he passed. Bright compared to the darkness of the shadows he walked through. It wasn't supposed to be a sightseeing tour but he was enjoying it a little. A little more than he thought he would.

"How quaint," he said. "It looks like these people are happy. So very happy. It's too bad to see it all end in such a big way." He tilted his head to the side, coming to a stop in front of Central City City Hall. "But as they say…" he reached up and pushed his green hair back off his forehead and licked his red lips. "The secret to a good comedy is timing. Timing…is…everything…"

* * *

 **A/N:** So…what did you think? I really enjoyed this one, especially the end. ;) Random fun fact: At the beginning of Cadence's and Brady's creation I originally intended Brady to be 2/3 years old then bumped him up later.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Brady's got a lot of time watching Barry and Cadence so he'd probably know how to handle the two. Though it does bring up a good question; who would win in a fight him or Cadence? Whether or not Henry knows about them will be answered soon. Well, there were a lot of hints placed by the writing of the show for Barry being Savitar from the beginning of the season.

 **Spinquin142:** You're welcome. Alerts should be working now so fingers crossed. There are plenty more fights as the story goes on, some will be mentioned off-screen and others will be shown on-screen. But plenty. I'm glad you liked the father-son scene.

 **Guest:** Haha, thanks. Glad you like her!

 **yummers:** I'm glad you like the dynamic BarryCade has! :)

 **PowerHer432:** I'm glad the change in emotions was done well. We had been talking about it earlier and I'm glad I was able to keep it from being so jarring. Or maybe jarring enough so that it worked. There's plenty more with Barry and Henry coming up, in fact a lot of Barry's original plot has to do with Henry and Joe. If you asked Brady at first, he'd have the selfish reason of just wanting Barry around to hang out with him, but as he's grown older he's become more selfless and wanting to be there for his mom rather than being a hinder to his mom. Her past with the Assassination Bureau is coming up, though I don't know if it'll be an entire chapter yet, we'll see how it plays out.

 **Luna:** I'm glad you like Brady and his fight with Barry, as well as Barry's and Henry's convo. That seems to be a highlight of the chapter.

 **DarkHelm145:** Yes, it was a bit of filler and this one might too but…what did you think of that ending? ;)

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	25. Gorilla Pills

**.:25:.**

 _Gorilla Pills_

* * *

Music came softly from the speakers that sat around the room as Cadence gracefully did a series of sweeping motions that glided her across the floor. Keeping her head on a constant swivel she routinely brought her arms to her chest and opened them while spinning herself around. Then as the music changed to a brassy, big band jazz song her movements reflected it when she picked up the pace and danced across the floor even faster.

Finally, the song ended and she did a no handed front flip, landing cleanly on her feet.

Sitting in the corner of the room, Brady clapped appreciatively, a grin on his face. "That was great!" He said.

"Thanks, bud," Cadence replied. She took the water bottle he leaned over to grab and took a long sip. "Are you ready to get some breakfast?"

Brady smiled. "Can we get breakfast every time school is closed?"

"Sure, if you want me to run out of money." She ruffled his hair. "As it is, I've considered homeschooling you. Lately you've spent more time out of school than in it," Cadence said with a half smile. "But even I don't think I could handle that with my schedule. Ryder can't do it, Tess has different hours at CCU, and Harrison is always working at STAR Labs."

"So why can't I go there?"

"Because on the off-chance it gets stormed by the army Chief Paulson's trying to get together, I don't want you swept up in the raid."

"But Cisco and Caitlin will watch me and I can help them with their experiments and stuff." He brought a finger to his lips as he thought. "When I understand what they're talking about anyway."

"I know the feeling." She nodded to the laptop resting on his legs. "How's the homework coming?"

"Fine." He sighed. "I just wish them closing the school for a day for investigation would've kept our teachers from giving us homework."

"By the way this is going, if your school closes anymore you're going to have to use up days of your summer break to make up for it." Cadence laughed as Brady pouted even further. She reached out and ruffled his hair. "Let me get changed and we can go." Brady nodded and closed his laptop.

Cadence quickly got changed then went back to grab Brady before the two went to the Motorcar Diner. They spotted Cisco and Caitlin in a booth by the front door. "Hi Aunt Caitlin, hi Uncle Cisco!" Brady greeted, sliding into the booth across from them. He picked up the menu and immediately flipped it up in front of his face.

"Hey Brady," Caitlin returned his greeting with a warm smile. "How's it going?"

"Fine," he said.

"Are you tired of not being at school yet?" Cisco asked.

"Tired of the homework."

"I've heard nothing but him complaining about it since it was assigned to him," Cadence said .She steepled her fingers together. "I never liked homework when I was in school but even I don't think I complained that much." She glanced at Brady, who stuck his tongue out at her, then turned back to Cisco, her eyes lighting up. "So, how'd your date end up? Did you wind up getting breakfast after?"

"Is that really the code word we're going to go with?" Caitlin asked. Her nose wrinkled as she spread a napkin across her lap. Then she elbowed Cisco in the side. "You come up with better nicknames for metas, I don't think it'll be too difficult to get a new codeword."

Cisco held up his hand. "That's not important to me right now." He let out a long, loving sigh and rested his chin in his hands. "Our date was perfect. No breakfast, but we ended up talking after the movie and talked all night. We got kicked out of the restaurant because it was closing, then walked around the city until it got too late. I've never talked to someone like that before."

Caitlin snorted, lifting an eyebrow. "You don't remember the time that we had to finish a write-up for Dr. Wells and were so far behind we had to stay at STAR Labs all night?"

"Oh yeah!" Cisco's smile widened. How could he have forgotten about that? It was one of the all-nighters they had to pull and the first time he really got to know Caitlin after meeting her. She really showed him she wasn't the 'ice queen' that Hartley had made her out to be. "That was fun."

"If by 'fun' you mean, wrecking our sleep schedule for the next two weeks then yeah. It was a ball." Caitlin smiled. "No, it was kind of fun."

"So you and Kendra really hit it off, then?" Cadence asked. She eyed Cisco for a moment then smiled. She really didn't need to ask. Just by looking at him she could tell he was smitten. It didn't look like he was really listening to anything that was being said to him. Or at least the way he was wrapping his hair around his finger and sighing dreamily. Cadence lifted her hand to pat herself on the back. "Am I good wingman or what?"

"Wingwoman," Caitlin corrected her.

"That too."

Caitlin and Cisco laughed.

"What's a wingman?" Brady piped up.

"It's someone who helps their friend get the attention of someone they're attracted to," Cadence explained. "Like, trying to talk them up so the other person is more likely to date them."

"Oh. Ok." Brady nodded.

"And yes, you were a pretty good wingman," Cisco said. "We should go out on another double date soon." He rubbed his hands on the legs of his jeans. "Geez, my palms are still sweaty. Anyway, we just have to get a date for Caitlin and then we can all go out."

Caitlin lifted an eyebrow. "I don't need a date," She said.

"Oh, that's right. You have this thing going on with Harry."

Caitlin choked on the sip of water she had just taken, spraying Brady in the face. He cried out and quickly closed his eyes, blindly reaching for a napkin to dry himself off. Cadence laughed and held her hand up under the table, using her powers to dry him. Cisco reached out and patted Caitlin on the back as she continued to choke.

Finally, she managed to control herself and said, "I do _not_ have a thing going on with Harry." She brushed her hair back over her shoulders, then in front again, trying to hide the pink hue that came to her cheeks. Even Brad was grinning at her, obviously not believing her.

"Mm." Cadence pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing. "I'm still not going to call you my step-mom," she said. Cisco kicked her shin under the table and Cadence smiled back at him, throwing a wink as she did so.

"I was never going to—"Caitlin reached up and rubbed her forehead. Then she clasped her hands together and turned towards Cisco with gritted teeth. "I'm going to get you for this." Cisco merely grinned in response. "I'm just helping him get home and figure out the bio engineering behind his serum to slow Zoom down. Even you've noticed that he's not completely thrilled to still be here."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone missed that," Cisco said. He rolled his eyes and held up his hands defensively. "It's like he's completely unable to talk without pissing someone off in some way." He dropped his arms to the table, shaking his head. "Man, he's such a dick."

Caitlin shot him a disapproving glance and Cisco made a face back at her. Then Caitlin tilted her head towards Brady, who seemed bored with the conversation, now looking over his phone. Cadence laughed. "He's heard worse than that when we do chores. Don't worry about cursing in front of him."

"Yeah, my mom's a bad influence," Brady piped up.

Caitlin and Cisco laughed again. Then the group gave their breakfast order and changed the subject to the topic that was everywhere. "So have you heard anything else about Chief Paulson's plans? Last I heard, Mayor Bellows and the rest of his team were still trying to make their decision over the safety of the city's residents," Caitlin said.

"The residents are as safe as they had been before Barry became the Flash," Cisco said dismissively. He then motioned towards Cadence. "And, you know, before you tried to kill him. Ow!" He leaned forward to rub his leg when Cadence kicked him.

It was something they could joke about now, but it still rubbed Cadence the wrong way. She had been stuck under the Assassination Bureau's ideas for so long that as time went on that there were many moments where she started to question her own mentality. She recognized the beginning of her mind being controlled by Leah Waterman, but she had gotten stronger as time went on so that it made it harder to resist. _Not all of the jobs were done because you were brainwashed,_ Cadence reminded herself. Guilt rolled through her stomach like an ocean riptide trying to drag her out to sea. Unless she spoke to the others about the Assassination Bureau to her friends soon it would drive her crazy.

 _Or at least crazier than we already are,_ she joked to herself. It was possible. All of the stress of keeping her powers a secret for years and trying to figure things out in terms of who she was as a person and a hero was more taxing than anyone else knew. It was why she was so relieved when having met Barry, realizing he was having the same struggles.

"As far as I know, there hasn't been any advancement to the MRA," Cadence said. "Nothing that we've heard around the CCPD, anyway. Captain Singh won't let us talk about it and he tries to keep everyone clear of Chief Paulson whenever he comes by."

"That's not suspicious," Cisco said sarcastically.

"I was going to say the same thing," Brady said. He paused, tilting his head to the side. "But is he right?"

"Harry was saying the same thing," Caitlin said. She took in a long breath, shaking her head. "I was saying that of the metas we have in the Pipeline, and that anyone figuring out their powers would be a danger to anyone around them. Which is true, because of the lack of control. But he pointed out that thinking of things that way, would make it easier for people like Chief Paulson to only think of the metahumans as evil."

"Does that mean that he'd think that Leah is evil, too?" Brady asked. He flipped his hair form his face with a jerk of his head. "I mean, if they find out it was her that attacked. Her mom and dad are already scared of metas."

Caitlin waited until the waitress came back with their food and walked away before speaking again. "We already ran a lot of tests on her and there was nothing about her powers that showed any significant growth. And what she was doing with her powers, from what you described, had to have had a lot of power and control over it. If she was afraid of her powers at first, chances are she hasn't been practicing."

"Then how would you explain it?" Cisco asked. He took a large bite of his breakfast burrito.

"How would you explain that birdman you saw?"

"Birdman?" Brady repeated.

"Long story," Cadence said. She lifted an eyebrow and a slowly smirked at Cisco, who pointedly looked away. "Though I was curious as to whether or not you saw it again when you held hands or…when you gave her a goodnight kiss."

"Nice subject change," Caitlin teased.

"I thought we were meeting to debrief Cisco on every detail of his date."

"And that's why Barry is a good bro," Cisco said. "You ask one or two questions and then you talk about sports." He looked at his watch. "Where is he, anyway?" He thought for a moment, tapping his finger against his chin. "Who am I kidding? This is Barry we're talking about; he's either slept in or just running late in general." Cisco then wiggled his eyebrows at the fire metahuman. "What about you? Did you 'have breakfast?'."

"No and, honestly, I don't plan on it anytime soon," Cadence explained. "We haven't even had the conversation about whether or not to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend yet." She waved her hand. "We're going slow, remember?" But something about that nagged at her, something feeling very unpleasant. She couldn't quite tell what it was. Being with Barry made her happy, _really_ happy and she liked to be around him as a friend, as his partner, and…and every sense of being 'with' him.

So what was holding her back on making it official?

"Barry doesn't go slow, mom. He goes fast and faster," Brady pointed out. He examined the waffles stacked on his plate before picking up the bottle of syrup and held it high over his head to pour into each indent of the breakfast food. It continued to puddle but he continued to pour. "He didn't even know you liked him, remember?"

Caitlin, Cisco, and Cadence all laughed at Brady's innocently honest statement. Then Caitlin slowly stopped laughing, dropping her hands to her lap. She stared straight ahead with a blank look on her face. Then, without warning, she lifted her hand and punched Cisco on the side of the face. Had Cisco been a few feet away from him it would've been a small punch, enough to catch him off-guard and force him to catch his balance.

But Cisco was sitting directly next to her and took the brunt force of the punch of her extended fist. Noise around the restaurant ceased as Cisco cried out in pain and surprise and tumbled from the booth while Caitlin calmly lowered her hand back to her lap. Cadence and Brady jumped in surprise, staring at their friend.

"Aunt Caitlin, are you okay?" Brady asked. He frowned when Caitlin didn't respond and stood up, waving his hand in her face. "Aunt Caitlin?"

"You're asking if she's okay?" Cisco demanded. "She just _punched me in the face_!"

Then Caitlin got to her feet and grabbed the end of the table, upending it. Dishes, utensils, and glassware flew around the table. Brady grabbed onto Cadence's wrist and phased the projectiles through them. Then he let go and the two slid from the booth to help Cisco to his feet, watching as Caitlin got up and walked out the room in long, calm strides.

"We have to go after her," Cisco said once he was on his feet.

The three raced out of the restaurant after her and looked down the street, finding she had already blended in with the crowd. But what caught their attention was the sudden screeching sound of cars coming to a stop and screaming. Following the sound, they spotted a large gorilla walking around the street corner.

"Oh my Grodd," Cisco whispered.

* * *

"Well if it isn't Barry Allen gracing us with his presence," Captain Singh said as Barry walked into his office lab. Barry turned away from his computer, pulling his ear buds from his ears and setting his strawberry smoothie aside. His eyebrows rose when he spotted his boss. He couldn't remember the last time Captain Singh had been in his office. "And on time no less. I can't remember the last time that happened."

Barry managed to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I got up early today. Had some stuff to do." _Like run around the city to try and get up to a top speed to stop Zoom_. The last thing he needed was to have his failures broadcasted all over the news and in front of everyone again.

Part of him hoped everything had happened at night, it would've given him some time to work through the embarrassment. But as the incident happened at the height of day, everyone saw it. That embarrassment and humiliation was part of what drove him to work harder to defeat Zoom. But like the last time, his nose started to bleed and he had to stop. After the bleeding stopped, Barry raced back to the West house and looked at himself in the mirror. Nothing about him looked different but he had certainly been pushing himself very hard. Having gone from breaking his back to running at top speed—or as close to his top speed as he could get—must've been putting more pressure on his body than he thought.

All the time he spent lying on his back in the medical bay, trying desperately to force himself to feel again did more to him mentally than he thought. He brought his feet into his lap, noticing how heavy his legs felt as he did so. Then he picked up a scalpel that sat nearby with the rest of Caitlin's tools and poked himself in the foot with it over and over again. And each time he became more desperate to feel something.

"Come on," he whispered to himself. He poked the bottom of his foot and watched blood come out before the wound healed up. Then he pricked himself again. "Come on, come on, come on!" And he continued to poke, becoming more vicious as the seconds passed, cutting into his skin, making a new mark as the last one healed over. " _Come on!"_ Finally, he threw the scalpel across the room and flopped back onto the pillows behind him, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes.

What was he without his speed? Without being the Flash?

Those thoughts consistently entered his head when he got too much time to himself. When he worried too much about where Zoom was hiding and what he was doing. When he wondered what it would take to get fast enough. And when there was enough downtime at work when he was waiting for tests on samples to finish.

"Um, what can I do for you, Captain Singh?" Barry asked.

"I wanted to see how things were going with you," Captain Singh explained. He pulled out a chair that sat next to Barry and turned it around. He pushed up his sleeves and straddled the chair, resting his arms on the back of the chair. "What with everything going on with the metahumans."

Barry blinked. He tried not to look equally suspicious and horrified. As it was, his hand started to shake with nerves. They hadn't spoken about anything meta related since he had been captured by the Meta-Spiders. Why would Captain Singh go straight to talk to Barry about it? "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're the meta-human expert around here, aren't you? You're the one that always has some sort of a connection to them. Not only are you the first one to figure out the cases with them involved, but you have the connection with STAR Labs to get more information." Captain Singh leveled his gaze at Barry. "And you were the one who advocated for your father being innocent of the murder of your mother and had been right. Your insight is always appreciated."

 _It is?_ Barry's eyebrows rose even further. Then he leaned back in his seat. "Uhhh." He thought for a moment, closing his eyes. "I think…I think things are starting to be blown out of proportion."

"You do?"

"Yes. Dr. Wells—"Barry tried not to wince. "—He knows he made a mistake with the Particle Accelerator going online and the risks that came with it. But the Particle Accelerator was going to be innovative. No one knew it was going to end up with a bunch of metahumans—"

"—and the Flash."

"—A-and the Flash."

"And Flare."

"Actually, Flare wasn't in Central City when the Particle Accelerator went off and came in later."

Now Captain Singh's eyebrows rose. "That's interesting. I wonder how it was that she got her powers then." Barry shrugged. "Well, you have to admit their continued presence in the city has been particularly helpful despite the strong climate that seems to be coming against them now."

"I can understand the worries," Barry said slowly. "But too many people seem to be forgetting all of the good Flash and Flare have done. How many people would still be against them if they _weren't_ around and crime became rampant? Or Captain Cold and Heat Wave continued to go on their criminal sprees?"

"That's a very good point," Captain Singh agreed. He cleared his throat. "What do you think about The Flash? Your honest opinion."

Barry did his best not to let a smug smile come to his face. He cleared his throat, using his hand to cover his mouth, and said, "I think he's been a good help to the city. I think people are really receptive to what he's doing. He's doing a great job to protect the city."

"Did I ever tell you that he saved me once before?" Captain Singh asked. He thought for a moment. "Well, a few times considering he's helped the CCPD. But I had been kidnapped by those Meta-Spider things and he and Flare came to help me out."

"Really?" Barry hoped he sounded convincing.

"Yeah. Just swooped in and took down the spiders in one fell swoop. Almost like it was nothing to them. And they've done the same for the rest of the city. I wish I knew who they were so I could personally thank them. And to let The Flash know I've been on his side since he first arrived in Central City."

Barry stayed silent.

"Whether or not this Registration Act goes through, The Flash is a hero to Central City and more people need to know that." Captain Singh watched as Barry tried to come up with a response to the statement. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, trying to string the words together. Thankfully, he was broken out of the increasingly awkward situation ash when there was a knock on the doorframe and Patty stuck her head inside.

"There's something I need your help with," she explained.

Barry nodded and turned back to Captain Singh. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude—"

"No, I know there's more work you need to finish. Thank you for at least sharing your thoughts with me." Captain Singh got up from his seat and returned it to its original spot. Then he surprised Barry by holding his hand out to him. Hesitantly, Barry took it allowing his hand to be shaken. "I also wanted you to know that even though I don't say it a lot, I appreciate everything you've done for the CCPD since you started here."

"Uh, thanks Captain Singh."

Barry watched as his boss left his office and Patty entered. She looked over her shoulder at Captain Singh then turned back to Barry. "What was that all about?" She asked.

"Apparently Captain Singh appreciates the work I put in around here," Barry repeated. "I think that's the first time he's ever said something like that to me. I mean, I dreamt about it but I never thought the day would come." Patty laughed along with him. "So what can I help you with?"

"Right, I got some DNA from a crime scene Joe and I were on and I was hoping you'd help me run some tests on them," Patty explained. She carefully placed the coffees she was holding onto his desk then reached into the pocket of her jeans. With a flourish, Patty pulled out a plastic baggie with black hair fibers inside.

Barry took the bag and looked it over, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think this it is?" He asked. "It doesn't look much like anything other than…hair."

" _That's_ the strange part!" Patty sat down in the seat that Captain Sing had previously occupied. "The crime scene was at a pharmaceutical company that held the neuro-enhancing drugs that were stolen. And these hairs were at each of the crime scenes. But they don't look like regular human hair. I figured it might be some sort of a meta."

"Like the man shark?" Barry asked.

"Like the man shark."

"Alright. Well, I'll run the tests and we'll see what comes up." Barry took the bag and started to set up his office to run the tests. With Patty not watching him, he used his super speed to get them started. Then he turned back and noticed the second cup of coffee that Patty had brought with her. "Is this for me?"

"Yes!" Patty nodded earnestly. "We still haven't been able to do a rain check on that coffee date we planned. So, I thought we could…you know, wait together for it to be finished." Barry slid down in his seat and took the coffee. Patty held hers out and he tapped his against hers. "So…see any good movies lately?"

"Yes, actually," Barry said. "I just recently went to see The Princess Bride."

"Oh! At that movie theater by the mall?" Patty's eyes lit up and she clasped her hands together, only after making sure she safely moved her coffee out of the way. "I love that movie. I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid." Her smile waned. "My dad and I used to watch it all the time."

Barry tilted his head. "Did…something happen to him?" Patty gave him a meaningful look. Barry sat up straight. A flood of sweat rushed to his armpits as he realized his faux pas. "I mean, if you want to talk about it. You don't have to."

"No, it's okay. I guess if there's anyone who would understand losing a parent, it's you." Patty cleared her throat. "Uh, actually. He was killed. I was going to take a deposit to the bank but instead I ditched work to hang out with my friends. My dad was at the bank that day when Mark Mardon robbed it. He…he shot my dad and my dad didn't make it."

"Oh, I'm sorry Patty."

"I mean, I'm over it," Patty said quickly. "It happened a long time ago. But then seeing some of these metahumans around, it makes me wonder what I'd do if I ever saw him again, you know?" She tightened her grasp on her coffee cup, threatening to punch holes into it with her fingertips. "But you saw the man that killed your mother, right? Your father was found not to be guilty?"

"Yeah, but that's an entire other thing," Barry said quickly. How else would he be able to explain what was going on with Eobard Thawne? Especially since Eobard Thawne had never been brought in to jail. And he never would be considering how he had been killed. But with no body to show for it and no way to explain where he had come from, Barry wasn't completely able to completely relish in his father being released. Now he understood why there were so many debates over the death penalty. "I had most of my life to get used to what was going on." He paused. "Actually, that probably isn't something I should try to compare."

"Yeah, but it's something you eventually can't help," Patty thought. "Like, every now and then I hear my friends talk about their parents and my mind immediately goes to, 'my dad was better'. Probably a way to cope."

"Yeah, I used to think the same way," Barry agreed. "Especially when I was really missing my mom."

"Do you ever find it funny when other people trip over themselves when they mention their parents around you?"

"Like they think I'll fall apart at the mere mention. Yeah, all the time."

"Or even when they mention guns. I got that a lot when applying to work as a police officer. Everyone was like 'but your dad was shot to death'!" Patty rolled her eyes. "Like I didn't already know that."

"It was worse when people would be overly sympathetic." Barry laughed. "Like, they'd constantly ask me how I was doing. Or they'd look at me sympathetically or something. Which is weird because I did still have my parents. My dad was still around even though he couldn't go to events and Joe was able to fill in. So it wasn't like I was missing anything."

"Exactly! But then they continue to make things worse as they try not to talk about what happened to our families." Patty laughed. Then she set down her coffee and she laughed again. "It's so weird; we're talking and laughing over our murdered parents. Not many people would think that's normal."

"I've never been able to say I was normal," Barry pointed out. "So it doesn't really bother me."

"Me either. So, uh, maybe we can talk again soon. Like, after dinner or something? Or maybe even a movie, too. We can go see another movie classic that'll air in the theatre after the Princess Bride leaves. Or maybe just go see Princess Bride. I know you saw it recently, but I haven't seen it in forever and…" Patty trailed off, noticing Barry's sudden change in expression. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

"A ghost?" Barry repeated. Finally broken out of his uncomfortable silence, he shook his head, trying to collect his thoughts. "No. It's, uh, it's something else." Patty waited. "Patty, it's not like I don't like you. You're great. And we have a lot in common." Barry thought for a moment, noticing it was the same thing that Cadence had said to him before. "But, you need to know—"

"—that you don't feel the same way," Patty broke in. "That I…feel about you."

"Wha-? It's not…no, I…" Barry stumbled over his words. He closed his eyes, letting out a long breath through his nose. "It's just that I'm seeing someone already," he explained. "I'm going out with Cadence. We haven't really said anything because we don't want it to be, like, a big deal or anything. We're kind of taking things slow."

"Oh."

"But I'm really flattered. I think you could—"

"No, Barry, it's okay," Patty said quickly. "It's not like you _have_ to like me back or anything. I just thought it was a good idea if you knew." She started to say something else but Barry's phone started to vibrate. He looked at his phone and noticed the message that was coming through, his eyes widening. "You look like you're busy."

"Sort of," Barry said.

"I can just stay back and wait for the test results."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's okay. If you have something you need to do."

"Thanks." Barry started to leave the room but stopped. He turned back to Patty. "Really, Patty. I'm sorry."

Patty smiled back at him. "It's okay. I promise. I'll be fine."

Barry nodded and left his lab. He waited until he was out of the doorway before racing from the CCPD to STAR Labs. He walked into an intense conversation as soon as he arrived. Cadence quickly filled him in on what was going on while Cisco continuously scoured the maps of the city to try and get a lock on Caitlin and Gorilla Grodd.

"He's not anywhere in the sewers, so where else can a big ass gorilla go?" Joe asked. He placed his hands on his head, pacing the floor of the Cortex. "How would no one else see him?"

"No one said anything about not seeing him, dad," Iris pointed out, leaning against the computer desk. "Just that nothing has come in. But do you really think there's going to be people who believe someone when they say they saw Grodd coming back through Central City? He left remember? Why would he come back?"

"A classic case of revenge," Cisco explained. He lifted his hand to his cheek; pressing against the shiner that had appeared from Caitlin's hit. "Why else would any of these things come back?"

"Okay, but why would he want Caitlin?" Cadence asked. She crossed her arms, lifting one hand to rub her chin. "Caitlin was one of the nicest people to Grodd from what you guys told me. So what would he gain from taking her?"

"From what Joe has said, he's been taking neuro-enhancers. If that's the case and he's as smart as you all have been saying, then he probably is aware of Caitlin's scientific background. Considering what he plans to do, she may be able to help him." Harry ran a hand through his hair, standing behind Cisco, watching him intently. "If there's been sighting we can probably approximate his location."

"We have to get her back," Cisco declared.

"We will," Harry said.

"Um," Brady said. His eyes narrowed for a moment. "Caitlin acted the same way Leah had when she attacked at the school. Do you think Grodd is doing the same thing?"

Barry whipped around to face him. He grabbed Brady's shoulders and knelt down to his height to look him in the eye. "I need you to tell me again, everything that happened when you were at school. And what happened with Leah." And Brady explained, all the while Barry listened hard. "Yeah, that sounds like Grodd was there too."

"What would Grodd want with a bunch of little kids?" Harry asked. Even he sounded incredulous of the conclusion Barry came to. His lips pressed together as he tried to think about it.

"Probably the same thing that he wants for everyone else; revenge." Cadence sighed heavily, pushing her hair behind her shoulders. "They went running down into the sewers to find him last year when Grodd was nothing more than a rumor around the city. Their disturbance over his 'home' must've held a big impression on him."

"Or the fact that they had a hand in trying to take him down," Barry said.

"Don't worry, we'll get Caitlin back," Iris said. "Just as soon as we figure out where Grodd is holding her. I'll start looking through my blog to see if there are any tips about it."

"And I'll look through the CCPD's database for any tips that came in," Joe agreed. He motioned to his daughter and the two left the cortex.

Barry let out a long breath, running his hands through his hair. He turned back to Cisco, who continued to sit close to his computer screen, running over maps. Then he exchanged a concerned glance with Cadence. If Grodd had no problems taking possession of little kids then there must be something he was up to they weren't getting. Going a step further and taking Caitlin as well meant it was something big. But what?

Barry turned his attention to Brady, who took the cup filled with strawberry smoothie that Barry had set on the desk on his way in. Brady almost had it to his mouth when Barry stuck out his hand and grabbed it. "Strawberries," he explained, noting Brady's allergy.

"Oh." Brady looked annoyed as his stomach growled. "I'm hungry! Caitlin didn't let me eat my waffles!" Barry looked at him for a second then raced out of the Cortex, coming back a second later with a chocolate muffin in hand. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome."

* * *

 _Caitlin…_

Caitlin's head twitched to the side and she looked over to the side. She blinked twice then gasped, glancing around the room. The dilapidated room with holes in the walls and windows boarded up. When did she get there? The last thing she knew she was in the Motor Car Diner having some food with her friends. She stood up from the chair she had been resting in and winced, rubbing her neck when it started to twitch with pain.

 _Caitlin._ She looked up and gasped, seeing Grodd standing directly in front of her. _Caitlin always kind_. It took a second for her to realize he was speaking telepathically to her. _Need help. How did I become Grodd?_

Caitlin thought for a moment. She closed her eyes, taking a step back from Grodd. He was as intimidating as he always had been. "You became Grodd because of the Particle Accelerator. Because of the dark matter in the explosion."

 _Repeat,_ Grodd said. _Make more Grodd._

Caitlin shook her head again. He wanted her to create more Grodd, to repeat the process that had turned him into a sentient gorilla in the first place. She had no idea how to do that let alone wondering _why_ he would want her to. What was it going to do if there were other gorillas out there that could do all the same things that Grodd could? Caitlin cleared her throat. "Grodd, you hurt a lot of people."

 _I hurt no one._

"You took over Leah. You made her attack her friends."

 _They attack first._

Caitlin's eyebrows came together. When had that happened? Oh, right. When they saw Grodd in the first place. Brady and Conner had snuck down into the sewers to track him down and ended up attacking him out of fear and want to get away unharmed. "Grodd, they're children. They were afraid."

 _Me, afraid, too._ Grodd lowered himself onto all fours and walked closer towards Caitlin. Caitlin shook along with the floor with each of his steps. He moved around her, eyes narrowing into dark glints. _Me afraid of everything. Need more Grodds._

"They weren't trying to hurt you. You shouldn't hurt other people just because you were scared."

 _Flash scared._

"I don't know how many people wouldn't be scared seeing a massive gorilla that is able to talk to them," Caitlin said. She managed a small smile. But then it faded when Grodd turned her way. "Grodd, I want to help—"

 _You won't help._

"Grodd—"

 _You don't care._

Grodd growled loudly and brought his hand up above his head. Caitlin reacted quickly and brought up her hands, sending out an icy blast into Grodd's face and arms. Icicles formed on Grodd's coarse hair and he grabbed them, ripping them out. He pulled his hair out all the same, making Grodd screech in pain. Caitlin turned and started to run, slapping her hands over her ears when Grodd let out another almighty roar. Still, she continued to run.

Grodd caught up with her, swinging his arm towards her. "Ugh!" Caitlin grunted as he struck her in the back and sent her flying off her feet and into a nearby wall. She fell to the floor and looked over at Grodd who watched her as well. "Grodd, please…"

 _If you no help, you enemy._

Caitlin closed her eyes. She pushed herself up to her knees. "You…you may not know this but…one of the main differences between my brain and yours is…" she wheezed, trying to catch he breath. "Is the white matter and connectivity in the brain cells. The chemicals you were treated with as an infant were meant to overcome those differences and cause an explosive growth of both. Like what humans experience in their first few years of life. Maybe these chemicals can duplicate it and we won't need the Particle Accelerator."

 _You get powers too._ Grodd walked over to Caitlin and she squeezed her eyes shut, turning away. He audibly sniffed her for a few seconds. _You smell different. Something has changed. You hurt me._ Caitlin swallowed hard, now trembling from head to toe from her fear.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she said. She trembled harder as the words hit her. She hadn't meant to hurt him at all. But she had done it anyway. Much like she was afraid of for all of the other metas that were slowly working their way to dealing with their powers. Exactly what Chief Paulson was afraid of in terms of the metahuman presence in the city. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

 _You will pay…_

But instead of striking her down then, Grodd turned and walked away from her. He wasn't going to hurt her yet, but that didn't mean he wasn't preparing to do it.

* * *

"Anything yet?" Barry asked Cisco.

Cisco shook his head, pressing his face into his hands. He sucked in a sharp breath and closed his eyes. He needed to save Caitlin and he was letting her down. He promised he would never let anything happen to her and he couldn't keep that promise. Now there was nothing he could do to track them down. What was it that was escaping him? Making it so hard for him to figure out what should be so simple? He'd done it numerous times before.

 _But that was when you had an idea of where to start,_ Cisco reminded himself. This time around he was completely in the dark. Cisco lifted his head when Barry rested his hand on his shoulder, gently shaking it. "Don't worry, man, you'll figure something out soon."

"In the meantime, we have to figure out what to do when we _do_ find them," Cadence said. "Going in with a punch isn't going to work. He's stronger than anything we've faced before. Even your speed and my teleportation isn't enough to stop him."

"We could set up a trap," Brady suggested. "Like…a giant net or something."

"We're going to need something a little more sophisticated than a giant net," Barry said to him. "But the idea of a trap is a good one." He stared to pace. "But what could we do?"

Cisco leaned back in his seat and suggested sarcastically, "Maybe we can get a bunch of bananas and leave them somewhere hoping he'll find them?" He scratched the back of his head. "Or maybe, because he's so sentient, he's moved onto Bananas Foster." Despite the circumstances, Cadence laughed, making Cisco smile a little. "At least I still have my sense of humor. My brains seem to be lacking."

"You're being too hard on yourself," Barry tried to say.

"Or maybe not hard enough," Harry remarked. His voice was low and hoarse. "Come on, Ramon, you work hard in every other aspect of your life. There must be something you can do here to find her."

Cisco glared at him. "Do you think I'm just sitting here for my health? I'm doing everything I can! We thought Dr. Wells had shut down the program for the intelligence tests to keep him from being tortured but it turns out he turned the Particle Accelerator on to create a 1500 pound mind controlling gorilla that he could manipulate. As if he could see that coming." Cisco suddenly sat up straight and snapped his fingers. He turned to his friends. "We're looking for places that Grodd could be, why don't we use that to figure out where he's been?"

Harry pointed at him. "An algorithm to extrapolate Grodd's location from places we already know he's been."

"Exactly!"

"What?" Brady asked, nose wrinkling.

"It means they may have found a way to track down Grodd," Barry said.

Cisco nodded and leaned over his computer, typing rapidly on his keyboard. It took a little bit longer than he thought it would, to change the algorithm that was already set up on the computer. But after long, tense minutes of his changing the source codes to it, the algorithm came to life. The maps on his computer changed rapidly, spitting out numerous pinpoints on the computer screen, with only one spot that hadn't been touched. "A-ha!" Cisco pointed, flattening his finger against the screen. "The bell tower."

"That's a good place to put her," Cadence remarked with begrudging respect. "How many people would think to go up there? That place has been abandoned for years."

"So…how do we get to her and get Grodd out?" Brady asked.

Barry continued to pace for a few minutes, his hand on his chin, other hand supporting his elbow as he thought. His mind worked in overdrive, trying to figure out the best way to go about it. Cadence was right, brute strength was not the way to go against Grodd. They needed a plan. The last time they faced him it had been a formidable fight and they came up with a plan that worked on the fly. Grodd was smart, he could control anyone telepathically. That was the first thing they needed to knock out. Then they needed to find a way to take him down. Grodd had taken a bunch neuro-enhancing drugs from the pharmaceutical company so… _Got it!_

"The drugs Grodd stole, they have to be similar to what was used for Grodd in the first place," he explained. His voice started to move rapid-fire as he moved through his ideas. "What if we use that against him to…to give him a shock to his brain? Anyone who got mind-altering drugs in their system would be susceptible to it. He wouldn't be immune."

"Right and then that would give us the chance to be able to get him out of the bell tower and put somewhere…relatively safe," Cadence agreed. She gave Barry a high-five.

"Okay, so how are we going to get Caitlin out of there? Now that we know how to get to Grodd," Cisco said. Silence then moved around the Cortex. Cisco pursed his lips as he thought about it. He looked around the room for a long moment and his eyes settled on Harry. "Who does Grodd trust more than Caitlin?" He asked.

"Another gorilla, duh," Brady said.

"Besides that," Cisco said. "He'd trust Harry." Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Dr. Wells was the one who worked with Grodd as much as Caitlin did. And Dr. Wells was using Grodd earlier, keeping him in the sewers. He would be the first person Grodd would listen to." He then turned and pointed to Harry. "Who better than the doppelganger of him? Get the Reverse-Flash suit, slap it on him and trick Grodd into thinking the real Dr. Wells is there."

"He doesn't have any powers though," Cadence reminded him. "If something goes wrong we can't guarantee nothing will happen to him."

"If it means saving Caitlin and making sure Central City is safe, then that's a risk I'm willing to take," Harry said. Cisco turned to look at Barry. Barry held his breath as he looked back at him. Cisco nodded and Barry nodded back.

"Okay, but we'll have to move fast."

* * *

 _Someone coming._

Caitlin looked over as Grodd narrowed his eyes towards the doorway of the bell tower. They had been sitting in silence since he had attacked her. He made no move to apologize yet Caitlin could tell he felt shame. He plopped himself down in the corner of the room and with his shoulders slumped, much like a regular human. If it wasn't for the copious amount of hair that covered him, Caitlin would've thought she _was_ talking to a human.

But no, Grodd was a metahuman. Another meta-animal that they had come across, along with the meta-spiders. Where did he fall underneath the MRA? Was he one of the others that deserved their rights or was he one of those that needed to be put away for the rest of his life?

 _Maybe Chief Paulson has a point,_ Caitlin thought. She was broken out of her thoughts when the door to the room opened. She gasped, seeing the Reverse-Flash standing in the doorway of the room. _How? There's no way he's back._

 _Father,_ Grodd said, looking at him.

It was then Caitlin got a good look at Harry. She recognized him as he looked at her. His eyes didn't glow red, he didn't have the same menacing stance, menacing aura that was held when Eobard was showcasing his powers. Caitlin continued to watch him. Harry looked back and forth between Grodd and Caitlin. Caitlin widened her eyes at Harry and he shook his head.

Harry walked further into the room. "You don't need her," he said to Grodd. "You have me now."

 _Caitlin nice,_ Grodd replied. He took a step back from Harry. _Caitlin always nice._

"Yes, she is," Harry said. He continued to walk towards Grodd, moving inch by inch. Shifting closer to the gorilla in front of him. "But she doesn't know how to make you. I'm the one who created you. I can continue the plan you have, to create more sentient gorillas. You don't need her." He held out his hand, moving it towards Caitlin.

Caitlin looked back at him, now confused. Her eyebrows came together and she looked over at Grodd. Grodd looked back at her. Caitlin took a deep breath and slowly started to inch back towards Harry, eyes wide, pleading. Harry flicked his head.

Caitlin started to run.

Everything happened all at once.

Grodd first noticed that Caitlin was getting away. He roared loudly and moved to go after her. Harry leapt to the side and grabbed the needles filled with neuro-enhancers. He flipped them up into his hand and struck them into Grodd's leg. Grodd's painful cries increased in volume. Then Caitlin suddenly stopped running, coming to a standstill and staring in a trance as she had before.

"Go! Go!"

Barry, Cadence, and Brady moved in from the doorway all at the same time. Barry wind milled his arms to create a wind vacuum and Cadence sent a wave of ash into the wind, making the room fill up with smoke. Under the cover of the smoke, Brady crouched low and pulled a piece of ammo out from the pocket of his cloak and loaded it into the Shadow Shot. He shot the ammo into the ground and upon connection a high-pitched squeal emanated through the air.

Grodd backed away from the sound, bringing his hands up to his ears. He stumbled, falling to his knees. Caitlin reached up and slapped her hands over her ears, now broken from Grodd's trance. Cisco ran in and grabbed onto Caitlin's wrist. She jerked in surprise, suddenly finding him in front of her as smoke filled the room.

Cisco coughed, bringing a hand up to his mouth. "Come on, we don't have much time!" The two started to leave the room but Grodd immediately moved to block the way. He swung his arm and struck Harry, knocking him against the wall. Caitlin gasped, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth. "For real? The medicine should've knocked him out."

"He must've evolved more than we thought," Caitlin said. "He said he wanted to make more sentient gorillas. The amount here must be enough for only one. Maybe two at the most. We have to get out of here." Grodd turned and surged forward, catching Caitlin around the waist and charged his way through the boarded up windows to the street below.

Caitlin screamed as the world whipped around her.

"Caitlin!" Cisco shouted after her.

Barry stopped his movements and raced out of the window and down the side of the building after Grodd. In a series of teleportations, Cadence moved Brady, Cisco, and Harry all out of the bell tower. Cadence carefully placed Harry on a bus bench, noticing the blood that leaked out from the waist of his suit. She moved her hand to heal him but he stopped her. "Go help Caitlin and Barry," he said. Cadence hesitated. "I'll be fine. Just go."

Cadence nodded and she turned back to Cisco and Brady, who were waiting for her and grabbed their wrists, teleporting after Barry, Caitlin, and Grodd. Barry raced around the city with Grodd right behind him. He tried to keep his eyes on Grodd as he went, watching the gorilla run up the sides of buildings and fire escapes as he went. This was the last thing he wanted to have happen again, to have it all happening out in the open, where everyone could watch him.

Barry brought his hand up to his nose, double-checking that he wasn't bleeding again. All of a sudden, flashes of memories filled his head. Images of when he went against Zoom and how easily he had been defeated. Startled, Barry came to a stop and with his momentum, tripped over his feet, falling to the ground. A car horn blared and tires squealed as a car swerved out of the way to keep from hitting him. Barry got back to his feet in time for Grodd to land on the ground behind him and swipe his arm, sending Barry airborne.

He crashed onto the ground, stunned. Grodd walked over and pressed his foot down onto his chest. "Barry!" Caitlin cried.

 _Flash my enemy,_ Grodd replied. He lifted his foot and stomped on Barry again. Caitlin pressed her hands down onto the hand wrapped around her waist and her hands and eyes glowed blue. A chill filled the air and ice formed over Grodd's arm. Grodd roared and flung his hand, sending Caitlin flying through the air.

She arched through the air, flailing her arms as the ground came closer to her. _Bamf!_ Cadence teleported into the air and grabbed Caitlin, teleporting back to the ground. Cadence carefully lowered Caitlin down from the bridal style carry in her arms and set her on the ground. Caitlin let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said to Cadence.

"Haven't let anyone hurt you yet, don't think I'd start now," Cadence replied. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, he hasn't hurt me," Caitlin said. "He doesn't see me as his enemy. He keeps using his arms to attack, that's his biggest weakness, but his power is too hard to contain."

"That's why we're going to send him to Harry's Earth," Cadence said.

"What?"

"I'll explain later."

Cadence teleported to the top of a street lamp and used it to jump on top and leapt off. She used the momentum to teleport again and strike Grodd hard in the side of the face with a flaming fist, teleporting again before he could hit her.

Cisco and Brady took the time to grab Barry by the arms and pull him off to the side away from Grodd as Cadence fought him. Once they were in the clear, Cisco reached into his pocket of his leather jacket and tossed the object he pulled out to Brady. Brady caught it in his hand and looked at his curiously.

"A yo-yo?"

"Push the button on the side and throw it towards the streetlight on the other side of the street," Cisco explained.

Brady did as he was told and let out a cry of surprise when the yo-yo flew across the street and wrapped around the street light with the leftover tether attached to his fingertip. "Cool!" Brady ran forward and pulled on the end of the yo-yo string and was lifted off the ground as the yo-yo retracted itself. Using that momentum, Brady swung around Grodd, tying him up in the tether.

Grodd roared, struggling to get out of the coiling tether. Cadence continued to teleport around Grodd, sending blasts of fire into him, all the while moving from his reach. Once Brady finished tying him up, he grabbed Grodd's foot and phased the two into the ground until Grodd was up to his chest. Brady then phased up from the ground and moved far enough away to be safe and started to rapid-fire pelt him with ammo.

Bending back and forth, Grodd managed to work his way out of his constraints. He spun his body halfway to the side then turned back and with a powerful brush of his hand, caught Cadence across the front as she came in for another shot. She flew across the street and Barry zipped over to grab her.

"Perfect timing as usual," She said to him.

"I can't be late all the time," Barry said setting her down.

Cadence shook out her head. "Caitlin's right. His power is all in his hands, so he defends himself the same way. But we keep falling for it. There has to be something else can do to wear him down before sending him to Earth-2 once Cisco gets that speed canon thing going."

Barry glanced at her. "I'm thinking of a lightning bolt."

"You got it."

Barry and Cadence high-fived and Barry took off, starting to run in circles around Grodd. Grodd slammed his fists on the ground, trying to smash Barry as he went by, But he was always a second too slow. As Barry went, electricity trailed off his body, crackling through the air. Faster and faster he went, until the bulbs of the street lights started to flicker until they burst, adding extra electricity to the bolt Barry was creating.

Cadence pressed her palms together as her hands erupted into flames. The fire ball in her hands increased in size until it started to crackle with electricity. Barry came to a stop and flung a lightning bolt towards Grodd, which Cadence added her pyro-electrokinesis into the blast as well. It struck Grodd, blasting him off his feet and into the building behind them. Concrete tumbled to the ground as Grodd worked his way out of the hole he created.

"He's too strong," Cisco said.

"What are we going to do?" Brady asked.

"We have to stop him," Caitlin said.

Cisco threw his hands into the air. "Like we haven't been trying that before. H-hey—where are you going?" Caitlin walked towards Grodd. "Grodd, stop!" She called. Grodd turned her way. "You're hurting my friends!"

 _Friends, Grodd's enemy._

"They're my friends. They're trying to save me from you. We know what you want, you want a home. You want to be around more gorillas like you, to stop being lonely .And we can get that for you." Grodd watched her carefully. After a second he started to walk towards her. "Please just let us help you. I was always nice to you. I'm your friend. You can trust me."

 _Grodd trust Caitlin._

Grodd continued to amble towards her. Caitlin looked over at Barry and nodded. He super speeded forward and grabbed Caitlin, pulling her to safety just as Cisco flipped the switch on the speed canon. A breach opened up behind Grodd, starting to suck him in. Grodd cried out in surprise before he was completely pulled into the breach.

Barry came to a stop and set Caitlin on the ground next to their friends. They came together in a group hug. They sent Grodd to safety and the rest of them were safe, too.

* * *

Harry winced as Cadence brushed her hand over the wound that sat on the lower side of his stomach. "Ow," he murmured.

"Geez, you're as much of a wimp to pain as my dad," Cadence remarked. She rubbed her hands together to create friction then stuck her palm against his stomach. He flinched away from her, then relaxed after a second, allowing her to heal him. It took a few seconds before there was a red-orange flow that surrounded the gash. When she pulled her hand away it was completely healed.

Caitlin smiled and pressed her hand to Cadence's shoulder. "You're a great assistant, Ms. Nash."

"I don't know if I'm an assistant more than a one-off helper," Cadence said. She smiled warmly at Caitlin. "You can handle all of this on your own, you don't need me around. You don't need any of us around to help you, Cait. You proved that today."

"I don't know about that," Caitlin said modestly.

"No, she's right," Harry agreed. "You were the one who figured out what it was that Grodd truly wanted. And you figured out how to keep him from hurting you." He nodded. "If you ever figure out your powers, you'd be a force to be reckoned with." He glanced at Cadence. "Much like the rest of Team Flash is."

"Then I should be thank you, too," Caitlin said. "For at least trying to distract Grodd."

Harry took in a breath, glancing down at the gauze that Caitlin had wrapped around his ankle and wrist. He may have had his most extensive wound healed, but that didn't mean he was completely wound free. "I guess that means I'm part of Team Flash, too."

"I guess so."

"And that's my cue to leave," Cadence said. She backed out of the medical bay. "Cisco told me he'd run through some of the other gadget ideas he had for Brady so I can approve or disapprove of them. I think I heard something about a Shink Bomb."

"A stink bomb?" Caitlin repeated.

Cadence held up her hand. "No, a shadow, ink bomb. It releases a shadowy vapor in the room along with blowing ink in a ten food radius. I could already see the gleam in Brady's eyes when he heard about it and I think I may be getting a call from the principal soon." She waved to the two before leaving the Cortex.

Caitlin chuckled to herself and turned back to bandaging Harry's wounds. She was just putting her medicals supplies away when she caught sight of Harry's gaze. He looked pensive and almost a little sad, head tilted in the direction that Cadence had just left. Caitlin gently nudged him on the arm. "Hey, are you okay?"

Harry nodded. He turned his head and stared at the ceiling, eyebrows coming together in an almost angry expression. Then he closed his eyes. He shook his head back and forth. "I haven't been completely honest," he said. "With you or with myself. Of why I want to get back to my Earth so badly."

"To stop Zoom," Caitlin said.

Harry shook his head. "Not just to stop Zoom. There's something much more dear to me than needing to stop Zoom." He swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing. "I need to get back to Earth-2; I've been re-creating the technology over there to get back as soon as possible. I need to keep the promise I made to myself. To her."

"Her?"

"My daughter," Harry said. "Jesse."

Caitlin gasped and dropped her hands away from his wound. She looked at Harry for a long moment, the gears spinning in her head. The she understood it. "She's Cadence's doppelganger isn't she?"

Harry's eyes shifted to the side for a moment and looked back at Caitlin.

He nodded.

* * *

Barry arrived back at the CCPD, rubbing his neck. "I can't believe we have to go back to work as if nothing happened today," he said. "The rest of the day is going to go by so slowly."

"You're the Fastest Man Alive, Tholly," Cadence reminded him with a roll of her eyes. "How can _any_ day go by slowly?"

"You'd be surprised." Barry looked over as Patty walked their way. "Hey, Patty. Patty!" Barry came to a stop, his eyes widening. "I'm so sorry, I got caught up in a…thing and—"

"Its okay, Barry," Patty said, holding up a hand. "I understand how things around here can be. It's all so hectic and cases seem to come up so quickly." She looked at him curiously then over to Cadence, who was already making her way to her office after waving at the detective, saying something about work she needed to do before Captain Singh got to her. "Like this case we were going over with these weird hairs. The test results came back and, funnily enough, they were from a gorilla."

"A-a gorilla?" Barry repeated. "Wow."

Patty laughed. "I know; I had the same reaction. What would a gorilla want with those kinds of drugs? But then there's this gorilla that was just rampaging around the city and it kind of makes sense." She paused. "Well, not _completely_ , but it makes sense." Her eyes narrowed a fraction. "It's good that the Flash and Flare were there to stop it. They had a new friend with them, too."

"Shadowhunter," Barry said automatically. He cringed, realizing his mistake. "At least, that's what I'm hearing rumors that his name is. Could be something less cool. I don't know who comes up with this stuff." Patty continued to look at him funny. Barry sighed, his shoulders shrugging. "About what we talked about earlier—"

Patty held up a hand. "Barry, it's okay, really." She took in a deep breath, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "I mean, yeah, it sucks. I really do like you, Barry but…if you're happy then that's cool. And you and Cade look really happy." She braved a smile. "My mom and dad always said if you wanted to spend your time with someone, maybe eventually marry them, you want it to be your best friend. And I can honestly say that you and Cade. You bicker like an old married couple sometimes."

"I wouldn't say that," Barry said. Though he knew it to be partially true. "I wasn't lying when I said you're a great girl. You really do deserve the best."

"Yeah," Patty agreed. "I do." She took a step forward and placed a hand on Barry's neck, swooping in to give him a kiss. She smiled at him when it ended. "I'll see you later, Barry."

"Bye." Barry watched her leave, smiling to himself. He walked to Cadence's office. He made a face when she shoved something into her desk drawer as he came in. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she said quickly. She brushed her hair back behind her ear. "What's up?"

Barry continued to look at her suspiciously but said, "You know how you said you knew Patty liked me and that you thought I should go out with her?" He watched as Cadence nodded, suddenly looking worried. "Well, she asked me out today."

Cadence blinked in surprise, then lowered her head. "Oh." She shrugged and made herself busy, walking around the office to clean up. "Well, if you want to go on a date with her that's fine. I already told you that you could."

"Well, we kind of already did. When we were hanging out and having coffee earlier today. It was cool, we talked about some stuff. She asked me out again, but I said 'no'."

"Oh?"

"And she kissed me."

"Oh."

"Yeah. I just…I couldn't lead her on like that. She's great but I don't feel the same way about her."

"Oh."

"The way I feel about you."

"Oh."

Barry laughed. "Can you say anything other than 'oh'?"

Cadence shook her head. "I don't think so. Though, usually, guys don't complain about it." She flashed him a wicked smile and Barry rolled his eyes, becoming flustered. "Thank you for telling me the truth, Tholly. That took a lot of guts and it means a lot to me that you could be honest about it. I hope she wasn't too upset."

"No, actually, she was really supportive." Barry watched as Cadence continued to clean then sped through the office, cleaning everything up for her. He came to a stop, pulling at the collar of his shirt with a smug smile. Cadence looked around the room, rubbing her chin. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing other than you put some of my files in the wrong spot," Cadence said. She waved a hand. "But it's okay. You sure she wasn't upset." Barry confirmed it. "Okay, good. The last thing I want to do is hurt her in any way. It's like you said, she's a good friend. And I don't ever plan on being on the wrong end of her gun. Have you seen her in target practice?"

"Last I checked you were faster than that," Barry said. He looked over Cadence's shoulder. Cadence followed his gaze and the two moved at the same time. Cadence leapt backwards onto her desk, holding her hand over the drawer that Barry leaned forward to try and open. "Come on, what is it?"

"I told you, it's nothing." Cadence laughed as Barry struggled to pull the drawer open.

"If it's nothing you wouldn't be hiding it."

"How do you know it's not your Christmas gift?"

"You're a mom, Cade. You're so organized with everything that you'd have to have everyone's Christmas gifts in here. And I didn't see any of them when putting up your stuff." He backed away from the drawer, holding up his hands. "Fine, I'll just suffer for another month of waiting."

Cadence's eyes gleamed. She jumped off the desk and used her foot to nudge a foot stool out from beneath the desk to in front of him. Then she stepped up onto it so that she was Barry's exact height and looked him in the eye. "No one said you had to suffer," she said, draping her arms around his neck.

Barry caught her hint and wrapped his arms around her waist as they kissed.

* * *

In the alley outside the CCPD, Snart looked over at Mick who walked around the corner, looking over his shoulder. Snart uncrossed his legs and pushed himself from the brick wall to ask. "Did you get it?"

Mick nodded, pulling out the side of his jacket to reveal a file folder under his arm, held still by his fingertips at the bottom of his jacket. "I got it."

"Good. Let's go."

* * *

 **A/N:** So now we've got an answer to the whole Patty/Barry/Cadence thing. I think it's very much like Barry, honestly. Plus, I was able to get a scene with just Cisco, Cadence, and Caitlin, which I haven't shown since _Flash Fire_ , if I remember correctly. So what do you think of the continued attacks in these chapters? I think it speeds the story up a bit as it goes on.

Plus, some more scenes with Brady fighting along with the others. I hope it wasn't too rushed and you liked my changes with it, especially exploring Caitlin's powers and her mentality with it. Got some more story plots coming up next chapter.

Please remember to review, I'm serious about my writing and my stories, and if you have anything to comment about, anything to mention, or anything to say, I would love to hear it and it motivates me to write more. I respond to every review I get even if it's anonymous.

 **Review Replies**

 **josephguy217:** That always made me laugh on the show and I knew I needed to bring it up again. I'm glad you like their relationship.

 **Ethan:** I mentioned it in this chapter, pretty straightforward so I hope it answers it. Ryder was saying it more jokingly than actually being annoyed by Barry and his powers. Barry's nose bleeds will be explained soon.

 **jocelynstilinski:** Glad you like them! At the moment, I'm planning on the musical episode but I always turn episodes on their ear so it may not be 100% like it.

 **yummers:** Yay, so glad you loved it.

 **highlander348:** Yes, they'll have another race soon. Actually, they'll be fighting again soon, which you can take however way you want.

 **DarkHelm145:** You're right, final scene was joker.

 **OMG:** Yes, it was.

 **PowerHero432:** And you see now that it wasn't her powers that were doing it but Grodd, and that no one knew it was her. But her story isn't done yet. Yes, Cade does have a soft spot for her. More of this will be explained when she finally talks about her past with the AB.

 **spinquin142:** Yeah, Chief Paulson's not going to be too happy after all of this.

 **babyj:** A lot for me to think about, thank you so much.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	26. Thanks For The Memories

**.:26:.**

 _Thanks For The Memories_

* * *

"I like ska and country music." Cadence blinked when she noticed the horrified looks turned her way. "I said I like country music, not that I shot my horse."

"You have a horse?" Cisco asked.

Cadence shrugged.

Barry grinned. "What's your horse's name?"

"Stumpy."

"Stumpy?"

"I was three!"

Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry all laughed as they stood on the sidelines of the soccer field holding cups of coffee—or in Cadence's case, hot chocolate. The temperature had fallen drastically since the last few times they had been going out to take down meats. So much so that Christmas decorations were already being set up around Central City despite Thanksgiving not having been celebrated yet. Yet, being the operative word. The stores were already starting to run out of food for the big dinners that would be going on that night.

To the point that Cisco had dispatched Barry to go out and check and surprisingly wound up empty handed. After that, Barry then ran around trying to find delivery trucks to said grocery stores to find one. He felt a little guilty having used his powers to find the biggest ones, but in his defense he _did_ leave money for them with the driver's and he _did_ take a quick photo of himself on the deliveryman's phone as a gift.

It was stupid and reckless, but at least he managed to get enough turkeys for the West annual Thanksgiving dinner that night. There were definitely going to be more people around this time than years before and Barry really couldn't wait. The holidays were his favorite time of year and despite how badly he wished he could spend it with his parents, it always made him smile. Barry smile now, though, for another reason.

This year he was going to spend the holiday with his dad. His first Thanksgiving out of jail and they were going to be surrounded by all of their family and friends. If there was one thing he knew as the years passed, it was that he had a bigger family than he thought he would ever have.

But now, he shivered and brought his coat tighter around himself as a cool blats of wind blew through the crowd. Luckily for those who were able to get seats on the bleachers they were able to huddle together for warmth while the rest of them suffered. If he didn't know any better, he would've said that since he got his powers the cold affected him more than it used to. Such was the life of a superhero; everything was amazing until weaknesses were found.

Cadence must've noticed his movement to warm himself for she grinned and made a show of gulping down half of her hot chocolate, not noticing as another cool breeze blew, ruffling the lapels of her open jacket.

Cisco rolled his eyes at her. "We get it, you're hot, you don't need to rub it in."

"Aww, thanks for the complement, Cisco."

"That wasn't supposed to be a complement, freak."

"I take it like I see it." Cadence's nose scrunched. She brought her hand up and tapped her chin. "Okay, what can I ask you now?" Her eyes lit up as she thought about it and grinned at Barry. If possible, a malicious flicker moved through her eyes. "What's the most embarrassing thing that happened to you during school?"

Now Barry rolled his eyes. "We're supposed to be sharing about our childhoods, not what makes us want to black out from embarrassment."

"Don't be such a wuss Barry," Caitlin piped up. She grinned and lifted her coffee in a cheers gesture. "I want to hear this, too."

"Good, because you're going to be the next one who suffers through these intrusive questions." Barry smiled as Cadence grabbed his hand and leaned into his side, already starting to feel the added warmth move from the tips of his toes to his ears. He sipped at his coffee and looked around the soccer field where the championship game was about to start.

It confused him when Cadence mentioned it, and how badly Brady asked—or rather demanded—that everyone go—since he remembered the boys' soccer team starting in the fall when he was still in school. But she quickly explained it away as his team generally started their regular season in the spring and ran through summer and fall until the team did or didn't make it to the championship.

"Trust me when I say that's not the most intrusive question you could get coming from her," Ryder said, nudging Cadence on the arm. He lifted his eyebrows as she smiled sweetly. "I nearly got interrogated on our first date."

"You didn't even _know_ it was our first date, dum-dum," Cadence shot back. "Don't even try to act like you were the victim."

Cisco shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his jacket. "I think I'd like to hear more about that."

"Me too," Barry agreed.

A sly smile came to Cisco's face and he looked at Barry out of the corner of his eye. "You're not the off the hook yet, pal. I'm paying special attention to everything that's being said here to use for blackmail later. Don't think I didn't notice what you were planning Bartholomew."

"Wow, I haven't heard anyone use full name like that in a _long_ time," Barry said sarcastically. He brought a hand up to his forehead and rubbed his temple. "I'm actually getting flashbacks of the time I traded Joe's baseball cards."

Ryder laughed. "For what?"

Barry paused momentarily. "Yeah, that's not important." He cleared his throat, taking another sip. "So, what are you doing for Thanksgiving, are you parents coming into town?"

The matter-of-fact way he said, "I haven't seen my parents since they sent me away," was met with brief silence. They knew about Cadence's strained relationship with her parents since her pregnancy but didn't know so much about Ryder's. It wasn't _so_ weird, Ryder was very quiet and private compared to the rest of the group. But they had been hanging out more as of late, with Cadence's insistence that he was welcome. It was weird at first; Barry still reeled at how awkward it was when he invited him to join them for Trivia Night at Jitters. But since their conversation at his townhouse things were pretty good between them.

As a matter of fact Ryder had invited him and Barry to a Metropolis Sharks football game in the next couple of weeks that Barry, admittedly, was excited to go to.

"Speaking of which," Ryder grabbed Cadence's attention once more. "Guess who got another gift from her husband?"

Cadence thought for a moment then her eyes lit up and she turned from Barry to grab onto his arm. "Rich-Tits?" She guessed. Ryder nodded and the two started to laugh. "How many more gifts can she get? I'm sure by now she's float in the shower."

"Rich-Tits?" Cisco repeated. Caitlin gave him a disapproving look and he held his hands up defensively as he said, "They said it, not me."

"It's a nickname everyone at our school gave to one of our classmates' mothers," Ryder explained. "My mom's a doctor and since moving to Metropolis she's specialized in plastic surgery."

"And what does your dad, do?" Caitlin asked.

"He's a doctor, too. Started up his practice in Tennessee, then moved to Smallville, then moved to Metropolis as they continued to get bigger." He shrugged modestly then rolled his eyes. "Can't really go around Metropolis without seeing my dad's billboard everywhere."

"I know the feeling," Barry agreed.

"Way to make things morbid, dude," Cisco said.

Barry held up his hand that held his coffee. "I just mean I know what it's like to have that much attention. Even more now that my dad's out, I didn't mean—"He broke off as his friends laughed, realizing he wasn't going to talk his way out of it. He managed to laugh himself, always able to look on the bright side of things now that his dad was free. "Okay, yes, I'm a buzzkill, so sue me."

"Okay," Caitlin and Cisco chorused. Then Cisco looked at Caitlin funny. "Who're you trying to kid? You're an even bigger buzzkill than he is?"

"Just because some people regard me as uptight—"

"—You said it, not me."

They laughed again.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm missing a party?" Iris asked, wedging her way into the group. She motioned over to Linda, who stood beside them, with Wally by her side. "Linda's covering the soccer game. But this is her—" Iris cut herself off, noticing Linda's wide-eyed stare turned her way. "Linda's _friend_ , Wally."

"Hey," Wally waved the hand that wasn't holding onto Linda's. "It's, uh," his eyes roved over the big group. "Nice to meet all of you guys."

"Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be a mob," Iris apologized.

"Looks like more like an intervention to me," Wally joked. "Did my mom set you guys up to try and talk me out of my racing career?" He and Linda laughed while Iris tilted her head, scratching right behind her ear. Wally noticed and his laughter slowly faded. "What? What'd I say?"

"Nothing other than mentioning your career in illegal street racing…" Iris nodded over towards Cadence and Barry. "Right in front of two people who work at the CCPD." Wally's jovial expression flashed away, immediately replaced with one of abject horror.

Barry chuckled, lifting his hand. "Relax; we're not detectives or anything." He pretended to think. "Now, if you were using some sort of an illegal substance that I could trace back to some murder, then maybe you'd be in trouble."

"Or if you died," Cadence said bluntly. All eyes turned to her and she blushed. "No, no, I mean, I work as a medical examiner, I'm not trying to kill you, I…ignore me." She bowed her head so that her hair covered her flaming face. Thankfully, she was saved when the ref blew out a _purp_ on his whistle, signifying the start of the game.

Brady, Conner, and the rest of their teammates jogged out onto the field to get into their place. Once Brady found his friends and family on the sidelines he waved frantically at them. Then he tugged on the sleeves of the long sleeved shirt under his soccer jersey and brought his hands up to rub his rosy cheeks.

"You're not going to cheer for him or anything?" Caitlin asked Cadence as the rest of their group did so.

"No." Cadence lifted her head. "He banned me from cheering for him. Apparently, I'm 'too embarrassing'." She used air-quotes around the words. "And 'moms ruin everything'. If that's the thanks I get for that bobble-headed child taking so long to be born, then that's fine. I have plenty more things to embarrass him with."

"You have to admit doing a bunch of herkies and high-jumps on the sidelines can be a little too over the top, Cade," Ryder said.

"And to think I didn't bring my pom-poms," Caitlin teased.

"No, if oyu brought the pom-poms it would've been much worse," Ryder warned them. "You think this Cade is perky, wait until you meet 'cheerleader Cade'."

Barry exchanged a glance with Cadence and the two started to laugh. A little bit harder than Ryder's joked entailed. Cisco and Caitlin exchanged a glance before Linda said, "Well, don't leave us out of the joke. What's so funny?"

"It's an inside joke," Barry said apologetically. "You had to be there." Not that he _wanted_ to have all of his friends around when they were on a date. Being able to hang out as just the two of them in a romantic setting was always a good change from their friendship and partnership when taking down whatever metas came to play. "So Linda, who long have you and Wally been hanging out?"

Linda smirked. "Wanting to see how things are going since you missed out?" She teased. Barry felt and _heard_ himself starting to stutter out an excuse before Linda's laughter registered with him. "I'm just kidding Barry, chill. Anyway, Wally and I are kind of a new thing."

"Yeah, we don't really want to put a label on anything," Wally agreed. "That's…it's a little too early for that."

"Too early?" Iris broke in. "You've been going out for, like, a month now." She reached out and grabbed Lind's shoulder, shaking her. "In our twenties that's a lifetime. Don't miss out, lock him down!"

"I'm standing right here," Wally reminded her.

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Whatever."

Linda then turned on her boyfriend. "Wally West, don't be rude."

At that, Barry's eyebrows rose in surprise, Cisco spat his coffee out all over the frozen grass, Caitlin inhaled so fast she started to choke on her coffee, and Cadence tilted her head to the side, eyebrows coming together. Wally noticed the distinct change and looked around the faces that were gawking at him. "Why do I feel like you just said something wrong?" He glanced at Linda, who shrugged, then reached a hand up to his face. "What? Do I have a leak or something?" He covered his nose with his hand.

"No, no." Iris waved her hand to him then turned back to her friends, clasping her gloved hands together. "Yeah, I know. It really freaked me out that he has the same last name. But how cool is that? It's not that common."

"Yeah, because every girl is named Iris Ann West," Barry teased. He cried out, dropping his coffee when Iris punched him hard on the arm. "Hey!"

"Sorry, _Bartholomew_!"

"For real?"

It was the second time in about ten minutes he had been called by his full name and it still wasn't giving him very much of a warm and fuzzy feeling. It didn't help that Cadence continued to snicker at him every time it was said. But that made him flustered for a completely different reason. Their make-out session had been interrupted by Cadence's uncontrolled laughter from him starting to vibrate and no matter how many times he tried to say it wasn't funny or explain himself, it just made her laugh harder. So the romance of the night had ended but they still enjoyed each other's company, even when Joe arrived back home and played them in a game of Taboo.

"You know, it's funny," Cisco said slowly, still staring at Wally. "You guys kind of look like each other, too." He gulped as Wally and Iris turned to him with raised eyebrows, both crossing their arms. "Ah! No. I didn't mean…no, that's not what I…wow, I'm really digging myself into a hole today, aren't I?"

"And singlehandedly covering yourself with the dirt," Caitlin agreed. She put her arm around his shoulders and grinned. "But that's what we like about you, Cisco."

"Well, as charming as this conversation is, I need to get some of this writing done or else I'll be out of a job." Linda pulled a pad of paper and a pen from her pocket. "What number is Brady?"

"Number 9 and he played midfield," Ryder explained.

"Didn't you play soccer, too?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah, I was the goalie," Ryder said.

"I played striker," Cadence added.

"Ah, a family angle, I could definitely use that."

Barry turned back to the soccer field, watching the little kids run back and forth as they played the game. Usually a comment like that would've made him feel some sort of jealousy for a myriad of reasons, but this time it was just a good reminder of what he did have. The soccer game was actually a really intense one, much more than he thought a kid's game could be. Then again, this was a league with kids who played the game year round rather than for a school requirement. The first half was locked in a zero-zero tie no matter how many breakaways and close calls there were. There were yellowcards pulled every now and then, making the audience—especially the parents of some of the players—growing even more agitated and anxious over the game.

As Barry watched he couldn't help but smile to himself. Every now and then he was sure the young boy was doing his best not to use his powers, but it happened every now and then. Yeah, he ran fast and had talented footwork, but there were a few things that couldn't easily be explained that he could do, such as moving from the back half of the field with a wall of offensive players in front of him with ease. Almost like there was literally nothing in his way. Not that he could blame him, it was already hard to control your powers when you were just learning how to use them, but when going through some other high-intensity moments made it even harder.

Goal after goal was made, the score continuing to steadily climb on both sides. Finally, with the last few minutes, the Central City team had a breakaway. Brady ran from the back of the field all the way up to the penalty box before he got stopped. Lifting his head, a cloud of his breath appeared in front of his face when he stopped short. Then, without looking, he shifted his left foot and shot the ball to the side, where Conner raced to get it.

He trapped the ball with his feet and skirted around a defensive player who tried to slide tackle him and raced to the goal. With two other defenders coming his way he had to pass the ball back over to Brady, who fell when another one of the opposing players grabbed his jersey and yanked him down.

"Ow! Cade!" Caitlin whined. Barry looked over and saw her frantically trying to pull her hand away from Cadence's grasp. Looking closer, Barry saw how bright red Caitlin's fingertips had become while the rest of her hand was white. "Let go."

"Sorry," Cadence apologized. "But if I can't cheer then I can't express my frustrations either."

"Wow, I'd hate to see what happens when he just trips," Wally said.

Cadence let go of Caitlin's hand and she turned into Barry, trying not to whimper. "You didn't happen to develop healing powers for other people did you?" She asked. Barry laughed and shook his head. "Ugh, you're useless."

"Oh, thanks."

"Quiet, quiet, they've got a last chance penalty shot," Linda said, shushing them loudly.

The audience grew quiet with a few cheers from here and there while the players on field moved into their place. Brady walked up to the soccer ball that rested on the line of the penalty box, hands on his hips and an intense frown on his face. Even from where he was standing, Barry could tell how mad he was. If he was anything like his mother, Barry didn't want to see Brady when he got mad. The referees made sure everything was ready to go before blowing on the whistle, signaling another start to the game.

"Go, Brady!" Cadence yelled.

"You got it," Ryder added.

"Score one for the home team," Cisco added.

"Isn't that for baseball?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah, like you would know."

"Ouch, Cisco," Iris said.

"That was harsh, dude," Wally added.

"Hmm." Cisco rubbed his chin. "How many feet do you think I can cram into my mouth by the end of today?"

"Get some of Grandma Esther's famous Apple Cider and we'll let you know," Iris teased.

"That's so funny," Wally said. "I have a Grandma Esther, too!"

"No kidding!"

" _Shhhh!"_ Linda shushed them all again.

They turned their attention back to the field. Brady had smiled when he heard his family and friends cheering, his teammates joining in as well. Then he blew out his cheeks and started to bounce back and forth on his toes. He backed up a few paces, bounced a few more times, then slowly jogged toward the waiting ball, picking up speed as he went. He drove his foot into the ball and followed behind it, sprinting.

The goalie jumped to catch the ball but missed. It arched too high, smacking into the top of the goal and shooting back towards the field. The ball shot just over Brady's head, nearly hitting him in the face as he stumbled to keep from crashing right into the goalie. It was all Conner needed to chest the ball before striking it right into the empty net.

Goal.

One half of the card went wild as the other half suffered in their defeat. The cheering increasing in volume as the referee blew out the sound signifying the end of the game. Barry and the rest of his friends cheered along with them, watching as the teams lined up to shake each other's hands before the trophies and medals were given out. Then the team got one last pep talk by their coach before running off to meet with their waiting families.

Brady had the biggest smile on his face, practically skipping to his friends. He went to Ryder first, wrapping his arms around his father's waist in a tight hug. Ryder leaned over and ruffled Brady's hair, hugging him back just as tightly, Barry noticed. _Their relationship really has gotten better,_ he thought.

Then Brady went to Cadence, who knelt down, and squeezed her neck as they rocked back and forth in their embrace. "Look, look, I got a trophy!" He waved it around. "And a medal."

"That's awesome!" Barry said. He held out his hand for a high-five and Brady did so before surprising him by hugging him tightly around the waist as well. Barry smiled, returning the hug. "What's it for?"

"It's a Captain's Award," Brady said. He paused, looking it over. "I don't really know what that means, but it's cool." He went to the rest of his friends to hug them, too. He paused, eyebrows coming together when he spotted Linda and Wally.

"Oh, sorry, I guess you haven't met," Iris said to him. "These are my friends Linda Park and Wally West."

"Hi!" Brady waved. "I'm Brady." Then he turned and started to shout. "Conner! Conner over here!" Barry laughed, watching his excitement bounce him from one conversation to the other. Conner came over to the group, smiling shyly. "He got a medal too. The MVP!"

"Congratulations, Conner," Cadence said before giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Where's your mom? I thought she'd be here."

"She's here," Conner said. He craned his neck, looking around. "I heard her cheering the whole time." He then shrugged. "She's somewhere around here."

"You two played a really good game," Linda said. She knelt down on the grass to reach them. "Would you mind if I asked you guys a few questions for the newspaper?"

Conner's eyes grew wide. "The newspaper? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Okay!"

Barry laughed at their excitement and lifted his head, scanning the crowd. He couldn't quite explain why but something made him do it, shocked surprise coming to his face when he spotted his father standing towards the back of the crowd. Henry nodded over to him and Barry broke away from the group to jog over to him.

"Hey Slugger," Henry greeted him.

"Hey." Barry reached out and hugged him tightly. "What are you doing here?" What he really wanted to asked was what brought him to a youth soccer game when he could be doing anything else with his time. Henry looked at him with a knowing lift of an eyebrow and said, "What? Am I not supposed to enjoy every event that comes to Central City?" Barry laughed. "I didn't mean that."

"Always mean what you say, Barry," Henry warned him. "That's what I've always told you." He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. A wistful sigh escaped his lips. "I don't know, it felt like a good idea at the time to come by. To help support everyone." His eyes moved across the crowd. "It's so weird, being in a crowd and feeling like you're so alone. I guess I thought everyone would be looking at me or running away or something."

"I don't think anyone would run away from you, dad," Barry said. He lifted his chin. "You're not _that_ scary."

Henry laughed. "I'm glad you think so. But I'm sure not everyone has your same bias. You know, when I was at my trial and I watched all of my friends and family give up on me…I could see it in their faces…the only thing that kept me going was knowing you were batting for me the whole time. I don't know where you got your unending sense of hope but it really comes in handy at times like this."

"That's what I'm here for," Barry said.

The two men put their arms around each other, walking back to their friends. "So…what's been going on with this whole anti-metahuman thing?" Henry asked. "It sounds a bit sensationalist."

"I can understand their concern," Barry admitted. "They're scared of what they don't understand. But how can you make them understand without making it worse?"

"The same way you do with everything else as The Flash," Henry said. "With a quick mind and a never-ending want for peace." His lips pulled back into a wry smile. "Unless your dream of becoming an astronaut is coming true."

"I can time travel, dad, but I can't space travel."

"Time travel? Well, there's a lot more that I've missed than I thought."

"You have no idea."

Brady was the first to notice Barry and Henry and whipped towards them. "Hi, Dr. Allen! Look at my medal!" He practically thrust it into Henry's chest. Cadence reached over and pulled his hands away.

"What'd I tell you about personal space?" She scolded.

"It's alright, he's just excited," Henry said. He took the medal and looked it over. "That's a nice piece of metal you've got there. I bet you're very proud."

"Mhm."

"So what's going on after this?" Linda asked. She flipped her notepad shut. "Let me guess, one of those celebratory parties at Jitters with cappuccino keg stands?"

"Actually, we're having our annual Thanksgiving dinner," Iris said. She motioned to Linda and Wally. "You guys are welcome to come. We already have so many people coming, the more the merrier."

"Ah, I can't. I'm having dinner with my mom." Wally looked at his watch. "Actually, if I don't get going now I'm going to be late." He lifted a hand towards everyone. "It was nice meeting all of you guys."

"Right, I have to get going, too." Linda took Wally's outstretched hand. "See you guys later. I'll see you at work, Iris."

"See ya," Iris said. She turned back to Henry and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You're coming right? It won't be a family dinner without you. Just like old times?" She batted her eyelashes and Henry shook his head.

"Clearly I don't have a choice in the matter."

"None whatsoever."

"There was never a point of me not going Iris; I'm just teasing you a little." Henry smiled at Barry. "I'd be glad to spend some more time with my family." Then he smiled at everyone. " _All_ of my family."

"We'd be glad to have you there, Dr. Allen," Caitlin said with a warm smile.

"Oh, there's my mom!" Conner said. He turned to the side and waved towards Samantha Hawke, who waved back though she looked distracted. "I have to go. Bye everyone." He and Brady fist bumped before he turned and ran to his mother, his soccer bag bouncing along his back as he went.

A peal hit the air and Cisco looked at his phone. "Perfect timing. There's a meta doing some bad, bad things in the waterside district. You want to go?"

"Why not?" Barry asked. "Got to make sure I have an appetite before dinner."

"Are you tired?" Cadence asked Brady.

He shook his head. "No! I'm ready to go."

"Wait." Henry held up his hand. "He's going into fights now?"

"That's another long story," Cadence explained. "One that we don't have much time to explain." She nodded over at Barry. "Let's go."

Barry motioned with his head. "I'll race you."

* * *

Cadence dove to the ground, bringing her hands up to cover her head as vines shot past her. Their tips gleamed as they sailed past her. Barry skidded to a stop up to the steps nearby, sending a spray of water from the harbor as he did so. Cadence swung her legs up, fire dancing off them and struck the vines that shot by. They immediately crackled and burnt, falling to the ground. But once the vines went away her hands grew back and she held them at her sides before turning and throwing her hands out, sending more vines towards Barry.

He ran around her and she continued to throw her vines towards him. Each vine throw was short, making her more and more frustrated as the seconds passed. Then she flung out both of her arms, sending razor sharp leaves through the air. Barry came to a sudden stop, turning his head away as a cut appeared on his cheek. Cadence sent punches of fire forward to burn the leaves.

There was a burst of light as Brady's ammo struck the young woman in the forehead. She screeched, turning away from the bright light that emanated from it. Then she turned back and thrust her hands towards Barry and Cadence, the vines moving at high speeds, making them leap away.

"You're supposed to _shadow_ not fight," Cadence said to him.

"Excuse me for not wanting you to get killed," Brady shot back.

Barry chuckled. "I think you may have made it stronger."

"From light?" Brady asked.

"Ever heard of photosynthesis?"

"I'm _nine_ , Bar—Flash."

Cadence looked over at the metahuman as she lowered her hands, taking long steps back away from them. "I think this is another meta who just got her powers, she's not doing much to try and attack us." She stopped and looked at her closely. "Something seems off with her, actually."

"Well, we'll have time to figure that out later," Barry said. He zipped around the young woman as she threw out more vines and grabbed them. In a whirlwind of red and green they spun around and around until Barry came to a stop, dusting his hands together. The young woman glared at him, struggling to get out of the vine straightjacket he made around her. "That was a little too easy, but who's complaining?"

"Has anyone ever told you, you have an ego?" Brady asked.

"I've been saying that since the beginning," Cadence remarked.

Barry walked over to her and grabbed onto her goggles, stretching them out. "You're just mad that I've single handedly managed to take down more metas than you have." He let go and her goggles snapped back into her face.

"You've been doing this longer than me, Tholly, that's not fair." She held up a finger. "But nothing will be better than how I took down Hydro Hunter. Because I didn't need any one jabbing away in my ear to do it." She grimaced and a flush came to her cheeks as she brought a finger up to her ear-comm. "No offense, Cisco."

The three took the meta down to he pipeline—where Cisco aptly named her Thorn—and went back to their places to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Cadence and Brady stepped through the door to their apartment then stopped at the same time, smelling something different.

"Did you leave the oven on?" Brady asked, closing the door behind them.

"Half the time I don't even use the oven, bud," Cadence replied. A horrified look came to her face and she hurried towards the kitchen, stopping short of running into her father as he came from the kitchen, waving a dishtowel. "Ahh!"

"Sheesh, Cadey, you're always so jumpy," Kent said. He continued to wave the dishtowel. "Besides, I'm not that scary." He reached up and ran his hand over his buzzed hair. "I may look different but I'm still the same guy." He wrapped his arms around his daughter and gave her a kiss on the side of the head. "Hey, sweetie, how are you?"

"Mamaw! Papa!" Brady cheered and ran over to hug his grandparents. "What are you doing here?"

"We were invited for Thanksgiving weren't we?" Kent asked, letting go of Cadence to give his grandson a hug. "Why wouldn't we show?"

"You missed my game."

"Oh, we know." Maya swept out of the kitchen, holding a platter in her hands with a steaming cake on top. With a flourish, she placed the cake on the coffee table. "We came into the city so late, there was a lot of traffic coming down from the water district." At that Cadence and Brady exchanged a glance. "So we thought we'd surprise you here. Spend some time together for the holiday."

The scent of vanilla wafted across the apartment and enveloped them. Brady immediately dropped to his knees and started to sniff the cake before turning to Kent to show off his trophy and medal. It took a few moments for Cadence to find her voice to ask her mom, "You made a cake?"

"Yes!" Maya dusted off her hands before reaching up to smooth back her blonde hair. "We heard on the radio how hard you were fighting and thought it would be a good pick me up when you got back."

Cadence blinked. She then raised a hand. "Let me rephrase, you made a cake because we stopped a meta?"

"You need to celebrate all of your wins, sweetie," Maya replied. She ignored Cadence bringing her hands to her head, eyes widening as she said, "Oh my God," and walked over to the couch. Kent and Brady sat quietly, watching the exchange with identical amused smiles. "What is your news channel here? We tried to watch coverage of your fight and couldn't find anything."

"You looked for us on the news?"

Maya looked over at Kent. "When did it stop being exciting to see your daughter on TV?" Kent's smile widened. She turned back to Cadence, clearly not seeing the crisis her daughter was going through. "We wanted to see what it is that you always do when you go out to fight the bad guys. Just to make sure how safe you're being."

"You can't be safe when you're fighting a meta!"

"And who made your suit? Can you really call it a suit? Don't you think it's a little short?"

"I—"Cadence stomped her foot and pleaded to her father. "Daddy, make her stop!"

"I learned a long time ago that you can't get her to stop when she's on a roll, just wait it out." Kent reached out his arm and motioned for Cadence to sit next to him. "So you need to fill us in on what's going on around Central City. We haven't gotten a lot of time to talk since you were last in Metropolis."

"You mean since your party was interrupted by Atomic Skull and Bloodsport?" Cadence asked.

Kent laughed a low laugh that rumbled in his chest. "Yes, I mean since then. How're things going with you?"

"Good," Cadence replied.

Then she looked at her father seriously. Studied every plane of his face. The lines that seemed to have popped up overnight, the ashen hue to his skin that she hadn't seemed to notice before. How had she not noticed? He was sick, she knew that. But it was like she hadn't truly noticed until her mind snapshotted what he looked like now to what he looked like almost a year before. It must've been progressing faster than he was letting on.

Even as she watched him she could see the pain in his eyes. If he shaved his head the side effects of the chemotherapy must've been more potent. Or maybe things were more aggressive and they had to give him major doses. She reached up and wiped away a tear she didn't realize had dropped down her cheek until it dripped off her chin.

"Don't cry, mom," Brady said.

Kent smiled and rubbed her hand. "Cadey, I'm fine. I'm right here. Though I'm not sure how much more my heart can take seeing you run out into battle like that."

"Then I wouldn't watch the nightly news," Cadence suggested.

"And look on the bright side, I've finally gotten rid of that pot belly that was creeping up on me." Kent rested his hands on his stomach and rubbed it vigorously. Brady giggled while Cadence frowned. "Relax, honey. It's funny. I've found recently that the less funny things are, the more hilarious it is. If I can't make a joke about this, what else do you expect me to do?"

Cadence thought about it for a moment. There was truth in his words, there was such a thing as dark humor in the medical field, she had been the one making those jokes time and time again. As morbid as they were, her professor explained it was a way to keep their emotions from getting the best of them on certain calls and to not feel bad when you inevitably started to do it. It didn't mean you didn't care, it meant you cared enough about all of the other patients to not break stride until you were alone.

With a smile, Cadence pushed her hair from her forehead and changed the subject, "Did you just come straight in? You didn't, say, stop by Harrison's and Tess's place or call them or anything?"

"And I thought your son was nosey," Kent remarked, nodding over to Brady, who was leaning over the cake, inspecting it.

"No, he's curious. I'm nosey, I'm sure there's a difference in there somewhere." Cadence's eyebrows rose. "So? Did you?"

"Yes, and they invited us to some sort of Thanksgiving shindig that's going on tonight," Kent said.

"It sounds like its' going to be a lot of fun," Maya agreed. "We'll be able to meet all of your friends and see what your life is like here in Central City." She looked over at Brady. "It's Red Velvet if that's what you're trying to figure out."

"Red Velvet!" Cadence and Brady cheered in unison.

"I was thinking that we could have it, but maybe I should bring it to dinner later?"

Cadence smirked, resting her chin in her hand. "Or we can cut out a few small slices and fill the rest up with frosting so no one knows until they cut into it." Maya gave her a reproachful look and Cadence tilted her head towards her father. "He was the one who taught me that trick."

"Kent!"

"I thought that was supposed to be our secret," Kent whispered to her.

Cadence grinned.

* * *

"Hi!" Iris greeted, thrusting the door to the West house open. She reached out and practically dragged Ryder into the house by the front of his coat. "Come in. Everyone else is here."

"Uh, Iris, I get you're stressed but you really need to stop assaulting everyone," Barry said, coming up beside her to take Ryder's coat. "I don't know about you, but you should get far, _far_ away from her when she's cooking. It gets bad."

"I'm just trying to be a good host," Iris defended herself, closing the door.

"Running everyone around the horse and forcing them into innocent pieces of furniture is _not_ being a good host." Barry crossed his arms. "I don't know about you, but I think you could use some of that cider you were talking about.

"And black out for the rest of the night after one sip?"

"Exactly."

Barry laughed as Iris shoved him on the side before running back into the kitchen to check on the rest of the food. Then he joined everyone else in the room, stretching out his legs on the floor next to Cisco, who was in a rousing conversation with Henry about the movies that he had missed while in jail. Caitlin sat on his other side, conversing with Harrison and Tess about the upcoming research that was being accomplished through the science community. Barry heard Mercury Labs mentioned every now and then and watched as Caitlin nodded and explained some of the things they had been doing.

 _That's right,_ he thought. _When we weren't a team, she went to work with Dr. McGee._ He didn't think so much about the six month break he had away from the rest of his team. He had been depressed for so long after Ronnie's sacrifice but not just that, that he allowed Team Flash to deteriorate so easily and quickly. All the same they could get back together so quickly. Or else they wouldn't have been in the room together at that moment.

Sharing in a holiday like a large, semi-dysfunctional family. He sort of hoped that Harry would've taken their invitation to come along, too. But like the first time he had asked a Dr. Wells, or was it Eobard, he swiftly but gently turned them down. As it got closer to the holiday Harry had become more and more withdrawn with Caitlin just saying he needed some space to himself. "It's not every day you come over from another Earth and see that things are the same but completely different," she explained.

But what about Jay? Cisco pointed out. He had been working with the team every now and then, but since his argument with Harry he hadn't showed up so much around the Cortex. Then again, Cisco also had conspiracy theories as to why Jay kept leaving them to fend for themselves and pop back up again. Mostly it had to do with being on a different Earth had some sort of an effect on his neurological system. But when Caitlin pointed out that Harry wasn't effected, Cisco just went off on his next story.

"What's up, Barry?" Cisco nudged him. "Dude, you're like a million miles away."

"What?" Barry blinked back into the conversation. "Oh, sorry." He smiled. "I guess I was just thinking about a lot of stuff."

"Must make it hard to get a good night's sleep," Henry remarked.

"You have no idea," Barry said. He heaved a heavy sigh. "I used to be able to sleep in all the time, or go to sleep really fast but now I'm tossing and turning all the time." He smiled sheepishly. "I'm usually late to work because of it, too."

"Yeah, I think we know that track record," Cisco teased.

A sly smile came to Henry's face. He sat up straight in his leather arm chair and crossed his leg at the knee. "Did you know that Barry used to fall asleep everywhere? And I mean everywhere? He could even fall asleep standing up, sitting on the toilet…"

"Dad!" Barry broke in.

Henry glanced towards the ceiling. "I remember one time when you were…I think you were three. Your mom and I had taken the day off work and went to the park. Just a normal day of playing around on the playground and running away from the ducks I told you not to feed. And those were some mean ducks, too." He started to smile, as if he could remember the image completely. "And then the next thing I know, Nora's tapping me on the arm and I look over to see Barry with the ice cream cone that we had just gotten him, in his hand, and head nodding towards the blanket we were sitting on. Ice cream was smashed around his cheeks and soaking into his shirt. He was a mess and a pain in the ass to clean up but it was so funny because he would wake up long enough to lick at the cone then fall asleep again."

Barry felt his cheeks enflame, especially after noticing that everyone was now listening to Henry's story. Why was it that people were so interested in embarrassing him that day? Must've been something in the water. Especially when Henry started laughing again and said, "But that's nothing compared to when he was on a youth soccer team."

"Dad, no!"

"Dad, yes!" Cisco broke in. He rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Barry never talks about this, and I'm sure it was the one we were getting out of him earlier today."

"Ooh, I want to hear!" Brady said, scrambling to the middle of the floor where he sat on his heels. Then a confused look came to his face and he glanced back at his mother and father. "How come you don't tell me any stories?"

"Bud, I've told you—"

"—Not _you_ ," Brady interrupted her. "You. Ryder. You don't really tell me anything."

"That's because you can't keep a secret, buddy"

Barry laughed along with the others in the room. He was pleasantly surprised to find Ryder speaking cordially and even casually with Cadence's parents. He wasn't quite sure what he expected, to be honest. Maybe for them to still be angry with him. But then again, Maya _was_ the one who basically tricked Cadence to take Ryder back to Central City with them.

"Can we get back to the story please?" Cisco interrupted. He whipped out his phone. "And make sure to enunciate, I need to make sure I hear every word."

"Are you really going to use it for blackmail?" Iris asked.

"You'd be surprised the kinds of things I have on the rest of you. I may be a lowly mechanical engineer, but geez you guys really talk when you think no one's listening."

"Remind me to bring you with me the next time I'm going to do an interrogation," Joe said.

"So, you should know that with Barry, he and sports don't really mix. Don't get me wrong, he tries his hardest and usually ends up having fun, but with those gangly arms and legs of his he manages to have some…embarrassing moments. Those that we laugh at later, of course—"

"—Or never," Barry said.

"Oh, I'm sure you've finally managed to find a chance to laugh about it by now, Slugger. It's not that bad. Anyway, when he was playing soccer they couldn't figure out where to put him on the field. The offensive positions had too much pressure, the defensive ones were too slow, and he didn't like to run a lot as a midfielder. So, they tried putting him in goal, in theory that was a good idea because head a great wingspan. But…I've never seen someone get hit in the face so many times in one season."

"Has he ever told you about his football tryout?" Joe asked.

And as Joe told the story with all of Barry's friends listening intently, Barry took pictures of everyone around the room. He looked at the picture he had taken of his father and frowned, staring. He lifted his gaze to note his father in the same pose in the chair, chin resting in his hand, fingers splayed over his cheek, and looking out the front window towards the street.

If anything, or maybe to the untrained eye, Henry looked pensive. But Barry knew his father more than anything and saw that he looked, honestly, a little annoyed. But Barry wasn't' quite sure what it was for him to be annoyed about, that he didn't know the story, that Joe was telling it, or that he wasn't the one being able to tell anymore stories about Barry. Now that Barry really thought about it, it must've been hard for Henry to be there with everyone, when it was an obvious showing of how much he missed. Not just that, but that Barry had grown to see Joe as his father over the years. Not as a replacement but…

 _No, maybe as a replacement,_ Barry thought honestly. _When dad wasn't here Joe was…and he's still here. Maybe he wishes things were different?_

But that was silly, he reasoned to himself. There was nothing Henry had to be jealous over, angry about, or annoyed with. He and Joe were best friends and they had a hand in raising Barry, that was all. His father was still the first person Barry wanted to see every time he had a major accomplishment. Science awards, good grades, wins, every single time he had them his first thought was _I can't wait to show Dad,_ with the second being, _I can't wait to show Joe._ But when it came to reality it had to be flopped, Joe was shown first and Henry was shown second.

Almost like it was a race they were stuck in.

"I can't believe you made space for dinner with the meta fight earlier today and you're not the first to the table, Tholly," Cadence said, resting her hand on his shoulder. Barry looked up and noticed everyone heading to the living room to get to their spaces at the table. "Iris did an amazing job."

"Yeah, she always does," Barry agreed. He stood up, brushing off the seat of his pants. "Don't tell Joe, but I always preferred her care packages to his. There was more that I could eat in there."

"Your secret's safe with me." She smiled.

"What about you? How do you think everyone's getting along?" Barry asked, noting Harrison, Tess, Maya, and Kent talking together.

"Much better than I thought," she said honestly. "It's like they're best friends again. Like nothing has changed between them." Her voice lowered. "I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Barry quickly scrolled through the pictures he had taken that day, quickly finding the one he was looking for. It was a candid photo, with Cadence and Brady talking about something, but animatedly as they always were, with Harrison, Tess, Maya, and Kent all listening closely. All with smiles on their faces. Their own little family.

"I don't know," Barry said. He turned the phone towards her. "I think things are pretty good right now."

Cadence looked at the phone and smiled.

* * *

Smack.

Cadence rolled over, pushing Brady's arm off her face. What a rude awakening. It was already hard enough being crammed onto the futon when body heat was already something she had to deal with. But throw in an ever wiggling nine year old and that got harder. Still, she couldn't help but smile as she watched him sleep. He had to work off all of that excess energy he had from eating so much dessert the day before, he may as well sleep it off.

Cadence's smile widened even further. It had been one of the best Thanksgivings she had in a while. Before meeting her friends, it was usually just her and Brady having some food by themselves, then going downtown to watch the rest of the Christmas decorations be put up. But this time it was the sort of holiday that you saw on every holiday special and according card. She picked up her phone to check the time, chuckling at her new lock screen photo.

With lots of friends, family, and laughter. With the pictures she took to later be put up on her Instagram, of her and her best friends, her family, all with funny faces, straight smiles, and some looking in the wrong direction while others captured in frozen laughter, the one of them all smushed onto the couch, half spilling out of each other's laps to make space made her smile the most.

A light squeaking sound caught her attention. Rolling out of the futon, Cadence tip-toed to the hallway towards her bedroom, where her parents were sleeping, just in time to find her mother quietly closing it behind her.

Cadence stopped. She looked at her mother, just one look. And knew everything she needed to know in it. She was free-falling but at the same time felt abnormally heavy. Out of breath yet almost hyperventilating. Burning up and cooling down.

She took heavy steps towards her mother, who turned and glanced at her. She didn't move to wipe away the tear stains on her cheeks, a stark contrast to her otherwise perfect appearance.

"He's gone, isn't he?" Cadence whispered.

Maya nodded.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, so much for a happy holiday for them. And they were so close, too. Hm, I personally don't really like this chapter but that may be because I've read and re-read it so many times. That's a lie, I liked the friendship moments at the beginning of the story, that was fun. (Also, the meta fight was short on purpose, this meta will be back). And…I finally got to Cade's portion of the story summary. Hint, hint. Actually, this has been foreshadowed since _Crossfire,_ kudos to anyone who knows when it was referenced to in there. Maybe I'll do something for you if you get it right.

 **I'm forgoing on the review replies this week, as it took me long enough to even update. But if there's anything you really want to know then PM me here, or DM or tweet on twitter. Or even message on tumblr if you'd like. I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter, I almost finished it last night but crashed. Lol.**

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	27. Sleepless In Central City

**.:27:.**

 _Sleepless in Central City_

* * *

Barry pumped is arms and legs, moving at top speed on the Cosmic Treadmill. His feet pounded with each step sounding similar to thunder than a man's feet hitting the conveyor belt. Lightning zipped off his arms and legs as he went, everything around him tinged with a orange-yellow hue, bright as a sunset as he did so. He timed his breath with each step, moving at rapid speed with every other inch of his body. For a normal human they would've started hyperventilating, struggling to reach the crescendo his feet reached with ease.

But he was relaxed, continuing to run as fast as he can. He had no choice. He had to get faster. Stronger. Smarter. Anything that would give him an advantage against Zoom, anything that would give him the upper hand against all of the minions he sent after him, to wear him down. Barry's mind whizzed with thoughts of Zoom.

Why wasn't he attacking outright?

Why did he constantly send more meta-humans instead of going himself?

Zoom had already proven that he was a formidable opponent against Barry. So what was his game? Barry's face twisted into a grimace, for his effort of running and for the thoughts of Zoom. Zoom was dangling his answers in front of Barry like a carrot. Taunting and teasing him, just as Barry thought he was close enough to get some answers, it'd be pulled away again. What was it that Zoom had said?

That he wanted everything from Barry and that 'heroes die'. That wasn't quite true, considering how Jay was still alive. Zoom had done everything he could to steal his speed and deliver the killing blow but he had failed. A breach had opened up because of the Singularity and Jay had been taken to their Earth. At he thought, Barry glanced to the side, watching Jay through the glass window. He stood, arms crossed, behind Caitlin, Cisco, and Harry, staring intently in the room. Staring intently at Barry, almost as if mentally willing him to move faster and faster.

"Get out of your head," Jay suddenly said. Barry's head jerked in surprise, moving back into place. The movement nearly made him lose his balance, stumbling for a few seconds before he regained his stride. "You need to focus on the goal. To catch Zoom. Picture Zoom right in front of you, only a few inches away. You could reach out your hand and grab him you're that close. But no, you need to be faster than him, pull ahead, beat him at his own game."

Barry gritted his teeth.

"Faster."

His chest started to burn.

"Faster."

He could feel himself becoming lightheaded. Frantically, Barry shook his head. Blinked rapidly. Anything to keep himself focused, to keep him going. Fatigue was setting over him. He knew it was bound to happen. He hadn't been sleeping well as of late, dreams consumed by Zoom more than he would like to admit. No matter what he did during the day Zoom was there. He'd hoped that sleep would be peaceful for him but he continue to relive the day his back was broken, hearing Zoom's low growl in his head.

Then he'd stay up and looked out the window, flinching at each strobe of light he'd see. Was that Zoom? No, just car headlights. Was that him? No, just _actual_ lightning.

"Faster!"

There was a bright blast of light that flashed before Barry's eyes. With a startled cry, he brought his hands up to cover his face and lost his balance. Tumbling head over heels, he flew off the back of the treadmill and onto the ground behind it.

"I told you we got rid of the boxes too soon," Cisco said.

Caitlin shot him a glare as she pushed herself up from her seat. She hurried over to the door of the practice room and flung it open. "Barry, are you okay?" She went to his side as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "You're bleeding!"

Bringing up his hand, Barry touched his fingers to the skin between his nose and mouth. Pulling it back he found the crimson liquid running down his fingertips and sighed. "I don't know why that keeps happening," he said.

Now Caitlin glared at _him_. "This happened before?"

Realizing his mistake, Barry cringed, scrunching up his shoulders. "It happened twice before. I'd be running really hard and the next thing I know, blood would be running down my face and I'd be dizzy and—"

"—you're pushing yourself harder than your body is used to," Jay interrupted.

"Yeah, but he's still not going fast enough," Harry said flatly. His eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "Zoom is miles above him in terms of speed and if he keels over every time he has a nosebleed it's just going to slow him down."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence," Barry said sarcastically. He got back to his feet with Caitlin hovering beside him, holding out her hand to steady him in case he fell again. Barry gently brushed her off, letting her know he was okay. His nose had even stopped bleeding. "I'm okay, Caitlin. Thanks."

"Barry, you're bleeding, that's not 'okay'." She walked over to the medical bay, her high heels making angry clacks—effortlessly projecting her disappointment with the speedster, as she went. "I need to check the rest of your vitals to make sure every thing's okay."

Jay reached out his hand and placed it on Caitlin's shoulder as she passed, stopping her. "This is something that Barry needs to overcome himself. It's something all speedsters go through," he explained. "At some point they're going to push themselves harder and harder than their bodies can heal from. A bleeding nose, headaches, and muscle fatigue are the most common instances of speedster burnout."

"Speedster burnout, huh?" Cisco repeated. "And I thought I've heard everything that was a speedster's weakness. First the cold, then electric absorption, and kinetic absorption. What's next? A rock that'll sap him of his powers? Or maybe slowly kill him the longer it's sitting next to him."

"We already have enough to deal with, Cisco, I don't think we need to come up with any other weaknesses that Barry can have," Caitlin said.

"Again, most of Barry's weaknesses are linked to his speed and through the speed force," Jay explained. "If he loses his connection with the Speed Force it'll make him weaker and that much slower."

"So he draws power form the Speed Force but when that power becomes too much, which it clearly has, it could be considered a weakness as well," Harry said. Jay rolled his eyes at Harry's brusque tone. "That has to be something that's a weakness for Zoom, too."

"And I'm sure that slow serum that you're trying to create has brought you to the conclusion," Jay said. "How much longer do you think it'll take?"

Harry's eyes shifted all the way to the side so he could glare at Jay out of the corner of his eye. "There's still plenty of ingredients I need to recover though I have gotten the equations figured out." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "No thanks to you."

Now Jay's eyes narrowed. "I believe helping Barry through his speed issues is the best thing for him at the moment. I can't have him be distracted by what may or may not work in terms of a 'slow serum'." He finally dropped his hand away from Caitlin's shoulder and took a step forward, turning towards Barry. Harry dropped the subject as well, turning back to the notepad of equations that stretched out in front of him. Barry gave a half smile; at least they finally managed to settle their differences for the time being.

"The last time that happened to me was shortly before Zoom took my speed," Jay said. "It took a little while to master but I think you can do it even faster than I ever could. Once you completely embrace the Speed Force and the surge in power that comes to you."

"And you think this can help me stop Zoom?" Barry asked tentatively. That's all he needed to know. If he could catch up to Zoom, he had a better chance of…of what exactly? What was he really stopping him from? Killing him? Taking his speed? Was that really all he wanted to do? Jay had said Zoom was trying to defeat the Flash's of each Earth, but what did it mean when he finally succeeded?

Before Barry got the chance to ask the questions out loud, Cadence walked into the Cortex. "Hey," she greeted everyone. She scanned the room and her friends, her gaze landing on the blood drying underneath Barry's nose. "What's going on?"

Everyone fell silent as they got a good look at Cadence. The fire meta-human, who typically didn't go anywhere without at least some makeup on, and very put together was makeup free. Dark circles stood out under her eyes, of which didn't hold the same spirit light they usually did. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail rather than lose around her face, and everyone was sure her face was thinner. Rather than the fitted jeans, shorts, and blouses she typically wore, she was dressed in a pair of camouflage capris, a black t-shirt, and an oversized jacket that made her appear even smaller than usual.

"What happened to your nose?" She asked, as if oblivious to the stares she was receiving.

"Uh, we were just talking about Barry's connection to the Speed Force," Cisco said, the first to recover from his surprise. "He's getting a lot stronger, taking in a lot more power from it, but it's been taking a toll as you can see." He gestured towards Barry's face. "Not as handsome as it usually is."

Silence stretched once more. Harry excused himself to go to his office, which was actually Cisco's office, as Cisco reminded him sharply when he left the room because he 'wanted everything put back the way it was'. Jay then excused himself as well, saying he would be in the basement working on the breach.

Caitlin smiled at him as he passed, then cleared her throat once the four friends were left in the room. She walked over to Cadence and gave her a tight hug, which Cadence returned gratefully. "So, how're things going?"

"As fine as they can be," Cadence said. She shrugged, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Her eyebrows then rose and she said, before anyone could ask. "We got back from Metropolis last night."

"Where's Brady?"

"At home with my mom."

"Is she moving here?" Barry asked.

"No. But she's a mom and she's been doting on us since Dad died." Cadence said it so matter-of-fact that Barry's eyebrows came together in concern. It had been two weeks since Kent Nash had died in his sleep from a brain aneurysm. A complication from his inoperable brain tumor. Everyone's day had taken a quick turn; from the happy and exciting Thanksgiving the day before to the somber news the next day.

The funeral had been arranged and executed quickly, a few days after Kent's death. But as Cadence explained it at the reception, it was against Kent's wishes for his burial to take too long and "as long as they had the money for it" they should be prepared to do it quickly. It had been a short service, more of a party than a funeral, which was also something Kent wanted. People from all over Metropolis, Starling City, Keystone City, Smallville, Gotham, and Central City attended the funeral.

To be honest, Barry felt a little out of place being there. He hadn't had much of a chance to get to know Kent other than the few conversations and going to Metropolis to help celebrate his tenure in the advertising industry. Caitlin and Cisco felt the same, though they all went to be there to support Cadence and Brady.

The second funeral in only a few weeks. First Janitor Brown and then Kent Nash. Two people who had died in two completely different circumstances but were just as harsh of a reminder of how fragile life was. Barry couldn't help but think that it was the third one he had been to in so many years. How many more would he have to go to? How many because of metas? How many would be close to him? It spurred him every day, to make sure there were more people who stayed protected. There were enough people getting caught in the crossfire, innocent lives that were taken all because metas could.

So he had to run faster, had to be a hero in some way, even if he wasn't close to catching Zoom. Zoom was an obstacle; saving his city was the end goal. Oliver had mentioned the same thing as they stood aside at the funeral, the last to stand at the headstone. They were strangely connected in that way; having gone to too many funerals, too many lives cut down around them whether they were directly responsible or not. It was something they had to get used to. Oliver, a man of a few words, was the one who reassured Barry that they "couldn't save everyone."

Barry took a minute before saying, "But I can still try," in response. "I have to try."

And Oliver nodded. He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "When my mother was murdered, I thought that was the worst thing that could happen. I saw her begging for my and Thea's life. For us to be safe." He nodded at Barry. "I'm sure you understand how that feels." Barry made a sound that proved he did. "I always thought that would be the worst way to go, in fear, in anger…just wanting to protect their family. But with this…" Oliver took a deep breath. "Honestly, I think this way is worse, watching it slowly happen. Or maybe I've become too accustomed with the way I do things."

"You always were pretty particular," Barry said. There was a light, teasing lift to his voice.

Oliver managed a half smile. "I've said it to you before, Barry. That you're a different kind of hero. You can do so much more for Central City. I still believe that. There's going to be more people you lose as time goes on, that's the way this…vigilante business works. As long as you keep hope alive, that you keep your team together…" he trailed off.

But Barry knew what he meant.

"You know, I didn't realize how big our house was until we started getting dad's stuff together to get rid of," Cadence said, breaking Barry out of his thoughts. "That's what kept us in Metropolis for so long. We would've been back sooner." She shrugged. "So, what else did I miss? Anything at work? Any big metas?"

"There hasn't been much going on other than some robberies," Caitlin explained. "Things have been pretty quiet around here."

"Captain Singh is getting married soon and everyone at the CCPD is invited," Barry explained. He thought for a moment. "Other than that, not much has been going on at work." He watched as Cadence smiled a small smile, his heart sinking in dismay when he realized it didn't reach her eyes.

"Does everyone still call you—"

"—Hot Lips?" Barry broke in. "Yeah."

Cadence chuckled to herself. At least she found some humor in it. It _was_ partially her fault that Captain Singh had caught them making out in her office and loudly—and amusedly—reprimanded them for not doing their jobs. All after Barry had explained things between him and Patty. Thankfully, Barry could see he was more amused of the situation than actually being mad. The tension around Captain Singh had lessened considerably since he had become engaged as well as Flash and Flare saving him from the meta-spiders.

"It's better than Baby-Face, right?" she asked.

"Mm. Not really."

Cadence laughed again. "I'm sorry. I'll talk to Captain Sing about it if you're so embarrassed."

"No, it's not that, it's…" but Barry didn't finish his sentence. He wasn't quite sure what to do, honestly. Every time he called she had reassured her that she was okay and yet she didn't look it. They hadn't talked long but he promised he would call her every day and had kept that promise. He knew what it was like to lose a parent and knew that she probably wanted her space to process things.

He wished he had that luxury. After his mother died he had nothing but people constantly asking him how he was, wanting to know what he saw that night, wanting to know if he ever thought his father could really do that. Question after question, thing after thing to try and make him happy, to try and forget what happened with his parents. And everyone walked on egg-shells around him and…honestly that was the most annoying thing. How everyone acted like he was going to break without a moment's notice.

Well, he wasn't going to do the same thing. "I was just doing some speed runs," he explained. "Do you want to spar?"

Cadence gave him a grateful smile. "Only if you're ready to lose."

Barry smiled back.

"Caitlin and I will get everything set up so we can track it," Cisco suggested. "If Barry can tap into the Speed Force more often now, then maybe he's on the verge of using a new ability and I don't want to miss that."

"But…" Caitlin started. She took in a deep breath. If there was anyone else who knew what it was like to lose a parent, like to lose a _father_ due to unstoppable reasons it was Caitlin. She was as much of a daddy's girl as Cadence was and had an idea of the pain she had to be feeling. "Are you okay?"

For a moment, something blazed in Cadence's eyes, showing her irritation. "Why? Are you going to ask me that all day?"

"No," Caitlin said in the same, calm tone. "I'm just concerned."

"No," Cadence said honestly, answering her question. "But that's okay."

* * *

As the doorbell rang Harrison, opened his eyes. He listened for a moment, taking in the classical music that wafted around him that played from the speakers in the room. He heard the doorbell ring again, a few seconds longer than the last time. A few seconds impatient. It jarred Harrison out of his thoughts.

He glanced around the spacious living room, tilted his head to look at the glass ceiling that allowed the warm sunlight to trickle in. How long had he been sitting there that day? The last two weeks? Long enough that Tess was starting to worry. She said so just about every morning. But that was the funny thing about grief, people went about it differently. Tess, having had been alone for so long since the accident that had split them apart busied herself in her work. That's what helped her through in the first place, busying herself in her physical therapy and recovery to think about the husband she lost.

 _Thought_ she lost.

Harrison was the same way. Or else Eobard was. When Eobard had taken over his body Harrison felt his consciousness slipping away, his feelings for Tess and all of his old friends with it. His relationship with the Nashes had slipped through the cracks and ultimately started to fade away. All until he saw Cadence again and Eobard slowly started to lose his grip on Harrison. Harrison—or rather his consciousness—managed to work its way through to the forefront, long enough to be able to speak some truths until Eobard took over again. Eobard's presence…the only upside to it was that Harrison didn't feel much of anything when people around him passed or were targeted.

It was the only thing he still hoped was possible. To not feel anything. To be numb. When he had spotted Kent and Maya at the West house for Thanksgiving he had felt elation at first. Pure elation that he hadn't felt in a long time. They were his best friends, and he was truly able to see and talk to them as _him_. It was like nothing had ever changed. They caught up on their lives, keeping things in the past, and looking forward to the future. Though the elephant in the room was not acknowledged. How does one spend a holiday with two sets of parents around that hadn't been around in years? They may as well have been divorcees with the supposed tension.

But it wasn't there.

And as Harrison talked to Kent about plans to advertise for STAR Labs, to use a good PR tactic to relive STAR Labs to its former glory and remind the city that Harrison wasn't a bad guy. It all fell apart once the phone call came. Harrison had listened as the news was broken to him then turned to Tess, who had been sitting next to him, looking through legislations, laws, and bills that had been passed, hoping to find a way to completely eradicate the MRA before it got off the ground. One look at his face and she knew.

And since then they hadn't talked about it, instead holding each other tightly in lingering hugs as they left for work each day. Harrison was to go into STAR Labs later that night, fulfilling his promise that he'd be around more. He was done trying to avoid everything that Eobard had done to betray the trust he had from Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry. They were two different people and they needed to know that. To know he was part of Team Flash and would be working to stop Zoom and the MRA as much as the rest of them were.

Finally, Harrison stood up as the doorbell rang once more. He picked up the tiny remote that controlled the stereo and turned it off. The song stopped abruptly, playing an off-key as it was cut short. For a moment Harrison wanted to start the song again, to end it at a better place, to sound more complete. But he brushed off the thought and went to the front door. Harrison pulled it open to find Henry standing on the front porch, hands on his hips, glancing around at the extravagance of the outside.

"Mr. Allen," Harrison said with a nod. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I hope you don't mind that I dropped by," Henry said.

"Not at all. Please come in." Harrison took a step back and allowed Henry inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click. "Would you care for something to drink?"

"Just water would be fine."

"Make yourself comfortable, then." Harrison went into the kitchen to get the water that he was asked of and got himself one as well. Then he went back to the living room, finding Henry gazing around at the similar extravagance inside than out. "I find it all to be a little embarrassing," he said honestly. "Even Tess has been getting on my case about how much space we have here."

Henry took the water that was offered to him and turned to look out the window that led over the sprawling backyard. "I don't doubt you can find a way to fill up the space a little bit more," Henry said.

Harrison paused. "We do have space set aside for Cadence and Brady if they ever wanted to stay."

"Actually, you brought up the topic as to why I came around," Henry said. He took in a deep breath. "This is something I hope to bring to Joe's attention soon, however I wanted someone impartial to give an outside opinion to." Harrison nodded, motioning for Henry to continue. "Especially as Barry has also grown to see you as a father figure of sorts. Or as little as I understand about this whole Flash and metahuman business, he did."

Harrison gave a small smile. "You think it's hardest to understand? Try being the who can't tell where he starts and ends anymore. I assume this topic at hand is how to be Barry's father again when you haven't been for a long time."

"Yes," Henry agreed. "If there's anyone who knows about sharing the responsibility."

"Except I've never had the chance to share it," Harrison pointed out. "Kent and Maya have always been Cadence's parents in her eyes until she learned the truth. Since then we've grown closer and I still very much consider her my daughter but the dynamic is a different enough for it to be noticed. Now she's working to adjust to Tess being back, just as I have."

"In a way, I feel resentment for Joe," Henry said. "Because of everything he's been able to do for Barry while I was rotting away in a jail cell."

"Much like I felt for Kent while rotting away in my own jail cell," Harrison agreed. "Though mine was in my mind more than anything else. But that can be just as alienating." He took a sip of his water. "I'm sorry, I'm making this about myself when you wanted to talk. Barry's not the same man, same boy, that you remember him being when he was young."

"But he is," Henry insisted. "The only thing that's changed is that he has powers. Everything else is the same Barry I've known and loved since before he was born. And yet, I feel that there's a part of me that'll always be an arm's length away no matter what happens after that." He shook his head, swallowed hard. "He's been with Joe much longer than he had been with me, he's seen him raised essentially his entire life while I've only gotten a glimpse once or twice a month. So when I was finally released and let back into the world I got the harsh reality that more than just the world had changed. It was easy to see Barry as The Flash when I wasn't seeing it firsthand."

"Hearing about it and seeing it are two different things," Harrison agreed.

"Especially with this Registration act that's coming about."

"That is indeed another stressor that has added to our already full plates. Mayor Bellows is slated to make is decision on the matter within the week. Tess has been working around the clock to find any means that will stop it."

"What will happen if it does get passed? Will Barry and the others have to reveal themselves."

"They will."

"Is that so bad?"

"It would mean everyone around them would be in as much danger as they are themselves. With the added pressures of those knowing about their abilities it means the government could do with that info as they please." Harrison paused to let that sink in. "Let alone not being able to be anonymous as they go out in public. Then there's a chance, in Barry's case, you'd be questioned and experimented upon as well to see if there is a link with his metahuman DNA. And his and Joe's work at the CCPD would be heavily scrutinized due to the amount of metahuman cases that had to do with The Flash. Chances are, they could be fired from their jobs and eventually tried due to the conflict of interest."

Henry nodded slowly. There were a lot of things he had to think about, wanting to be more in Barry's life meant wanting to be more in Flash's life, too. There was a lot that he would need to adjust to. Mostly in knowing that Barry wasn't just his anymore. It wasn't anything that worried him when he was in prison, his son was being taken care of. But how could he come back into that role when he was _still_ continuing to be taken care of?

Henry licked his lips, sighing. "If there's one thing this has all taught me," Henry said slowly. "It's that I can't be happy without knowing about Barry's well-being. Without knowing he's okay. I've been gone long enough; it's time for me to come back."

Harrison nodded. He lifted his glass in a toast. "Cheers to your sentiment."

* * *

Cadence didn't glance away from her book when there was a knock at the door. "Come in," she called.

The door squeaked open and Brady slowly entered the room, carefully balancing a tray filled with plates of grilled cheese and tomato soup. His tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth as he moved across the room, being careful not to spill. Cadence chuckled, resting her cheek in her upraised palm. Her back stretched as she did so and she tried not to wince. She tried a little too hard when sparring to keep her mind off things. But it had been good practice for Barry.

Then she tried to get Caitlin and Cisco to get some sparring in…and probably had a _little_ too much fun knocking them onto the mats. Anything to keep from going back to the apartment. The minute she got back her mother was asking her question after questions of where she had been and what she was doing. Cadence knew it was because she was worried sick the moment they were out of sight, she understood that feeling. But it was starting to get to her more than anything else.

Especially because she kept asking, "How are you, honey?"

She was five seconds away from losing it completely, tired of the worried looks and averted conversation topics.

She lost her dad two weeks ago, how was she supposed to feel? Like her entire life had fallen apart faster than she had anticipated? Like she had been sucker punched in the stomach by Atom Smasher? That it was easier to deal with losing people she didn't personally know and could brush it off like water off a duck's wing. That she saw the horrors of being a hero for Central City day after day? That she felt useless with healing powers that couldn't work on someone she _really_ cared about so what kind of hero was she?

Check.

Check.

And check.

Part of her had hoped she wouldn't feel anything, having had grieved over his fate when she first heard about his sickness. But the tragedy of pain was stronger than anyone could even begin to describe.

"What you got there, bud?" she asked as Brady set the tray down on her bedside table. She closed her book and set it aside, pushing it under her pillow.

"Grilled Cheese," Brady explained. "And some tomato soup." Brady turned to face her. "I thought you'd be hungry."

"I'm not, but thanks." She nodded to the tray. "You can take it back to the kitchen."

Brady frowned. Then he climbed over his mother, striking her in the ribs and stomach with his elbows and knees, before settling onto the bed next to her. "You need to eat, mom."

"I have eaten."

"You haven't eaten much in days. Mamaw says so."

"Mamaw doesn't know what she's talking about."

"She says you've lost too much weight."

Cadence twisted her mouth to the side. That part was certainly true. She could see it in her face. Recognized it in her residency when people were underweight or weren't eating properly. So she hadn't really felt like it, there was too much to be done. Too many assets to move, things to comb over in her father's will, making sure her mother had someone to lean on. How strange, falling into a parenting role for her own parent.

Reaching over, Cadence picked up the tray and carefully set it on her bedspread. "How about we split it?" Brady nodded and eagerly took half the sandwich. Cadence took her half and took a bite. "Since when did you know how to make grilled cheese."

"I learned," Brady said. "Some other stuff, too."

"In two weeks?"

Brady nodded again. "I wanted to help you. I can do more chores and stuff."

Cadence rested her chin in her hand. "How are _you_ doing? With everything?"

Brady pursed his lips, dug his finer into the bedspread. "I miss him. But I miss my friends, too. I want to go back to school but…I don't want people to talk about it."

"Don't worry, bud, by now they'll know not to. They'll be happy to see you because you'll be back in school. I'm sure you missed your friends a lot." He nodded. "But I'm sure you haven't missed the homework." At Brady's roll of his eyes Cadence laughed. "I thought so."

"Mom?" Brady asked after a minute. "Are you upset that you weren't able to save PaPaw?"

Cadence thought for a moment. "Sad," she finally admitted. "I'm more sad then mad. But here's the thing, bug, and I want you to listen carefully, if you're going to be out in the field with us then you have to be prepared to lose people you're trying to save. Failure is something we all have to live with, but it's how you overcome it that defines you. You get it?"

Brady nodded. "Got it."

"Good."

The two finished their grilled cheese and Cadence pulled her book back out from under her pillow. Brady glanced at the cover, declared it was 'boring' then left the room. He came back a few minutes later with his tablet in hand. Brady settled into the bed beside her, then leaned over and rubbed his face against his mother's, something that he hadn't done in about two years, and leaned back to start his YouTube video.

It wasn't until twenty minutes later that she heard Brady's soft snoring and looked over to find his tablet half resting on his face, half laying against his chest. With a smile, Cadence closed her own book then lay down next to him, setting her book aside before closing her eyes. She let out a long breath, feeling her body relax into the mattress, feeling the day's stressors melt away.

She closed her eyes.

There was a loud bang.

Her eyes opened again, body jerking with surprise. What was that sound? She listened hard, trying to figure out if her mother had dropped a pot in the kitchen again. As quiet as she tried to be she couldn't' completely abstain from bumping around the small kitchen compared to her expansive one.

Cadence's eyes shifted as she took in her bearings. Her book wasn't next to her. That had to have been it. Her book fell to the floor, startling her from just falling asleep. It was just as well, she had things she needed to do and sleeping wasn't going to help anything. Cadence moved her leg. Tried to. It wouldn't move.

Her eyebrows came together. She tried to move her leg again, nothing. Okay. She tried to move her arm from the curled position towards her chest. They weren't moving either. In her mind she was screaming for her body parts to move, intense terror starting to move through her body. Move. Move, dammit! Why couldn't she move?

Then she felt something behind her. A presence that she could sense, but couldn't twist around to see. She wasn't alone. Something was standing behind her, hovering over her. Weight pressed down onto her bed and Cadence's heart started to race even faster. She tried to open her mouth to shout, to scream, but all that came out was a quiet groan.

In her head, Cadence frantically thrashed around; lashing out with her arms and legs at her invisible assailant. But outside, in reality, her body was fully paralyzed. Light gasps escaped her throat, her attempts at frantic screams. _Move! MOVE!_ Her terror increased when a shadow hovered overhead. Cadence shifted her eyes to the side, muscles in her neck straining to turn her head as she looked on in horror at Breathtaker's glowing eyes above her.

Finally, _finally_ Cadence shifted her leg. The movement let the rest of her body move and she gasped loudly, sitting upright. The image of Breathtaker immediately disappeared as she did so, gone in the blink of an eye. Brady continued to sleep quietly next to her.

She sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

She could've sworn he was there.

Across Central City Barry was experiencing the same thing. He had gotten back to the house after STAR Labs and took a shower. Then, glancing at his watch, he found he was actually on time, ahead of time actually, before going in to work. He gathered his things together, making sure everything was in its right place when fatigue suddenly swept over him. It wasn't so strange, he had worked harder earlier that day and his healing powers could only do so much without a good amount of sleep.

Barry went to his bed and dropped on it facedown. It felt like only a few seconds when he woke up again, his eyes shooting open. Something was there, he could feel it. Every muscle in his body tensed, ready to take on whatever was waiting for him. A warm chill ran down his spine as his eyes lifted to find Zoom standing in front of him, watching him carefully. Zoom's head slowly tilted to the side, wild eyes trained on him.

Sucking in a deep breath, Barry moved to press his hands into the bed, to push himself upwards but found his body uncooperative. He wasn't moving. His arms weren't moving. Barry's eyes widened in fear; he tried to place his feet on the floor but they wouldn't move either. None of his tense muscles would fire, allowing him to leap up and fling himself towards Zoom. Nothing.

 _Move,_ Barry thought.

"Heroes die," Zoom rasped.

He raced forward and stuck Barry in the back, his spine breaking in two.

Barry cried out and pushed himself up and backwards off his bed, sucking in a deep breath as he did so. Frantically, Barry slapped at his back, still feeling the sting of Zoom's hand through his body. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down.

It was then Barry realized that Zoom was gone and he felt completely well-rested.

* * *

 **A/N:** So, what do you think of this original meta? Yes, it's a meta that's doing this. You'll see more of Cade's and Brady's reactions to Kent's passing but I'm working to move the pacing of the story a little faster.

 **Review Replies**

 **Everyone:** General consensus is that everyone's sad that Kent died. I'm glad I was able to give such a visceral response to it but, as I said, it had been coming and was foreshadowed since Crossfire, even before his illness was mentioned. I'm glad you all enjoyed the chapter despite that happening.

I do have a question for you though, am I doing a good job with weaving story plots together as things go on? As I said I do plan on having the pacing move faster, hopefully *fingers crossed* with a fight per chapter to help out as I have plenty of ideas with them and how they tie into Zoom's story.

Also, fun fact, I have a parallel theme running through multiple points of this story. I'll do a free one-shot for anyone who can guess it right. Lol.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	28. Nightmare

**.:28:.**

 _Nightmare_

* * *

Iris stretched her arms over her head, leaning away from her computer. How many more times was she going to pull long nights at the CCPN? Not that she wasn't grateful for the different news stories that kept her busy, but this was the fourth night in a row and it was starting to get to her. She couldn't even really remember the last time she had talked to her dad face to face.

These days she was running in and out of the house just to shower and have a quick dinner. She wasn't even close enough to stop at her own apartment. To be honest, she was thinking of moving back into her old house; her apartment didn't have anything for her. Her friends weren't nearby, the commute wasn't that great, and…it wasn't home. She loved having her dad and Barry so close where she could talk to them about her problems and her day rather than have a fly-by conversation when she was running as fast as The Flash to make it everywhere.

No one was supposed to live through notes left on the coffee table for them to see when they came by. Of course her dad and Barry were busy, too. They had so much to work on with the CCPD and even then there was the MRA looming over everyone's heads. Mayor Bellows's decision was going to be made that day and everyone was waiting with baited breath. Especially those at the CCPN, every conversation in the break room and between moments of working on their own stories was about the metahumans in Central City.

Were they threats?

Were they helpful?

What could anyone do to fix the problem with them?

 _Should_ they all reveal themselves? Was that the best option for them?

"Let me guess, you're wondering how long it's going to take until you stop seeing this place as your bedroom." Linda said. She leaned over from the side of her desk. Her eyes flashed with mirth. "I mean, I've been wondering the same thing. It's gotten to the point that I've actually started to see the bathroom on the second floor as my own personal bathroom I've been getting ready there so much."

Iris smiled, her eyebrows rising. "You mean you haven't been spending a lot of time at Wally's place?"

"Uh, no," Linda said. Her smile faded a little. Then she ran her hand through her hair. "Actually, that's the thing. He's a little younger than we are and he's only just starting college in the city. So he still lives at home with his mom."

"Oh." Iris wasn't sure what to say.

She hadn't thought Wally was _that_ young, or maybe it was the way he spoke that was so mature. Otherwise, the time she spent with him it was clear that he and Linda really did like each other. The age difference could be a real killer, while in high school she had gone out with a senior while she was a sophomore. It was clear very early that while he liked her, he couldn't get over the pressures of his friends that he should be dating someone his own age.

The really dumb part was that they were only a year apart and considering the cutoff date for being in their grades just kept her from being a junior then.

"It's not funny," Linda said.

Iris brought her hand up to her mouth. She _was_ smiling. Well, that was the last thing she wanted, but it was a little funny. "I'm not laughing," Iris said. "I just think it's kind of cute. Besides, no one ever said dating a younger man was a bad thing. That just means that you get to enjoy the comforts of your own home for a while."

"Ha ha." Linda tossed a pen at her. Then she turned her head as the door to the CCPN opened and she nodded. "Oh, there he is. We're going to lunch."

Iris looked over and waved at Wally. Then her eyes shifted behind him and her smile widened. "Oh! And there's my dad!" Iris stood up and walked over to Joe, giving him a big hug. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"We haven't been able to have dinner together since you've been working so hard and I thought I'd come down and catch you on a break." Joe patted her on the back then looked around the office where the other reporters hustled and bustled, barely looking up as the two African-American men had come in. "Wow, looks like everyone is really grinding here."

"You have no idea," Iris said.

"I don't think any of us have gone home in the last couple of days," Linda agreed. She glanced at Wally. "I'm sorry, Detective West, this is my boyfriend, Wally." Iris looked at Linda with raised eyebrows, wondering about the upgrade in their relationship. Linda mimicked Iris's expression and gently stuck out her tongue before the two women watched as Joe and Wally shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Wally said. Almost stuttering as he heard Joe was a police detective. But he kept his composure.

"It's nice to meet you, too," Joe said. He studied Wally curiously, lowering his hand. "I'm sorry, have we met before?"

"Not that I remember," Wally said. He gave a smile that was half charming, half nervous. "I don't remember ever being pulled over."

Joe chuckled. "That's not exactly what I do as my job as a detective. When I worked beat, yes, but not so much now. I work more with metahuman crimes now."

Wally nodded. "Yeah, I understand everyone really has their own opinions about everything that's going on with the metahumans and everything. But man, if I could run even a fraction of the speed that The Flash can…I would have a lot of fun with that. I'd do so many good things."

"Oh, speaking of Barry, is he going to join us?" Iris asked. It took only a second for her to realize her mistake. Wally and Linda were both looking at her strangely while Joe turned to her with an imperceptible expression of shock. Had she _really_ outed Barry as the Flash without a second of thought? "Um." Iris gave herself a second of thought, turning back to them. "He loves the Flash almost as much as it seems like you do, Wally. He's _always_ been into the impossible."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Wally said. The grin came back to his face, making Iris relax. "One day Central City was like every other city, the next it has one of the coolest heroes ever."

"Yeah, well, let's hope he hears that," Joe said. He reached up and scratched behind his ear. "And hope it doesn't go to his head," he added under his breath, making Iris laugh. He looked at his watch. "Well, we were going to go to dinner and I guess Barry will meet us there, but do you two want to join us?"

"Oh, we couldn't impose," Linda said.

"Nonsense, you know with us it's the more the merrier," Iris said. She looked away for a second, trying not to grimace. The last time everyone had been together, it was the day before Kent had died. Talk about a damper on a good time. She felt just as bad as everyone else, if not a little worse since it was her idea to bring everyone together. "That's what we always say in our family."

"And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," Joe added.

"Well, if you insist," Wally said.

"I do."

Joe led the way out of the CCPN, holding the door open for everyone. He turned forward, about to walk out then stopped, staring at the woman in front of him. Standing so stock still that the door to the CCPN swung shut behind him, striking him in the back. "Francine?" He asked.

"Joe," the woman replied.

"Hey, mom, you made it!" Wally said. If he noticed the strange tension around Joe and Francine, he didn't show it, giving his mother a tight hug. Then he turned to Linda. "I know this is a shock but my mom really wanted to have dinner with me tonight and…" he took his eyes away from Linda and looked around the group. "What?"

"You…you're his mother?" Joe asked.

Francine took in a deep breath, reaching up a hand to run over her short, cropped natural hair style. She was a very beautiful African-American woman, who, despite the nervousness she was currently displaying, radiated beauty and light around her. As she stared back at Joe, he recognized the familiarity with her that he hadn't felt or seen in years.

Iris stepped towards her father, tilting her head. "Dad?" She asked.

Francine then looked at Iris, her eyes widening even further. "Iris?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Iris said slowly. She closed her eyes, briefly shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I'm being so rude. I'm Iris." She reached out her hand and shook Francine's firmly. "I'm a friend of Wally's and Linda's."

Francine shook her head gently yet firmly, hand limp, face twisted up in an expression of shock. Then she dropped her hand and reached out, as if to touch Iris's face, then restrained herself. "Joe, It's been a long time," She finally said.

"Wait." Wally pointed back and forth between the two. "You two know each other?"

Joe and Francine exchanged a glance. "Yeah, we…uh…" Joe pressed his lips together. Closed his eyes. He wasn't really sure what to say but at the same time…there was so much to say. A lot to explain. What was the best thing to do in this situation? There were so many questions that needed to be answered… "We…we used to be married." Francine closed her eyes and looked away. Iris's and Wally's eyes both shot to each other, taking in their features. Were their noses the same? Their eyes? "Wally's…Wally's not much younger than Iris is he?"

"Joe," Francine started. "There's a lot we need to talk about."

"Sounds like there's a lot _we_ need to talk about, too," Iris said, turning to her father. She frantically tried to search his eyes, but he looked away, shoulders rounding with shame.

"Wait, so you're saying…Wally is Iris's brother?" Linda asked.

 _Brother?_ The only brother Iris knew she had, in a pseudo-way was Barry. They had grown up together and while they weren't blood related they may as well have been together since birth. She knew his in and outs and how he worked and equally how to get on his nerves just as he knew her. _He_ was the brother that she knew. But before then…it had been only her and her father and she had questioned early on what happened to her mother and when was she going to get a little brother or sister. Joe had deflected each of the question with a simple; 'things didn't work out between us, baby' and 'I'll let you know when I have one planned, I already have enough to handle with you'.

But he said it filled with love and she slowly stopped asking.

Now she had those answers in front of her, dropped on her like a bomb and she didn't know what to say.

All of a sudden there was a gust of wind, causing everyone's hair and clothes to pull around and she heard Barry struggling to catch his breath and keep his composure behind her. Slowly, all eyes turned to Barry and he rested his hands on his hips. "Hey, sorry I'm late," he apologized. "I had to finish up some stuff at the CCPD and…" he paused, looking over everyone's faces. "What'd I miss?"

* * *

"Brother?" Caitlin repeated, Barry's statement. Her eyes widened as she pushed up the sleeves of her blouse. "Iris has a brother?"

Barry shrugged. He lounged back against the wall and crossed his legs at the knee. A long sigh escaped his lips. "Yeah, it turns out that it's Wally." How strange it was for it to be revealed to him, too. As soon as Iris told him he felt a little bit of…possession with the Wests, knowing he had been a part of the family as long as he could remember. Many times forgetting that he wasn't truly a West, and wasn't truly an Allen but a WestAllen. Now there was someone else being added to the family and it affected him more than he thought it would.

"And you guys thought I was crazy for saying they looked similar," Cisco said with a half smile. The smile faded almost instantly, realizing it wasn't the best time to bring up his smug realization. "So…what's the story behind that, what happened?"

"And how did they not know for so long?" Cadence asked. Caitlin lowered her head, allowing her hair to fall over her face, skillfully blocking her face from the others so they wouldn't notice the guilty look that crossed her face. But she didn't do it fast enough for Cisco, who glanced at her, eyes flicking towards her in suspicion, but didn't say anything. "Wouldn't looking through pictures have given a clue?"

Barry sucked in a deep breath. Those were all questions he had for Joe as well, but was smart enough not to ask. He saw the devastated look in Joe's eyes and knew there was a lot of things that had suddenly come back to haunt him that he thought never would. Iris handled it very well, for now. Once the revelation came about everyone went their separate ways with Joe heading back to the CCPD—almost in a daze and Iris going back to work. Barry stuck around for a few minutes to try and talk to Iris but she shooed him away, promising everything was okay and she'll talk to him later.

His first stop was back to STAR Labs, they were putting in extra practice at night to get ready in case Zoom decided to make another appearance. Not only was the extra practice due diligence to increase their fighting and planning skills, but kept them on their toes in case there was an incident they needed to go to. (Though the practice prompted Cisco to question if it was constantly dark in Star City as nothing seemed to happen until nighttime).

"I don't know," Barry said. That was all he could say. He didn't know what had happened with Francine back then or what was going to happen moving forward. Of what they've seen of Wally he seemed like a really cool guy and if Linda was dating him then that was a stamp of approval as far as he knew.

"Is Wally going to stick around?" Brady asked. He sat on Caitlin's lap in her chair, gently pushing the two back and forth with his feet planted on the ground.

"I don't know that either," Barry said. "But we should be on our toes just in case. It's someone else that's going to be around that doesn't know what we do…but also someone who can get caught up in everything."

"No problem, man," Cisco said with a nod. He cleared his throat. "So, I think we should get back to work." He looked at Barry meaningfully and Barry nodded in response, allowing Cisco to turn to Caitlin and Cadence and say, "You're going to be working on—"

"—Checking improvements," Caitlin agreed, widening her eyes slightly. "We'll let you know if there's anything substantial. We'll be checking out Brady's as well. He hasn't been shadowing you guys on calls long but it'd be good to know if his abilities have progressed in some way."

"Okay, let us know," Barry said. He nudged Cisco on the shoulder and the two left the Cortex, walking to the floor below. "So where's Harry?"

"The same place he always is," Cisco replied. He rolled his eyes. "Lodged in my office, working on whatever top secret stuff he's working on and being a dick to me every time I so much as cross over the threshold." He held up his hands.

"But you're not annoyed or anything," Barry said. There was a light lift to his tone that not even Cisco could miss.

Cisco gave a wry smile. "No, I'm not annoyed at all. Why?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking about this whole Speed Force, thing," Barry said. He and Cisco came into the room and flipped on the lights. Pieces of metal and wood sat in clumped piles around the room. As quickly as Barry could assemble them together with his speed, he wasn't very confident in the sturdiness of everything. Hence why Cisco was helping him, putting his engineering background to use in more ways than one. Not that Barry could take credit for it anyway; Cisco and Caitlin had both come up with it and brought Barry onboard. "I felt like when I first tapped into it, when I learned how to phase, it was something that I just had to feel. Now it's something I have to control? I don't even know where to start with that."

"Well, if it's an extension of your own powers, then it shouldn't be that hard," Cisco said. He shook his head, picking up a hammer and nail, lining it up along a long plank of wood. "I might not be the best to ask about it, considering I only just got my powers and as cool as they are I have _no_ idea how to control them. But it sounds like you're letting your own insecurities get in the way." He lifted a hand towards Barry and moved it in a circle. "Use the force, Luke!"

Barry grinned at the Star Wars reference. _I guess the Speed Force is kind of like 'The Force'_ he thought. Where The Force is an energy field created by all living things, a metaphysical, spiritual sort of power, he Speed Force was a sort of energy he drew from…wherever it came from. But while Luke Skywalker learned to use the Force, it seemed like the Speed Force was using Barry time and time again rather than learning how to use it to his advantage. So far his skills all boiled down to running as fast as he possibly could, the more he could learn of the Speed Force the better.

"So, it's so strange with this whole family theme we've got going on lately," Cisco said after a few long moments of silence of the two working. "A whole circle of life thing, lose a father gain a brother."

"Yeah, it's really weird," Barry said. "Kind of a roller coaster of emotions, you know? I know exactly how that feels. I didn't know whether to be upset about what happened with my mom or be happy that Joe and Iris were there for me and I felt guilty for it all the time."

"It's strange to think that your life could be so different after everything that happened," Cisco mused. "Like, what would've happened if Joe and Iris weren't able to take you in? What if Wally and his mom had stayed with them the whole time?"

"What if Eobard had never killed me mom?" Barry broke in. Cisco nodded quietly. It was a hard thing to come to terms with, death and their work with metahumans. It was all bound to happen; they weren't able to save everyone. But when it came to those that didn't pose a threat at all, those that had their lives cut short…what where they supposed to do to move on? How did that black cloud go away? "I think about that sometimes but I try not to worry about it too much. There'd be a lot of things I'd miss out in life if they didn't happen the same way they had."

"Like meeting me," Cisco said.

Barry grinned, shook his head. "I think no matter what happened we would've met, Cisco. My life would be too boring without my best friend."

Cisco beamed. "Thanks, man." Then he paused. "And, think of it this way, if Christmas goes the way it normally does, you and Iris may end up having another brother, because I'll be moving in pronto."

Barry laughed.

Two floors above Barry and Cisco, one above the Cortex, Caitlin, Cadence, and Brady were in the makeshift weight room that had been set up. There were enough floors in STAR Labs that were filled with offices and pieces of technology that hadn't been touched since the Particle Accelerator explosion. Figuring out what to do with all of the rooms was a task they hadn't even begun to think about. How were they supposed to take apart offices that held memories of those they previously worked with?

An image of Ronnie popped into Caitlin's head and she quickly shook it out. Knowing there was a glimmer of hope that he was still alive kept her living but…at the same time she tried not to dwell on it. Until she knew for sure that he was around, until she saw it with her own two eyes, it wasn't anything she wanted to entertain for more than a few seconds. She was progressing in life and didn't want to be caught in that quicksand.

Shifting her gaze, Caitlin watched as Brady ran on the treadmill that had been set up, setting it at a speed that he could keep up on. It was a normal treadmill, not having any of the accoutrements that the Cosmic Treadmill had. Though there was a long moment that Brady had asked to try out the Cosmic Treadmill, and was quickly outvoted by Caitlin and Cadence to try it. Caitlin then turned to Cadence, watching as she carefully lifted and lowered a barbell loaded down with weights over her chest. Her gaze was focused on the ceiling as she did so.

"Don't you need a spotter while you workout?" Caitlin asked. She moved up to Cadence's side, standing over her. A chuckle escaped Cadence's lips, her eyes lighting up a little. Just a little.

"Do you think you can handle it?" She asked, between breaths.

"Absolutely not," Caitlin said. She didn't need to think about it. Hers and Cisco's metahuman physiology hadn't kicked in yet. She could still barely carry an overly loaded bag of her groceries let alone what Cadence was currently benching. And considering Cadence could lift a car when the adrenaline was brought in, Caitlin didn't want to even think of how heavy the barbell was if she ever put it over her chest. "I like having feeling in my arms."

"You don't lose feeling when you use your powers?" Cadence asked.

"No, I can still feel everything," Caitlin said.

She thought for a moment, thinking back to the last time she had used her powers, when taking down Grodd. She wondered what he was doing, if he was okay. Having her own hand in sending him away had been hard; Grodd was a victim of the Particle Accelerator explosion as everyone else was. And yet, here was nowhere for him to be on their Earth. She felt nothing but the fear of needing to keep her friends safe as she sent the arctic blast towards him. Nothing more, nothing less. Almost as if she went to a different frame of mind when she was using her powers.

"Almost like—"

"—It's an extension of your body," Cadence broke in. "Yeah, I get it."

Caitlin nodded. She made a few marks on her clipboard of the progress she and Brady were making. Brady was starting to slow down a little, having already run at a steady speed without complaint or any other noise than his breathing. The year-long soccer training was certainly doing him well. Or maybe it was his drive to make people as proud of him as they were for Barry. She wasn't sure. As expressive and excitable as he was, he also had moments of being quiet, taking cues from everyone around him.

"You know…when my dad died, I constantly wondered if there was anything I could've done to stop it," Caitlin started.

Cadence's eyes narrowed. "Don't."

But Caitlin continued. "I studied about his disease as long and hard as I could; seeing if there was _something_ that the doctors hadn't figured out. That I could've pointed out and shown they could've done something to save him. But I couldn't."

"And then you dedicated the rest of your life to medicine to try and right that wrong and to make sure no one else got hurt. I've heard that sob story many times before."

Caitlin ignored the sarcastic tone to Cadence's voice. She knew the way she was reacting was very reminiscent to what she learned while studying medicine. She was seeing her father as a patient and his death as something that happened as per the way of life. It was a defense mechanism used to keep emotions at bay, to keep from completely breaking down.

"Sooner or later keeping everything inside is going to be worse than letting it out," Caitlin said.

"I've heard that many times before," Cadence said. She stopped lifting weights and bent herself out from underneath the bar to stand up. "I've _said_ it many times before. Look, Cait, I know you're trying to help but I _really_ don't want to talk about this."

"I'm just saying—"

Cadence's eyes flashed. "Well _stop_ saying it!" She snapped. "Just stop! I get that you and Barry and half of the people on the planet know what I'm going through. But that doesn't stop it from hurting. Like it feels like I've been shot. Do you know the worst part? That I sat back and let it happen? All because I did what my dad wanted. He told me time and time again that he didn't want me to at least try to heal him because he said it was the way of life. So I respect him an didn't do anything no matter how badly I wanted to. There wasn't anything you could do for your dad, so just stop!"

Caitlin looked away. She had lost her father many years ago, long enough that she thought the pain had gone away completely. No. It wasn't true. It was still hard to think about when it crept up on her.

"Mom." Brady stopped the treadmill with a sharp jab of his finger to the large, red STOP button. "Shut up and let her help."

With a smile towards the young boy, Caitlin shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Brady. It's better that she lets it out."

"What? Are you my shrink now?" Cadence started to pace the room, her hands slowly becoming engulfed in a red-orange huge. She rapidly clenched and unclenched her fists as she paced. "Are you going to tell me everything that I've done wrong in my life and how it's managed to affect me to this day?"

Caitlin sucked in a deep breath, steeled herself. She glanced down at her hands, noticing it had become engulfed in a icy sheen as she clenched her hand as well. She let out a long breath, releasing her grasp and the light went away. With a relieve sigh, Caitlin stretched her fingertips.

Brady jumped down from the treadmill and went over to his mother, grabbing her wrist. "Mom," he said. This time gently. Cadence looked at him, but Caitlin recognized the look. It was like she was looking _through_ him, like he and nothing else were really there.

"Cade—"Caitlin started.

She was cut off by the sound of an alarm going off. The metahuman alarm. It snapped Cadence out of her trance and she looked at Caitlin before the two hurried back to the Cortex. Cisco, Barry, and Harry were huddled around a computer when they arrived.

"What's going on?" Caitlin asked.

"Got a metahuman going after an armored car," Harry explained. His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked over the map showing on screen. "It was on track to make a delivery to banks in Keystone and Star City."

"Looks like something we can handle," Barry said. He nodded over to Cadence. "You ready to go?"

It took her a few seconds before she replied, "Yeah, let's do it!" The two changed into their suits and Barry swept Cadence off her feet, hurrying the two to the crime scene. Barry came to a stop down the street from the armored car and let Cadence down to her feet. They watched as the armored car careened back and forth, bearing down towards them.

"You see the meta anywhere?" Barry asked.

"No," Cadence replied. "But nothing is ever that easy."

"You're right, let's go."

Cadence lifted her hands and sent a rolling wave of fire towards the tires of the armored car while Barry raced towards the back of the car. He phased inside, just in time to get struck across the face with a heavy bag of coins. He was hit so hard he felt his jaw dislocate then move back into lace as he crashed to the ground. Flipping over, he looked up to find a woman, a little bit older, standing above him, holding two bags in her hands.

"I don't have anything against you, Flash. So just sat out of my way," She said.

"Sorry," Barry said. He got back to his feet. "Once you come into my city and endanger the people that live here, it's something against me." The armored truck suddenly lurched to the side, plastering Barry to the wall. He looked through the peephole that lead to the cabin and found the driver sitting upright, almost as if in a trance. "What?"

Barry felt an arm grab his shoulder and he was yanked hard, pulled out of the back of the armored car. Heels over head, Barry tumbled back across the road. He came to a stop, watching as the armored car squealed onto its side, sparks flying from the melted down tires and rims, illuminating the night sky. Cadence teleported to Barry's side, grabbing onto him to steady him. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," Barry replied.

"Sorry, I thought as soon as the driver had seen the flames—"

"—I know," Barry replied. He got to his feet. "I looked into the cabin and the driver was…in a trance."

"Try asleep." The back doors of the armored car opened with a sharp kick. The woman jumped down from the back of the car, carrying two bags of money in her hands. "Though it's very similar. I didn't think I'd come across Flash and Flare in the flesh." The woman's smile widened. Unlike the other metahumans they had gone against, her smile wasn't malicious. More, amused. "Or in the suit, I should say." Her eyes flicked them up and down.

That made Barry and Cadence pause. They glanced at each other. So they had both had an encounter with this person before. Barry immediately flashed back to when he saw Zoom in his apartment. How he had only just fallen asleep before he was attacked, before he felt his back being broken all over again.

"So Zoom sent you here?" Barry asked.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "So that's what I saw? Hate to break it to you, Flash. But not every metahuman is trying to kill you." Her eyes then narrowed. "But if you get in my way, I'll have no choice." She lifted her arm and flung the bag of money at him with ease. There was an added affect of strength on her side, Cadence could see. And a little bit of speed. She had thrown the bag so fast that it struck Barry in the chest, knocking him into the store front window behind him.

Cadence was then on the meta with a strong punch to the sternum once she teleported forward. The woman dropped her bags of money and got back into Cadence's face, easily blocking off the punches and kicks that were sent her way.

Barry shook his head, pushing himself up from the pile of glass he lay in. The shards pushed into his right palm, as he lifted his left hand to his ear. "Guys, do you have anything on this meta?"

 _"The facial recognition software has recognized her as Mary-Rose Carpenter,"_ Caitlin explained. _"She's a personal trainer—"_

"—That explains her strength," Barry muttered.

 _"—With prior arrests for petty theft,"_ Caitlin continued.

Cisco made a 'tsk' sound. _"That's what happens when people are super strong, they think they can bully their way into getting everything they want." He paused. "Though looking at her muscles, I wouldn't tell her 'no' either."_

Harry muttered something that Barry and Cadence couldn't clearly hear, but it sounded like a curse. Then he was speaking rapidly in their ears. _"On my Earth she's someone who worked along with Zoom. But here it doesn't seem like she knows who Zoom is."_

 _"Isn't that good?"_ Caitlin asked.

 _"No, because then we don't know what her motive behind this is. Without Zoom…"_

 _"She's just a meta doing whatever she wants,"_ Cisco broke in. He groaned a little, and Barry could practically see him lowering his head. _"Which isn't helping the meta-human movement we have going on ."_

 _"Oh my God,"_ Caitlin sighed.

 _That's exactly what I was thinking,_ Barry agreed. He surged to his feet and shot over towards Cadence and Mary-Rose. The strength both women exhibited were impressive but there was nothing more to Mary-Rose that Barry could see that drove her powers forward. Her muscles strained as she grabbed onto Cadence's punches and kicks, knocking her back. Barry took the opportunity of Cadence teleporting to a safe distance before going in to try his own hand against her.

Mary-Rose swung around and grasped the arm Barry tried to sneak towards her back, hoping to catch her off-guard, but found himself flipped onto his back with ease. Mary-Rose then twisted around, twisting Barry's arm with her, and slammed her knee into his chest before he was thrown again.

"Ugh!" Barry coughed as he slammed to the ground. He swore he heard something break. "Is she a personal trainer or a wrestler?"

Cadence wasn't faring well against Mary-Rose either. While she managed to get a few punches into Mary-Rose, the closer she got, the drowsier she seemed to become. Thus making her movements even slower, sloppier. Then the two tried a tag-team. Barry started to race around Mary-Rose as fast as he could, starting to create a tornado around her. Cadence projected smoke into the tornado as it enclosed tighter and tighter around Mary-Rose.

Then something happened. She smirked, and her eyes glowed yellow so quickly it was like a pulse had come from her eyes. And it all happened at once. Barry started to slow down, his speed steadily declining as the seconds passed until he was moving at a light jog.

"Barry!" Caitlin cried.

Cadence's arms lowered to her sides, as if weighed down by dumbbells. She fell to her knees, trying to keep her eyes open. Her smoke dissipated from the dwindling tornado, leaving Mary-Rose unharmed inside. Barry was now practically crawling, forcing his feet to move one foot ahead of the other. He and Cadence fell to their knees at the same time before pitching over onto the ground.

Mary-Rose walked over to them, crouching above their heads, looking down into their half-lidded, open eyes. "Sweet dreams," she said. "You look like you could really use them."

With that, she walked away, picking up bags of money as she went. The streets were then dark. Not a soul coming by on the roads that led out of the city. The trees surrounding them rustled with the wind that blew and yet Barry and Cadence continued to lie on the ground, not basking in the cool fall night, but suffering through their own nightmares.

Cadence stared at the sky, watching as Breathtaker hovered above her face. His eyes glowed down at her. "How sad it is to see it's taken you so long," he breathed. "So long to understand why I needed you. Why you were one of the four that I've decided to work with."

Cadence's muscles screamed with effort as she tried to pull herself up into a sitting position. Anything that would make it so that she could wake up. Anything to stop reliving things she tried to push out day after day. "It's a pity that Zoom is the one that had to point it out for you. That you weren't meant to be a hero."

A strangled moan escaped Cadence's lips. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to turn her head, wiggle a finger, lift her foot, anything. Beside her, Barry was having the same issue. His nightmare playing out with the Reverse-Flash and Zoom standing over him, taking turns to put vibrating hands into his chest. Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly so he could feel each and every one of his arteries rip apart, feel the blood spill out into his body. Hear and feel his rib bones crack and splinter as they did as much damage to his body as possible.

Barry tried to scream with each burning explosion within him, but his throat was locked. He couldn't do anything other than breathe and he as barely doing that. With each jolt of pain that shot through him his breathing became more and more labored. Until it was like he was drowning, gasping for air as his legs burned. His eyes shifted back and forth but nothing else in his body would move. Barry tried to focus on the Speed Force, to tap himself into his powers. Maybe a rapid-fire of his muscles all moving at once from a jolt of electricity would work things out. He could hear Cadence's breathing beside him and felt a little better. But he wanted to reach out, to grab onto her hand to let her know he was still there.

For a reassurance that the two were going to make it. That the excruciating pain he felt wasn't real. None of it was real. _It wasn't real!_ It felt like an eternity, but, finally, he could hear something in the distance. The sound of an engine coming closer and closer. Finally, headlights swept over them

"Barry! Cadence!" Harry was suddenly by Barry's side, holding onto his arm. "Barry, wake up! We've got to go."

"What's wrong with them?" Cisco asked. He sat in between Barry and Cadence, with Brady looking between the two worriedly. Caitlin sat on Cadence's other side, holding up a flashlight and shined it in her face. Then she leaned over Barry and did the same with his eyes.

"Their irises are functioning normally," Caitlin explained. She leaned back in her seat. "But their eyes are moving like they're…asleep." Caitlin shot out her hand and grabbed onto Harry's wrist, pressing her fingers into his skin. "What sort of powers did Mary-Rose have on your Earth? When she was working with Zoom?"

"Why?" Brady asked.

"Because it looks like they're asleep," Caitlin said.

"Asleep, asleep…" Harry closed his eyes, tapping his fingers against his knee as he knelt over Barry. "Yes. Uh, on my Earth Zoom typically used her for her strength. She was already strong as a personal trainer but after obtaining her powers she became super strong."

"Mhm." Cisco nodded. "Like a bodybuilder."

"It looks like she has the ability to put her opponents to sleep," Harry said. "Like the drivers of the armored van. She put them to sleep and projected whatever she wanted for them to see. So she could have brought the armored car to her house and they thought they were bringing the money to the bank."

"But why aren't they waking up now?" Brady asked. "She's gone."

"Sleep paralysis," Caitlin blurted. "It's the temporary inability to move or speak when falling asleep or waking up. They're aware of their surroundings when it happens, but while in a state of sleep paralysis the person sees hallucinations but are unable to react to them. Mary-Rose put them to sleep, but kept them in a state that would psychologically torture them, leaving them incapacitated." "So, they're suffering through a—"

"Nightmare!" Cisco shouted. His voice echoed along the empty, darkened road. In his excitement, he threw his hands into the air. "Called it!" Caitlin glared at him. "Okay. So how are we supposed to—"Cisco dropped his hands down and they landed on Bar. He gasped loudly as everything around him warped and twisted.

Cisco frowned. He looked around the clearing, finding Caitlin, Harry, and Brady still kneeling over Barry and Cadence, who lay prone on the ground. Twisting around, Cisco spotted the STAR Labs van they had used to track their friends. Then, hearing a gurgling sound, he turned the other way and saw Barry weakly trying to get away from the Reverse-Flash and Zoom, who were taking turns, shoving vibrating fists into his body. Cisco winced when he heard the sound of Barry's guttural screams. Then Cisco heard another scream and turned, following Cadence's voice.

He watched as Breathtaker's hands extended from under his cloak, resting on the sides of her face. He couldn't' see exactly what he was doing, not knowing Breathtaker's power set, but he could see the agony that Cadence was going through. Almost as if he as forcing her to see something that he couldn't. Finally, Cisco sucked in a deep breath and he was back on the forest floor, removing his hand from Barry's shoulder.

"What?" Harry asked. "What'd you see?"

"The Reverse-Flash," Cisco whispered. "and Zoom." He blinked rapidly. "And Breathtaker." He licked his lips. "Whatever they're feeling, it's something they think is really happening."

"Nightmare, indeed," Harry muttered.

"We have to wake them up," Brady said. He leaned forward and started to pull at Cadence's eyelids. Lifting one then the other, alternating each side. "Mom!" He leaned forward and yelled in her face. "Mom! Wake up!"

"Barry!" Cisco shouted towards him. "Barry!"

He reached out to grab onto Barry's shoulders then jerked backwards. Barry started to violently shake, first starting at his hands and feet, then his entire body trembled. No, vibrated. As if he was phasing through an object. Caitlin turned back towards Cadence just as Harry wrapped an arm around her waist and Brady's, pulling them back out of the way. "Get down!"

He pressed the two into the Earth before laying his body down on top of them. "Don't worryabout me, I'm okay," Cisco called sarcastically as he dove behind a nearby tree. Cadence's eyes glowed red and her body started to convulse as well.

Caitlin recognized it, the last time she had seen it, it was when she was losing control of her fire powers and her body temperature was getting too high. The two metahumans continued to shake until; finally, Caitlin reached out her hand and held her palm out towards her friends. Maybe…just maybe she could do something. Caitlin strained, trying to tap into the power muscle that would allow her ice powers to kick into gear. That's how it had been explained to her, working out the muscles for it. And yet, nothing happened. She strained and strained and nothing was working.

Lightning started to zap down from the sky, striking nearby branches and knocked them to the ground where they smoldered. Most burnt out as soon as they struck the ground, but the ones that came too close to Cadence immediately burst into flame. The dry leaves around them lit up, causing Harry to twist to the side, working to shield his face.

Caitlin could feel the heat on her side, sweat immediately popping up on her forehead. It moved closer and closer to them as the seconds passed. Caitlin closed her eyes, hand still outstretched. _Please, please_. All at once, a bright blast of icy air hovered above Barry and Cadence, settling down around them like a winter frost. Everything happened at once. The lightning stopped, the fire receded, and Barry and Cadence sucked in sharp gasps of air before frantically swinging their arms, fending off whatever invisible thing was attacking them.

Harry was immediately back on his feet, arms still around Caitlin. He held out his arms, hands pointed towards Barry and Cadence in case they were about to start attacking again. "Relax, relax," he said to them. "We don't need to have our heads blown off because of lightning."

"Right, like that's the least of our problems," Cisco said.

"What happened?" Barry asked.

"You got a nightmare from Nightmare," Cisco explained.

Caitlin took the time to explain. "Nightmare is a metahuman who can induce sleep paralysis and project hallucinations of the thing you fear the most when you're under. She must've used the same thing against the armored truck driver, to get the money."

"How'd we wake up?" Cadence asked. "I was trying my hardest—"

"Well, it was like your bodies were going into a safe mode. Using your abilities to force yourself awake and—"

"—Aunt Caitlin woke you up!" Brady interrupted. "She used her powers to save you."

"The drastic change in temperature must've made your bodies react, much like if you were asleep at home and kicked off your covers," Harry said. He nodded to Caitlin, the lenses his glasses glittering in the moonlight. "Good job, Snow."

"What about Nightmare?" Barry asked. He got to his feet, placing his hand to his chest. He subconsciously rubbed the front plate of the lightning bolt insignia placed there. His fingers danced up and down his chest. No hint of there being any puncture wounds to his body, nothing that proved he had truly been attacked. He could still feel their hands keeping him down while the other flailed him.

"Where there's money, there's a trail," Cisco said. "There's always a trail."

"Good." Barry lowered his hand from his chest and looked around the clearing. "Because I've got an idea."

* * *

"How many banks could a metahuman rob if a metahuman could rob banks," Barry muttered to himself. He crouched down behind a pillar of Central City National Bank. The last time the bank had been attacked, Brady took the metahuman out on his own. Now they were using the bank as a sort of bait for a metahuman who had the most unique set of powers any of them had ever seen.

Cadence, who sat on the other side of the overhead balcony, back pressed against her own pillar chuckled under her breath. "Good to see you haven't lost your sense of humor."

"Good to see you can still laugh at a joke," Barry replied.

Cadence was silent for a long moment. "I'm trying to keep my mind off it. Beating up metas tends to do that."

"I understand."

Then the two fell silent again. They continued to wait. The bait of the open bank should've been something Nightmare came across very fast. At STAR Labs Harry helped Cisco and Caitlin make sure they used the correct avenues for Mary-Rose to come across it. As a personal trainer she had numerous clients that she worked for and those that became very chatty when they were relaxed. Figuring out those that had direct connections to the banking system had only taken a few minutes for Cisco to determine through their database.

If anything, Nightmare didn't have a need to steal. If it wasn't for her prior arrests, Barry would've thought she was a regular human. But then what she said about Zoom, that she didn't have to follow him that she was doing it on her own accord. It stumped him. There were other metas that were clearly doing what they did because it was the only life they knew, or they were getting revenge for whatever reason they thought made sense.

What were they supposed to do with the metas that were running around like this because they could? It wasn't doing anything to help the Metahuman Registration Act and that must've been the reason why. They were being targeted by those who were afraid of them, so why not give them a reason to be afraid?

Honestly, Barry thought about that sometimes. How would the city react if he decided not to save the city for a day, to show them that not all metas were bad? Would it help or hinder? But he could never do that. His morality wouldn't even let him sit still when someone was being pick-pocketed. He was going to work hard to prove that metas didn't equal danger no matter how long it took.

 _Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Hearing footsteps, Barry looked over to see the security guard walking towards the front door that had just been knocked on. Watched as he went close enough so Nightmare could hear him speak through the door. "I'm sorry, we're not open yet."

"But I really need to make a withdrawal," Nightmare said. She sounded convincingly worried.

"I'm sorry, miss, but you'll just have to use the ATM."

"But you don't understand—"Her eyes turned yellow. "I need to make more than _just_ a withdrawal." From Barry's vantage point, he watched as the security guard's shoulders drooped, his head tipped forward. She had him.

The security guard shuffled forward as if he was sleepwalking. He went through the motions of opening the door and stepped aside so Nightmare could walk through the front door. She pulled her hat low over her head. _Smart,_ Barry thought. Not only would it block he from the cameras to keep from being recognized, but it was a similar outfit that many who were working out would wear.

She followed the security guard as he walked to the back room, her head on a near constant swivel. Barry moved from behind his pillar and raced to the ground. He leaned casually in front of the closed vault door, crossing his arms over his chest.

"This is looking to become your worst nightmare," he remarked. "Or a very bad daydream."

Nightmare's eyes narrowed. She lifted her hand and waved the security guard away, who continued to shuffle off. "How did you get out of your paralysis?" She demanded. "I didn't let you go."

"Well, that's just one thing you've got to learn about dreams," Barry said. "Sooner or later you wake up." Nightmare flexed her arms and Barry gulped. He couldn't help it; when she was getting ready to use her powers she looked as ripped as a body builder. And she was still more physically imposing than he was.

Nightmare raced towards Barry, pulling back her arm. Barry ducked out of the way and she punched her fist into the vault door, leaving a dent so deep the surrounding metal nearly went up to her shoulder.

"Whew, let's be glad that wasn't Barry's head," Cisco said.

"Talk about a splitting headache," Brady muttered. Cisco laughed and Barry rolled his eyes.

"Thanks, guys," he muttered before rolling aside. Nightmare didn't have speed on her side, but she certainly did have great recovery time. When Barry would send a flurry of punches at her, she would recoil from each hit, taking a second before she would be back. She grasped Barry around the neck and hefted him as hard as she could.

Barry arched through the air and crashed to the ground. He rolled away, coming to a stop on his side. Nightmare smirked and walked steadily towards the vault door. Barry smiled to himself. Just as he thought would happen. The moment Nightmare grasped the handle on the front; Cadence shot a heat vision down onto the metal. It immediately turned into molten metal, dripping down around her hands.

Nightmare cried out as the metal cooled down around her, encasing her hands in the block of metal. Cadence teleported down next to her, finishing up a backflip she started from the balcony. Her feet snapped out and struck Nightmare in the back, sending her forward into the door of the vault. With a grunt, Nightmare pulled back, her muscles straining. The metal of the vault door cracked, allowing herself to pull her hands free, though they were still encased in metal. Spinning around, she swung her covered hands towards Cadence, trying to hit her in the face.

Cadence backed away, jerking her had back with each swing of the block of metal. Then she pulled back a flaming fist behind her, driving it forward. Her flaming fist connected with the metal block. A loud crack emanated from the collision before the two were knocked backwards.

"You guys got this," Harry said. "Just stick with the plan."

Barry nodded and got to his feet. He started to run. Cadence's fighting along with Nightmare gave Barry the opportunity to pick up speed, electricity crackling around him as he did so. He watched their fight with each pass that went around; Nightmare was so preoccupied with her strength that she didn't notice Cadence slowly creating a layer of smoke around the room, getting kicked up as Barry made his rounds. They move closer and closer towards the open door of the vault, with Nightmare thinking she was getting the upper hand. Finally, Cadence fell backwards, or at least pretended to, lying over the doorway to the open vault. Nightmare lifted her arms high above her head, bringing the metal down like a sledgehammer.

Cadence cupped her hands together and sent a blast of fire at the block of metal. It sliced through the metal like butter, releasing Nightmare's hands. With the sudden weight removed from her hands, Nightmare stumbled and fell towards Cadence, shooting out her hands to keep herself upright. Cadence brought her hands up and pressed them to the ground beside her head and, in a backroll to return to her feet, she pressed her feet against Nightmare's hipbones and pushed hard.

Nightmare let out a strangled cry, flying overhead and into the back wall of the vault with an almighty crash. She fell to the ground with a low moan. Turning her head, she looked through the open door of the vault, seeing the smokey haze of the room. She struggled to see through the ever thickening haze.

Barry continued to run, clouds starting to form at the ceiling of the bank, lightning rumbling through them. Almost time. He watched Cadence melt the vault door off its hinges and pick it up. She knelt down under its weight and angled the door, nodding towards Barry. Barry nodded back and gathered his arms together. Lightning shot down from the sky and Barry grabbed it in his hand, throwing it to the vault door. Cadence angled it to the side and the lightning shot inside, striking Nightmare in the chest.

Her body lit up like a Christmas tree, arms snapping to her sides as electricity shot through her body. "Doesn't feel so good does it?" Nightmare's body stopped twitching long enough for her to lift her hand, eyes glowing yellow.

She was going to put them to sleep again.

Cadence suddenly moved, clapping her hands together. For a moment, Barry wasn't sure what happened. There was a brilliant flash of light that started at Nightmare's feet and quickly moved up to her ankle. Screams immediately ripped from her mouth and she fell to the ground. Barry looked hard and gasped, seeing the flames move higher, noticing something white sticking out of the front of her melted shoes. When he saw them wiggling, he realized they were bone. The bones of her toes sticking out of melted flesh.

"Flare, stop!" Barry shouted.

Cadence immediately dropped her hands and Barry could see the horror in her eyes as she backed away. Their eyes locked and she immediately turned away, too ashamed to look at him.

And for the first time since he met her, Barry understood what it was like when she was still in the Assassination Bureau.

* * *

The door to the pipeline slid closed and Barry removed his hand from the palm scanner. "Nightmare should be just fine," Caitlin explained, voice low. "I checked her vitals and everything is okay. Cadence's healing worked very well. Her platelet level is right where we want it to be."

"That's one less thing we have to worry about," Harry said. He bobbed his head back and forth. "We already know Snow's talent of making sure we're not going have any liabilities on our hands." He gestured towards her then dropped his hand to his hip. "What was it that Nightmare wanted?"

"Nothing," Barry said. "She wasn't working with Zoom at all. She was just in it for herself." He thought for a moment. "I think she came into her powers recently and got carried away with the rush it gave her. Combined with her petty crimes she must've thought it would be easy."

"She kept fighting even though she was caught," Cisco said. He shook his head. "That's really putting up a great fuel for the 'Death to Metas' cause."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Barry agreed. He ran a hand through his hair, grasping his neck. "It's exactly what Chief Pauslon could use to push forehead his agenda."

"What about Zoom?" Caitlin asked.

"If Zoom didn't use Nightmare from my Earth then he didn't have a need for her," Harry explained. "Zoom is smart; he's trying to run Barry down as much as possible. With their last encounter, Zoom explained he's gunning after Barry and he knows he's faster than Barry. The more Barry works against the meta that Zoom is sending or not, he's going to get stronger and that's just better for him."

"So, what about the slow…thing you were making?" Brady asked. The first thing he'd said since they returned to STAR Labs. He sat on the step that led to the pod next to his mother, looking up at her every now and then. She sat quietly, her elbows on her knees, clasped fists resting against her lips.

"There's still a lot that I need to find to create it," Harry explained. He nodded towards Cadence. "That Network she mentioned, we don't have it on my Earth but it sounds like it'd be the best place to start looking."

Silence fell around the pod.

Cadence took in a deep breath and gave a humorless smile. "Should be easy to find, the Assassination Bureau used it all the time." She cleared her throat, lowering her head. Rubbed her neck. She looked over at Brady, who looked back at her earnestly then rested his head on her leg. Cadence smiled and ruffled his hair. Her eyebrows came together, as if something suddenly occurred to her.

Then she started to tell her story.

"When we first moved to Central City we had no place to stay," she said. "My mom and dad had just told me that I would be leaving Metropolis and they wanted to keep Brady. I never thought of abortion or adoption when I found out I was pregnant. From the very beginning I knew I was going to have him and I kept that promise. So I left and had nothing on me other than my wallet, my phone, and one bag of clothes. Getting to Central City was easy; I just needed one bus ticket. But when I got here I was on my own. Being only seventeen years old and not having any idea of where to get shelter was hard. I went from having a roof over my head every night to sleeping in the lobbies of hotels, cleaning up in public bathrooms, and spending my day in the library so no one would ask why I wasn't in school.

"For the first two months we didn't have a home. Then I found a shelter for battered women. I shouldn't have been there; I had never been abused, and as crazy as my parents were you could never say they neglected me. I guess seeing that I was really young and had a baby they took pity on me and gave me a room. Through that, I had women who were saying they'd help me out with babysitting when I needed it, giving me a chance to figure out how to finish my high school diploma and get a job."

Cadence motioned to Barry. "As you know finding a job wasn't hard, I've had plenty of them. Taking care of a baby full time, working full time, and sticking up on my school work was hard. Harder than I had ever imagined. There were many times I had thought of turning around with my tail between my legs and giving my mom and dad what I wanted. But then I'd look over at Brady, who'd smile as bright as the sun no matter what it was he wanted to show me and I couldn't do it. Giving him up would've killed me more than wounding my pride. So I stuck it out. But it didn't take long for me to be unhappy with what I was doing, minimum wage sucked and unless I got a college degree I knew I wouldn't get a better job than I had.

"I guess that's what Breathtaker preyed upon, knowing there wasn't much that I could say 'no' to." Cadence closed her eyes, shame already settling in again. Barry could see it in her face, wondering how she could've been so stupid to fall for the first chance that would've made her life better. It made Barry think about what Cisco had said earlier.

 _What would've happened if you didn't get taken in by Joe and Iris?_

"I don't know how long they had been watching me but it must've been long enough. I met Leah—Mindboggler-first. I was at the library one day, doing a test and she came over, noticing I was studying math. When I told her I was getting my diploma she said she had dropped out and was getting her GED. We talked for a while about school and then about our family life and I thought she was my friend. After that, I met Lucas—or Stratos. They posed as really close friends, though in actuality they didn't have any sort of relationship with each other. They solely worked under Breathtaker and that was it. They talked about how they were making a lot of money and had their own apartments and so much stuff. I knew they were making a _lot_ because they were able to afford some really expensive things.

"I was interested because I needed the money. I had no idea how they knew I had powers but that was clearly another reason they wanted my help. They said all they did was make deliveries for their boss and then get the money in return. And that's all I did at first. It took me a while to realize what was really going on."

"Drugs?" Caitlin asked.

Cadence shook her head. "There wasn't anything in the packages. The people I was 'delivering' to was the person that was going to be killed. It was a way to make sure the address Breathtaker, Mindboggler, and Stratos found was the correct one. I would go back and get paid a lot just for making the delivery. It was the money that the person who hired Breathtaker to kill someone split among us. And let me tell you it was a _lot_ of money. More than I'd see in two years with my minimum wage if I worked 40 hours. The first time I saw that money I knew it was something I had to keep doing. As time went on Mindboggler, Stratos, Incognito—who I didn't see a lot—and Breathtaker all showed off their powers to me and I showed them mine. And it was great to be around other people who had had their powers for so long.

A shuddery breath escaped Cadence's lips. "I continued to do deliveries but after that I started to do more things with the others. I'd continuously watch the people that we were going to make deliveries too, to understand their schedules and how they worked. Who their friends and family were, how they functioned as a person. The more I was paid, the less time I had to work at my menial jobs, the more time I could spend with Brady, and on school. I was able to move out into our first apartment, the one we were still living in when we first met you guys. And it kept going and going until the first time I was tasked to go and…and kill someone.

"I immediately hated the idea. I was going through school, working to figure out how to get a degree in medicine, and turning my life around. Then to know he expected me to kill someone…that's when I figured out everything they were doing. They had been killing people, using their powers to keep themselves from being linked to the crime and I had been helping them as time went on. Immediately, I said 'no', but Breathtaker had pointed out that he'd helped me more than I had helped him."

"How?" Harry demanded, eyes flashing.

"Some of the things I can do with my powers, I learned from him," Cadence said. She finally lifted her gaze, looking them in the eye. "Breathtaker's powers…there's a reason they call him Breathtaker. He can kill you,"—she lifted her hand and snapped his fingers. "Like that. He literally sucks the soul out of someone. I've once see him clap his hands and the others were immediately reduced to skeleton."

"Like what you did today," Barry surmised. "That fire attack you did."

Cadence nodded. "After having seen that hallucination of Breathtaker…I was afraid Nightmare was going to do it again, and freaked out. I had to stop her in some way and the fact that it was Breathtaker that taught me how to do that move…" She closed her eyes as tightly as possible, looking away. "I didn't want to kill who I was targeted to kill. Breathtaker thought I wouldn't be, the others had taken some more time to be convinced but they had much worst pasts than I did so it wasn't hard. But I had a kid and knew I needed to set a good example despite what I'd already done. I refused…and they attacked me. And Mindboggler mindcontrolled me.

Cisco made a humming sound and Caitlin moved a hand up to cover her mouth.

"If you've never been mind controlled, you don't know how horrific it really is. It's nothing like when you get whammied or bit by a meta-spider and you're running on enhanced emotions. When you're mindcontrolled, your _whole body_ is out of your control but your mind is yours. You're conscious of everything you're doing but you can't control your body and while your brain is telling you what you're doing is normal…your heart doesn't. Every time I would go along and kill someone, inside, I'd be screaming. Screaming at myself to stop and screaming in horror, knowing my body was no longer my own. When I'd come to, I'd sit and cry and wish it hadn't had happened. But I could never go to the police because I'd be implicated.

"And it kept happening and happening and as sad as it is, I got better with my powers because of it. I learned how to manipulate smoke so someone would choke to death but then retrieve it so it wouldn't be visible in their lungs."

"Like Mayor—"

"—Exactly," Cadence cut him off. She didn't need to remember all of the details. She'd already lived it. "I'd make the air thinner by increasing heat so someone would suffocate. Things like that. But it's also why I plateaued; I didn't use my powers much when I was a kid because I had to keep it a secret and when I _did_ use them, it was being used for evil. I couldn't find a way to break free from it—when they knew I wanted to stop they threatened Brady—so I did nothing but continue to do as I was told and make money from it. So to get my mind off of it, I studied harder to get my degrees and graduate. In the back of my mind I was…sort of trying to make it up to the people that had their lives cut short to save as many as I could."

Tears had fallen down Cadence's cheeks as she spoke. "There were so many people that lost family members because of me and there I was, trying to make sure that other people wouldn't lose theirs. And that's when I was told that I needed to try and get to The Flash so that I could get to Harrison Wells. And…" she cleared her throat. "You know what happened with the rest of that.

"So, uh, when I found out my dad was sick I thought it was some sort of a karma coming back to bite me in the ass. Maybe to say, 'you should've stayed home', or 'you should've said something sooner about the Assassination Bureau' and stuff like that. But what hurt the most was knowing that I could've helped him sooner if I hadn't had been so stubborn about what they did. There was a lot of things that I wish I could've taken back but I can't. No matter what I could've done to help him…it just reminded me of everything I'd done when I was in the Assassination Bureau. So I _begged_ for my dad to let me heal him or even for Barry or Brady to do something and he said 'no'. A hard 'no' saying life was working out the way it was going to work and that having powers didn't mean anything to him. He cared about me, not Flare, but me. I had always been a daddy's girl and he wanted to have that relationship again, apologizing for everything he did and explaining things about his past that turned him that way.

"Being able to have that back, to have my family back, was all I wanted. And when we were getting back there he…"

Finally, Cadence started to cry. There were small sniffs here and there, before a waterfall of tears came. Cadence brought her hands up and covered her face. Brady patted his mother on the leg, but when he found it wasn't working, he looked over at Barry. He walked over and lowered himself down next to Cadence and gently pulled Cadence into his lap and rubbed her back. Cisco and Caitlin walked over and crouched down next to her, silently comforting her as well.

Barry let out a sigh. This wasn't the first time they were going to be hurt this bad and it wouldn't be the last.

* * *

On the docks of Central City harbor a boat had pulled up to the dock. The S.S. Tithonus bobbed quietly as the captain and his men walked off the ship, a prisoner tied up in chains with them. The prisoner stared in front of him, a small, mischievous smile playing across his lips, surrounded by his mustache and beard. An air of confidence swirled around him. He didn't seem to care about the handcuffs that he been placed around his wrists, bound in front of him.

Chief Paulson of the CCPD walked up the dock and shook hands with the captain. "Any trouble?" He asked.

"Nah." The Captain turned his head and nodded towards the prisoner. "But believe it or not we got ourselves a stowaway."

A humorous smile reached Chief Paulson's lips. A stowaway on his way into Central City? Either he didn't know what was going on there or he was very, _very_ stupid. There were enough things to deal with in terms of metas. Stowaways shouldn't have been that interesting, sent immediately to jail. But the Captain did say he'd want to know…"He got a name?

"No, didn't break silence for three weeks." The Captain unraveled a cloak in his hands. "He had this wrapped around him." It unfurled and Chief Paulson's eyes widened when he saw the array of swords and daggers strapped inside. Some looked medieval while others appeared to be new. Chief Paulson shook his head and asked, "Geez, how many are there?"

"Thirty-two," the prisoner said firmly. All eyes turned towards him. His voice was deep, rich with the same confidence that swirled around him. As he spoke next, his eyes flickered back and forth. "And I'll polish them all in blood before long. I've waited a long time for this hunt."

The Captain puffed up his chest and walked over to the prisoner. He looked him in the eye, not breaking eye-contact. "Mister, you're not going to anything with those handcuffs on."

"Oh, but captain…" The prisoner slowly smiled. "You're wearing the cuffs." The prisoner waved his now free hands. Then he surged forward and smacked the Captain in the chest with a solid hit from his shoulder. Chief Paulson lifted his pistol and pointed it at the man. "Who taught you how to do that, Houdini?"

"Actually, I taught him." The Prisoner picked up a dagger from his fallen cloak and made quick work of the men standing around him, crimson liquid splattering through the air, leaving Chief Paulson for last. But instead of attacking him, he walked by the gun the man pointed at him. "I don't think you want to deal with me alone. Last I heard, you have a bit of a meta problem on your hands."

Chief Paulson felt his arms lowering as much as he tried to fight it.

Like he was being controlled.

Simultaneously, a guard walked through Iron Heights, head lowered, his cap covering his face. He barely returned the motions that his fellow guards gave him. There were enough people that would've gotten a good look at him, he didn't need any more. Not when there was so much to do.

His red lips parted and his equally red tongue slithered out to run along his teeth. A low laugh, almost a giggle, escaped his lips. Oh yes, there was still plenty to do. He walked until he reached the last cell at the end of the hallway. Exactly the one he was looking for. Actually, he thought it was going to be harder than this. He walked into the room, noticing the extra protection of the man inside.

The walls of his cell were covered in hand drawn pictures of The Flash along with streamers that resembled lightning bolts. The man walked over to the floor to ceiling window that let him see the man inside.

"Well, well, well, James Jesse," He said. He pressed his hand against the glass. James Jesse—aka the Trickster—walked over to the glass and lifted his hand to rest on the inside. It fit almost equally against his. "Looks like there's someone _else_ who holds the moniker Mister. J."

The Joker's maniacal laughter mixed in with Trickster's.

* * *

 **A/N:** Whew, this chapter ended up being a _lot_ longer than I planned but I think it worked out well, especially now that you know what happened with Cade and the Assassination Bureau. And it looks like things really aren't slowing down for Team Flash are they? Like I said, I plan to have a fight per chapter and it looks like more are coming in already.

These last few chapters have been very Cade heavy but it goes back to Barry with the next one for an even balance. What Barry and Cisco were working on will be revealed soon. Also, earlier I asked if anyone could help me come up with a new suit for Cade on our shared twitter for FFN (DarkElements) and tumblr (purple-and-red-ribbons) and I came up with one that I think is pretty good!

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** If you didn't watch Arrow religiously then you wouldn't know that Oliver's parents are both dead so no worries. Mindboggler is a she and no, this is one I completely made up myself. Brady wasn't used in this one because she's too powerful for him to fight against.

 **Yammers:** Hope this answered it for you.

 **Babyj:** She found them randomly, nothing about them in particular.

 **PowerHero432:** Hope this chapter punched things up a bit. Hope you liked the insight into Cade and the Assassination Bureau. It was a longtime coming of the explanation of her time there.

 **Spinquin142:** I hope it was still a good meta for you.

 **Guest:** Thank you. Hope you liked this one!

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	29. Legend Says (1)

**.:29:.**

 _Legend Says_

* * *

"Thanks for driving me to school," Brady said as Ryder pulled up to the curb of Carmichael Elementary.

"You're welcome, buddy," Ryder replied, putting the car in park. He and Brady leaned over, watching as two men in bright blue polos and khaki shorts walked around the outside of the school. Every now and then they pointed up towards the school, dragging their arms around as if they we sculpting out something. Ryder's gaze shifted over the parking lot until he spotted the utility van with the name of a security company on the side.

He started to say something but stopped when the radio did it for him.

 _"Changes are already coming to Central City with Mayor Bellows's decision to put the implementation of a Metahuman Registry into effect. Iron Heights, the prison shared with Star City, named after the loss of Ray Palmer, already has the meta-human dampening technology within their cells and now other similar security measures are being put in place around the city. Carmichael Elementary, which has had their fair share of metahuman incidents, and other schools in the area are the first to implement new security measures. So far the principal of the school, George Jenkins, has said at first an increase in security will be implemented with an improved close-captioned video circuitry, locking the doors once school is in session with a certain code only teachers will know to achieve access inside, as well as the parents of students listing approved visitors to achieve access to their child ."_

Reaching out, Ryder turned down the volume on the radio as Brady frowned, picking up his backpack from the floor. "I promise you, nothin's gonna to happen to you, buddy," Ryder said.

"You don't know that," Brady muttered. Then he leaned back against his seat, hugging his backpack to his chest. His face screwed up as if he suddenly felt sick. "Every time there's been a meta attack I've been around."

"I sincerely don't think y'all are goin' to be sought out for this. And besides, what are they gonna do to a bunch of kids?"

A wry smile came to Brady's face, making him resemble his mother. "Give us even more homework?"

"I think you've had enough considerin' how many days you've been off school. I wouldn't be sorry if you lost your Christmas break, too."

"Ha ha." Brady rolled his eyes. Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Um, can you sign this?" He handed his test over. "The teacher says we have to get our parents to sign."

"Let me see." Ryder took the test and looked over it, his eyebrows rising. "You got a D on your science test?" Brady shrugged. "You left most of the answers blank." Brady shrugged again and Ryder sighed. "You're not goin' to help yourself if you don't have an education, buddy."

"I was too busy to study," Brady defended himself. "I've been at STAR Labs and helping mom and fighting metas. And besides, science is boring."

"You're workin' out of a science and tech company and you think science is boring? Well there's an oxymoron for you." Ryder pulled a pen off of his dashboard and quickly scribbled his signature on it, handing it back to Brady. Brady reached out for the test but Ryder quickly pulled it away. "If you can pull up your grades, I won't tell your mom I signed this. If not, you can kiss that deal goodbye."

"Got it." Brady took the test and shoved it back into his bag. "Thanks."

"Now what's going on with things at STAR Labs?"

"I thought you wanted to stay out of that stuff?"

"I'll help whenever they need me but I'm not going to seek it out, if that's what you mean."

Brady nodded. "I'm just shadowing them."

"Soon you're gonna have to learn to fight."

"I know how to fight. Mom's been teaching me."

"You know how to fight with your powers, not with your fists." He reached out and ruffled Brady's hair. "Next time you come by I'll teach you a thing or two."

"You know how to fight?"

"I used to box in college."

"Oh, like Eddie." Brady twisted his mouth to the side, thinking about their fallen friend. He hadn't gotten to Eddie very well at all, nor was he around him much, but the time he had gotten to know Joe's previous detective, he liked him. Then again, there weren't many people who Brady _didn't_ like, but when he did he let them know. "Okay." Brady grabbed the door handle and pumped the door open. "I'll see you later, d—"he broke himself off. "I'll see you later, Ryder. Thanks for the ride."

"See you, buddy."

Brady closed the car door and backed away from the curb as Ryder drove away. Then he turned and walked over to a concrete slab that sat in front of the school, by the bike racks, and greeted Conner and Leah, who were waiting for him.

"Hi!" Leah jumped off the wall and thrust something out towards him. "Do you want to come to my birthday party?"

"When's your birthday?" Brady asked, taking the invitation.

"Next month, but her mom wants to know how many people are coming," Conner explained. Brady glanced at his hands, noticing Conner was carefully holding onto his own invitation.

"It's at a trampoline park," Leah added.

"Awesome." Brady smiled and put the invitation in his backpack. "I'll ask my mom, but I think she'll say 'yes'."

Conner nodded at his best friend. "Was that your dad?"

"Yeah, Ryder drove me to school today. He always drives me after I spend the weekend at his place. It was fun. Until Mayor Bellows was talking about the metahuman stuff." He reached up, grabbing the straps of his backpack. "That it was quiet. He called my mom a lot."

"He's probably just worried," Conner said helpfully. He lowered his voice before continuing, "Considering he knows you're a meta."

"He calls her a lot since PaPaw died," Brady explained. "But, yeah, he's probably worried."

"Do you think they're going to do anything else here other than the cameras?" Leah asked. She looked worries, lowering her gaze to her feet. "My mom and dad said they're thinking of taking me out of the school if it's not safe enough."

"Really? That's not fair."

"I know. I like it here better than in Gotham. But…they're scared. So are a lot of our neighbors and family and friends. We might move." She lifted her head, flicking her hair form her face. "I don't want to move, but I don't want them to know I'm a meta."

"You always have a place at STAR Labs," Brady reminded her. "After school. My mom said she'll help and Barry will definitely help you, too. He likes to help people."

"What about everyone else?" Conner asked. Brady and Leah both looked at him. "There have to be other kids who are metas. Remember the one from last year? And Leah was just revealed, too. There have to be others." He flicked his hair from his face. "We have to help them."

"How are we going to do that?" Leah asked.

"We'll think of something. But they can't be alone."

"My mom says her life got better when she met other metahumans," Brady said. "And Leah, you were happy when you didn't have to keep it a secret." She nodded. "So…maybe we can do the same for other metahumans when they come in."

"How are you going to do that without revealing who you are, first?"

Brady paused. "I don't know."

"But we'll think of something," Conner said. "But we'll think of something." He smiled back when Leah smiled at him, only looking away when the bell range. "Oh, there's the bell." Brady groaned.

"Don't worry about it, there's not much time left until Christmas break," Leah reassured him. "Then we can have fun." The three headed into the school. "What did you ask for, for Christmas? I want to get a new computer."

"I want a PS4," Conner said. "My mom doesn't really let me play video games so much so I still only have an Xbox 360."

"I don't really ask for anything," Brady said. "My birthday is so close to Christmas that I get half of my gifts for my birthday and the other half for Christmas. So my mom says it's always going to be a surprise. But she's good at surprises."

"But if there was _one_ thing you could ask for, what would it be?" Conner asked.

Brady thought about it for a moment. Actually, there _was_ one thing he would ask for, for Christmas. But in many ways he already had it. He just wanted it to be official. "I don't know yet," he finally said.

* * *

Barry closed his eyes as he felt his feet fall out from beneath him and he flew off the Cosmic treadmill, crashing to the ground. Again. _Again_ he wasn't focusing on every part of his body, wasn't focusing on the Speed Force to allow himself to get faster. _Again_ he found himself so afraid hat he would become lightheaded, that blood would start to drip down his nose that he wasn't paying too close attention o his footsteps. Or maybe it was that now he had most of the father figures in his life watching him at every turn.

Barry glanced up towards the viewing window, locking eyes with his father, then looked at Harry, Jay, and Harrison. The only thing he needed after that was for Joe to see his spectacular fail. Thankfully, he had been called into work earlier that morning. Barry then glanced at Caitlin, who gave him a sympathetic smile, motioning for him to leave the training room. He held up a hand, letting her know it would only be a few minutes.

"Has he always done that?" Henry asked, crossing his arms. The bottom of his lab coat drifted out as he did so.

"Fallen off and crashed to the ground?" Harry asked bluntly. "Yes, I've noticed he's done that at least twenty times since I've arrived on this Earth." Henry blinked rapidly at the mention and rubbed his forehead. There was a lot he needed to get used to if he was going to be around STAR Labs more often.

"Well, he _did_ just hit 1375," Caitlin said, coming to Barry's defense.

"What's the fastest he's run?" Jay asked.

Harrison thought for a moment. "A little over mach 2. I believe that was when he ran back in time."

"That's not good," Harry said. He looked over as Barry came out of the practice room and walked into the Cortex. He didn't smile but there was a bit more of an encouraging tone in his voice as he said, "That's good, Barry."

"Take it from me, Barry does not appreciate being lied to when he's trying to improve," Henry said. A frown graced his features as he glanced over at his son, who ran his hands over the back of his head to push hair strands back down. He had flown so far so fast that his hair was nearly standing on end.

Barry shot his father a look of thanks. He let out a long sigh. "I'm not getting faster, am I?" He asked.

Caitlin, Harrison, and Jay all started to say something encouragingly, but was cut off by Harry's blunt, "No."

Barry removed his hands from the back of his head and ran them over his face. His long fingers tangled in his hair and he pushed his bangs across his forehead before resting his hands atop his head. His eyes were filled with sorrow. He wanted nothing more than to beat Zoom and now it looked like he was running for nothing. "I feel like I'm standing still when I'm next to Zoom."

"That's because you practically were," Jay explained. He walked to Barry's side, placing his hand on the young man's shoulder. He squeezed it tightly. "I know that feeling very well. It's not easy to just say that Zoom is fast."

"He's at least four times faster than him," Harry continued.

"For real?" Barry asked him.

"How is he faster than Barry is and Jay was?" Caitlin asked.

Harry shrugged. He crossed his arms, looking over the Cosmic Treadmill as if his glare would jump start it into working well for them. As if he could scare it into making sure that Barry was the fastest thing on the planet. "Could be a lot of things; physiology, form, strength, attitude, diet—"

"Okay, well, there has to be something we can do about it so we'll just figure it out," Barry interrupted, flatly. There were only so many times he could hear that he wasn't fast. Only so many times he could hit that proverbial wall and ricochet. Besides, his back was starting to hurt from the times he was hitting the floor. Caitlin must've noticed because she walked over to his side, grabbing his arm.

"Barry, why don't we check to see that everything's okay," She said. "Dr. Allen, would you like to join me?"

"Yes, Caitlin, I'd be glad to," Henry said. "And you can call me Henry, that's perfectly fine."

Caitlin smiled and led Barry into the medical bay, pressing on his shoulder to force him to sit. Barry glanced over at Harrison, Harry, and Jay as they all spoke quietly to each other. Barry sighed, lowering his head. "I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get faster."

"You're putting too much pressure on yourself, Slugger," Henry remarked. He picked up a flashlight and walked over to his son, gently lifting his eyelids to shine a flashlight inside. Barry stared straight ahead as the light waved over his eyes. Then he held out his hand when his father picked up a sphygmomanometer to test his blood pressure. Henry put the cuff around Barry's arm and started to pump the bulb, tightening it around his arm. "No pun intended."

"If we can't take down Zoom," Barry started, but stopped when his father gave him 'the look'. Meaning he was going to give some knowledge that was important for him to listen to.

"Barry, you can't force things," Henry pointed out. "From what I understand with this whole speed force thing, from your crash course on everything Speedster, there's nothing different that you can do to get faster. It's either going to come or it won't. But you can't change things that are already set in stone."

"My speed's not set in stone, I can get faster," Barry insisted.

"To what cost?" Henry insisted. "With nose bleeds so bad you pass out? Not to mention the risk of hemorrhaging. What good will you be to Central City if you're not there to fight?"

"Cade can handle things until I get back." Barry watched his father. Henry stared back at him for a long moment. The silence was actually starting to unnerve Barry a little. Much like in horror movies when he was waiting for something to jump out. Barry turned to Caitlin, who watched Henry with as much curiosity as Barry. "What?"

"Nothing, just…sometimes I wonder how you managed to turn out like this," Henry said. "There were so many times you could've allowed your anger at what happened to your mom turn you down a bad path, even with Joe and Iris being there for you. But you have the most amount of hope and dedication that I've ever met in any man your age. I just wish I was there to see it more."

"You're here now," Barry pointed out. His eyes shifted around STAR Labs and he couldn't help but smile. His father was out of jail and was working with them in STAR Labs. Whoever thought _that_ would happen. "And that's all we could ask for."

Henry smiled, patting his son on the hand, and then glanced at the reading for the blood pressure. Alarm flashed through his eyes for a moment and he turned to Caitlin. "Does his pulse always read that fast?"

Caitlin walked up to Henry's side and glanced at the readings. She smiled. "Yeah, that's something you'll have to get used to, too. He has a very irregular heartbeat. It runs almost as fast as his body does in general. When he was brought in after he was struck by lightning the hospital thought he was having constant heart attacks it was moving so fast."

"So you moved him here," Henry said.

"Yep, Dr. Wells suggested we take him in to monitor him because we had all of the equipment that could be used to look after him. Joe was against it at first but things have worked well since he's been here."

"And that's the same Dr. Wells that's standing in there?"

"Well, one of them. The nice one is Dr. Wells, the mean one is Harry."

"From Earth-2?"

"Exactly."

Henry chuckled to himself. "I'm a man of science and even that's hard for me to wrap my head around."

"Don't worry, dad, you'll get the hang out it fast," Barry reassured him.

"Maybe not even as fast as a normal person, I'm getting old, my mind doesn't work as well as it used to." Henry blinked and removed his glasses for a moment before putting them back on. "Or my eyes for that matter." He smiled. "I'm going to continue running through inventory, I trust you have this under control, Dr. Snow."

Caitlin smiled at him. "You don't have to do that."

"The way I see it, you're the doctor in charge here, I'm still trying to get used to everything." Henry smiled and grasped a clipboard, moving out of the medical bay.

"So?" Caitlin asked Barry, going through the routine of her examination of him. Though there probably wasn't much to examine since he healed so well. "How does it feel to have your dad around here more?"

"It's great," Barry replied. "But I think he feels like he's getting in the way."

"Well, that can happen when you're trying to find your place in life again," Caitlin agreed. "It can't be easy." She crossed her arms and eyed him closely. "That's not what you wanted to talk about though, is it?"

Barry shook his head. If there was one thing Caitlin was good at, it was being someone to talk to. "I've been running a lot lately, trying to go faster than I ever have before because there's someone out there who's better, faster, and stronger than me. And I need to be ready. But no matter how much I try or how hard I push myself, I keep running into the same problem."

"What problem?"

"My doubt," Barry said. He lifted up a hand, holding it solidly. "I keep feeling like no matter how fast I go I hit this brick wall and nothing goes right after that. I've been training so hard and so long and I feel like I'm not getting better. Listening to what Harry had to say, there's a lot of things that can keep me from getting to Zoom. He's been a speedster for…a _long_ time, and I've only bene a speedster for a year. How can I keep up with that? And, it's like dad asked, if I don't save people, if I'm out of commission, if I can't help the city, what then?"

Caitlin listened quietly to everything he said. It took her a few moments to realize he was waiting for her response. She pointed to herself. "You want my opinion?" Caitlin asked, unable to mask her surprise.

"Of course! I value your opinion as much as anyone's. More even," Barry said.

"Are you saying I doubt myself too much?"

"No, I'm saying you're compassionate and you have a healthy sense of fear that keeps me thinking. When I first started out, Cisco and I were a little too gung ho about what we were doing and I got a little excited and suffered the consequence. If there's a time I need to slow down, I just think about what you would probably insist I do—"

"—You mean nag," Caitlin broke in.

"I wasn't going to say that."

"It's okay, I know what you mean." Caitlin took in a deep breath. She reached up her hand and rested her chin in her hand. "Honestly, I think you're doing everything you can at this point and your doubts are coming from too much pressure. I think that even though your dad is out of jail and you were able to clear his name…you're still grieving over Ronnie and Eddie and you feel guilty about it."

Barry stared at her. Was that true? Was he still grieving over them? It had been so long. Honestly, he didn't think about them very much. He didn't have the time. Zoom was so much of a threat that he hardly had time to relax, even for a second. His work kept him busy enough so that he was able to shift from one focus to the other but…"

"Have you really come to terms with the six months that we weren't a team?" Caitlin asked.

Barry lowered his head.

The six months the team hadn't bene a team was completely his choice. He didn't want anyone around him when it was his fault they had lost two of their friends. And they had moved on without him; Caitlin moved on to Mercury labs and Barry went around the city taking down the metas he could get to first. And even though he distanced himself, the others didn't. There were little moments he could see they were closer to each other than they had been before—he wondered why Brady never called him 'Uncle Barry' when he had no qualms with 'Aunt Caitlin' and 'Uncle Cisco'. But, mostly, he wondered how they managed to grieve together and if there was anything he could do to help now that Cadence was working through her own grief.

She snapped at the others here and there but it looked like she was getting her spirit back. Barry's tactic was just to sit back and let her ride out the wave, knowing that constant pressure of everyone around them didn't help. The only thing that did was keeping busy and holding out hope for happier times. _Now that you have those happy times, what's holding you back? _The sudden thought nearly knocked Barry off-balance. Where had that come from? He had his father and he was more than glad he was back and yet…there was something within him that wasn't sitting very well.

Something else he had been ignoring.

He just wasn't quite sure what it was.

"You know what I'm prescribing you?" Caitlin asked, breaking Barry out of his thoughts.

"Another karaoke night?" He asked.

A look of horror flashed across Caitlin's face, her eyes widening. Then she laughed, holding up her hand. "Not as long as you don't expect me to ever sing again."

"You weren't _that_ bad."

"You didn't see the video online."

For a moment, Barry was stunned. Then he burst out laughing. "There's a video?"

"Probably one of my most embarrassing moments, ever. If I never hear about Grease again, it'll be too soon." Caitlin pushed her wavy hair behind her ears. "No, I'm prescribing you to stop thinking that you're doing this all on your own. That it's your own responsibility to take down Zoom."

"I don't—"

"I can see it in your face, Barry. Your mannerisms. Just because Zoom is going after you doesn't mean you should be the only one who fights back. You have your whole team behind you willing to do whatever it takes, going it alone is not just dangerous, it's suicidal. And, honestly, Barry, sometimes I worry about you. I worry that one day you're going to go into a fight that you won't come back from for an escape from your problems."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Barry asked.

"You talk to people."

"But what if you can't understand. I'm not saying you're not a help, Caitlin, you're great. But there's only so much I can figure out as a metahuman and so much that other metas or even vigilantes like Oliver can talk about. But no one else truly understands unless they're in it and even then, it's like,"—he waved his arms around— "an echo chamber! We can only hear the things we're talking about. There's not a metahuman shrink we can go to. So, we have to suffer in silence."

Caitlin twisted her mouth to the side, she let out a long breath. Then she reached out and gave Barry a warm hug. He reached up and hugged her back. "I know we can't understand completely, but you know I'm always here to help you whenever you need it."

"I know." Barry squeezed her. "Thanks, Caitlin."

"You're welcome, Barry."

His phone started to vibrate and he leaned back to look at the screen. "I've got to go, I need to get to work. Thanks again." He lifted his hand in a wave and raced out of STAR Labs. Caitlin crossed her arms, watching him go. She hoped he took to heart what she said, to stop reverting to everything resting on his shoulders. He did it so easily when things weren't going well, to the point that he didn't seem to remember there were more metas than him around.

"As soon as you realize their deaths weren't your fault you'll get it," she said to herself. The same thing she had said to Cadence, the same thing she had said to herself when her father passed away. She had lost enough people in her life to know how true it was.

Turning on her heel, Caitlin walked out to the Cortex where Jay, Harry, and Harrison were waiting for her. "So how are we going to help him?" She asked. I'm out of ideas and we've tried everything you suggested."

"Well…" Harry drew out the word. "Not everything."

Caitlin was about to ask him what he meant, but stopped when Harrison suddenly shushed them and turned up the volume on the TV in the cortex. The channel was almost always set on the news now, especially with Mayor Bellows's announcement. Now Tess was on screen, sitting at her desk at the CCU while the reporter stuck a microphone in her face.

"How do you think the protests of the forthcoming Metahuman Registration Act are going to fare now that he preliminary measures are going into place?" The reporter asked.

Caitlin shook her head as she watched Tess. The woman was so calm, cool, and collected. If it were Caitlin who was being asked, she wouldn't fair very well with keeping her emotions in check. "No matter the cause there's always going to be someone who will protest to get their voices heard," She explained. "My students and I are very invested in this case and there are those who are for and against some parts of the Registration Act." She lifted her finger. " _Some_ parts. There are those that feel things with metahumans and the safety of the city should be tighter, but no one feels those should uproot their live and their basic life privacies expunged because of fear. No one should have to register themselves a certain way because others are afraid. Where does it end after that? That they must live in a certain part of the city? That they can't have certain jobs? That they have to keep everything about their powers quiet?"

"You sound like you're getting really angry," The reporter commented.

"I am," Tess insisted. "I spent most of my life in the realm of science. Before my accident I did nothing but create things that would make the quality of life better. How can I continue to work towards a better life for people if I don't treat _everyone_ equally? First and foremost, we're human, metas included and that's what needs to be remembered."

Harrison shook his head. "She's bene fielding calls left and right form reporters. Not only that, but she's been pressed to work faster to come up with the one thing that'll stop the MRA from moving even further."

"How close has she come?" Jay asked.

Harrison shook his head. "Not close enough."

Across the city, Cisco was getting ready to get his ass kicked in a workout. What people didn't know was that over the six-month break from Team Flash, though he still worked to stop metas, he also wanted to make sure he was as fit as they come if he ever needed to fight. Of course, he never expected himself to grow abilities that would have him close to the fights in general. Still, he needed to get in shape anyway.

He had a new girl he was seeing and he wanted to be his best for her. At least, that's what he kept telling himself as he ran on the treadmill at a high speed. Sweat dripped down from his hairline, making him wonder if he should cut his hair short. "5…4…3…2…1," Cadence said. "You can stop."

As soon as the last word left her mouth, Cisco jumped up, resting his feet on the sides of the treadmill that weren't moving. He took a deep breath, brushing his hair back from his face. "Oh my God, I think I'm going to die."

Cadence gave him a funny look. "You were only going 4 miles an hour."

"Are you kidding? That felt more like eight," Cisco said. He stretched his arms. "I guess I could've gone a little faster."

With a chuckle, Cadence motioned for him to get off the treadmill. Then she walked the two over to the free weights that were sitting nearby. Cisco looked over his shoulder, watching the other officers and detectives of the CCPD as they moved through their workout routines. They were all so caught up in their own work that they weren't paying attention to the two. Thank God or else Cisco wouldn't have been able to figure out the best way to give an excuse as to why Cadence would be able to lift weights that were three times heavier than her.

"It was just a warmup anyway," Cadence reassured him. She looked over at Cisco as he picked up a set of dumbbells and started to do tricep curls with them. "I know you wanted to get in shape, Cisco, but you don't have to kill yourself to do it."

"Easy for you to say," Cisco replied. "Your metahuman physiology has already started working, I'm waiting for mine to jump start." He rubbed the small bulge of his stomach.

"If you're doing this for Kendra, you don't need to stress about it. She's dating you for _you_ not for your body." Cisco didn't respond and Cadence tried a different tactic. "How are things going with you guys anyway?"

Without meaning to, Cisco started to smile. That was exactly what Cadence was looking for. "Things were great. Actually, we're going on a breakfast dater after I'm done here." He saw her raise her eyebrows in the mirror. "Okay, yeah, I get what you mean when you said we needed a different codeword." Cisco carefully placed the dumbbells by his feet. "Jitters is closed for the day and Kendra says she can get us in there for some time alone."

"Sounds good," Cadence agreed.

"Especially because the last couple of dates we've been on had to be cut short with meta stuff," Cisco said. "I don't know how you and Barry manage to do it."

"Uh, because we know each other's identities."

"I can't tell her what I do."

"I'm not saying you should, there's too much to try and figure out if you did. But you have to take into consideration that you've never going to have a 'normal' relationship if you don't feel that you, at least, have that trust in her. Or else you consistent need for her to be safe is going to consume you more than anything else." She waved her hand. "Then she'll start to ask why…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Cisco broke in. He glanced towards the TV that sat on one side of the room, noticing a group of police officers had gathered around, stopping their workouts. He watched Tess's interview and shook his head. "I can't believe Mayor Bellows agreed with Chief Paulson."

"Well, Chief Paulson _was_ attacked last night," Cadence reminded him. "By someone who he thinks is a meta. As soon as that happened, there was no chance left to take down the Act." What Nightmare had had done didn't help either. There were more _Death to Meta_ graffiti tags popping up over the city that she and Barry worked hard to clean, others starting to show up on Iris's blog and other social media channels.

What was worse was feeling the shift in the response to her and Barry showing up to stop criminals. Most people being interviewed about their recent saves were warm with their response, but there were others who brought up the damages that took place, no matter how quickly Flash and Flare would go back to repair those damages. There'd be mention that they weren't being held responsible for their actions and lawsuits came about, of which would quickly be shot down. When the city was asked overall, in a poll, about their opinions of the metas trying to keep things peaceful, the results were still high but not as high as they had been when Flash Day was celebrated.

Cadence took a deep breath. "Tess says there's still time to stop it but…I honestly don't think it will."

"Is Chief Paulson at work today? Maybe we can talk to him."

"He's still in the hospital. And Captain Singh says no one can talk to him about what happened. He doesn't even think it's a good idea to try to send cards or anything."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. As many people there are that work here that are against the MRA, there are just as many that are for it. Joe's the one that's really stuck in the middle, though. He's the head of the metahuman task force, but he also believes those that are metas but _aren't_ criminals shouldn't have to be detained the same way." She shrugged. "Things like that are hard to figure out."

"Yeah, I guess I get your point." Cisco followed Cadence over to the speed bag that sat in the corner of the room. Cadence told him to continuously punch the bag for a full minute and he got to work. "So, Chief Paulson was attacked by a meta?"

"That's what he says. He got out of his cuffs with ease so I think it's more that he's unsure the abilities he has. Or it was plain fear, not knowing whether he was going to be killed once everyone else was murdered in front of his eyes. You can be on the police force as long as you want but you're still going to get scared at some point." She scratched the back of her head. "Considering the sizes of the wounds, whoever it was made quick work of them. I was working on them earlier today, to see if there was any evidence that Barry could use. And Inside the bodies were some type of crystal and flint, broken off in the stab wounds. They were pretty deep in there, too so the guy was clearly trying to kill them, not just hurt them. Time!"

Cisco lowered his arms, muscles screaming in pain. Who knew a full minute of trying to punch as hard and fast as he could would work so much of the muscles he didn't knew he had? Cadence removed the watch from her wrist. She held her hand out to Cisco and he backed away, holding up his hands, eyeing her warily.

"You know I wear gloves when I work, right?"

They continued to work out until Cadence noted it was time for her to clock into work. She walked Cisco down to her office where she had locked his belongings. Captain Singh, upon giving Cisco his own police badge, allowed him to use the break room and the fitness room, but he wasn't rewarded his own locker. Cadence unlocked her desk and handed Cisco his keys and wallet.

She paused, noticing a set of scissors at the bottom of the drawer. Then, before stopping herself, she gathered her waist-length hair together in a ponytail and brought it over her shoulder. With a few long snips, she cut her hair up to her shoulders.

Cisco, who watched her with wide eyes, blurted out, "What are you doing?"

"I lost a bet."

* * *

Barry frowned as he looked over the pictures spread out on his workbench. Pictures taken from the crime scene the night before as well as the photos Barry had gotten from Chief Paulson in the hospital. He didn't know what was worse, having to see the strong man in the hospital or noticing the glare that seemed to be prevalent on his face. They didn't mention anything about Mayor Bellows's decision with metahuman rights but Barry could see Chief Paulson was daring for him to say something.

They were on the same side of the law in terms of their jobs, but for metahumans they were couldn't be on more opposite sides. Still, it wasn't like he was willing for the man to be attacked like that. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy.

"What have you got for me, Allen?" Captain Singh asked. His voice prompted Barry to look towards the door to his office. Joe trailed along behind Barry, looking as if he wanted to say something to him but now wasn't the time.

Barry grimaced. What could he have possibly done in the five seconds it took for him to get to work? "Well, I've got a pretty good idea of the pattern of who was attacked when," Barry said. He pushed the photos aside to prove his point.

Joe grimaced as he looked them over. That was the hardest part of their jobs, having to see what used to people lively people cut down in the worst and most painful ways. It didn't help that most of their faces were frozen in an expression of pure terror. That was the part that always made it hard for him to be a forensic scientist, when he could see their last expressions. Sometimes happy, sometimes scared, sometimes neutral. No matter what it made his heart hurt to know how alone they were towards the end.

"Man, this was a blood bath," Joe remarked. Barry looked at him as he turned away, skin turning a light shade of green.

"Done by one person," Barry agreed.

Captain Singh's eyebrows rose. "This was all done by one person?"

"Mhm, you can tell from the blood pattern splattered around." Barry waved his hand over the picture. He didn't want to look that closely. "This guy was shot first, then the Captain, then these other guys were stabbed and Chief Paulson was last."

"Do you think a metahuman did it?" Captain Singh's eyes bore into Barry's.

"I'm not sure but Cade found these in the stab victims' wounds. Some type of crypto crystal and flint most likely. Probably broke off the blade during the fight. I'll run it."

"Well, if it is a meta, it's not like it's anything that The Flash can't handle, right?" Captain Singh asked. Barry started to stammer out an answer but Captain Singh kept going. "And now that Flare's back in the city there's not much that either of them can't handle, right?" He reached up, clapping Barry on the shoulder. "By the way, when you see her, tell Cadence that I'm sorry for her loss and welcome back to the job."

"Yeah…I'll do that," Barry said. He looked over at Joe, who watch their boss leave. Joe then whipped back around to Barry, a question on his lips and Barry shrugged, throwing his arms into the air. "I don't know," he said. "I thought I was being really careful but it looks like Captain Singh has figured it out."

"But he hasn't said anything to you or Cadence?" Joe pressed.

"No! Not directly, anyway." Barry licked his lips. "He's been saying things here and there since we saved him from the Meta-Spiders and I'm not sure if he's trying to trip me up or if he's 100% figured it out."

"That doesn't matter, Barry," Joe insisted. "The more people know who you are and what you can do just means there's more people who are put in danger. Plus, think of what would happen if they found out. Your jobs would be at stake. _Our_ jobs."

"What? Why?"

"Bias, interference, tampering with evidence, having and advantage? There are a lot of things that could cause for us to be investigated, _especially_ if we ever have to take the stand for any trials."

That made sense. With things that were going on with the MRA now, that would make things even harder. How would he explain he got certain evidence in his testimony if only The Flash was able to get it? Joe was right, he needed to be more careful. Not that it'd be _too_ bad if Captain Singh knew, he seemed to be receptive to everything The Flash and Flare had been doing.

"I get it, Joe. You're right," Barry agreed. He cleared his throat. "So, uh, what's up with you and Wally and Francine? Have you guys talked since…"

Joe took in a deep breath that took even longer to let out. He brought a hand up to wipe at his forehead. "I don't even know how to talk about it with you guys, let alone my ex-wife who I made you two believe was just gone."

"Well, you didn't actually lie about it. We were too young to really understand. But…Joe…you have a son."

"And you're about as baffled as I was to know I do," Joe said. He started to pace the floor, pushing back the lapels of his coat. He wiped at his mouth. "If I had known Francine was pregnant when we got divorced…I don't know what would've happened. I would've _never_ given up my son, Barry."

"I know."

"And to think I missed out on so much time getting to know him because she could never tell me. I don't know if he's more like me or her, I don't know if he and Iris are similar. I don't know what his first word was, his first solid food, when he first started to walk. All of his milestones, I never got that." Joe came to a stop and turned back to Barry, eyes starting to fill with tears of dismay. "I could've bene a great dad to him."

"You're a great day anyway, Joe," Barry reassured him. He walked over and placed his hands on Joe's shoulders. "To me and Iris. We wouldn't be the way we are if it wasn't for you and your constant support. But think of it this way, don't worry so much about what you missed but what you can experience now. You can learn about all the years you didn't get to know Wally and learn to love him the way you could have. I was telling others about him and—"

"Wait." Joe held up his hand. "You told Caitlin and the others about Wally?"

Barry blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah, I was just saying—"

"—You had no right to do that, Bare." Joe shook his head. "The rest of us barely have a chance to try and figure out what's going on and you blurt it out to them like that."

"All I said was that we need to make sure he doesn't figure out what we're doing. To make sure he's safe. The rest of us are so scared with everything that's going on that the last thing we want is for him to get caught in the crossfire."

"You revealed a really…big secret. Something that I didn't know for twenty years." Joe rubbed his forehead. "Why? Why would you think of doing that? Without talking to me and Iris about it first?"

Barry gazed at Joe for a long moment, eyebrows coming together as he gave his wounded puppy expression. He had hoped it was obvious. "Because he's part of my family, too." He said it so simply, so earnestly that he could visibly see Joe taken aback. Then he noticed the worry and shame that filled his eyes. "I know it wasn't, really, my place to say anything but. I don't know, I thought everyone knowing would've helped."

"Bare—"

Barry's cell phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen, expression changing from hurt to concern when he saw the distress signal from Cisco's phone. He angled the phone to Joe and let out a quick, "Gotta go" before racing to Cisco's location at Jitters.

Barry arrived seconds after Cadence did, both dressed in their suits. Cisco was standing in front of Kendra, holding an arm out in front of her as a long haired, bearded man stood in front of them. His eyes narrowed in a tight glare blazing with so much fury Barry was surprised the air didn't catch on fire. In the time it took for him to take in the man's appearance, he also noticed the cloak he was wearing was filled with numerous knives. Much like the ones that had been recovered from the scene of Chief Paulson's stabbing.

Finally, Barry raced forward and lowered his shoulder, slamming it into the chest of the man. He hit him with so much force, combined with his speed that the man immediately fell back against the ground. Everything moved in real time once more when Barry came to a stop, looking down at the man he had attacked.

"You're done here, pal," he said.

The man got back to his feet. Barry suddenly was struck with a strange energy around him. A sort of energy that felt like he had been punched right in the stomach. But the man hadn't touched him at all. It was more like he had an aura radiating off him. Barry turned his gaze to meet the man's who looked back at him, eyes wide with a crazed excitement.

"So is he!"

The man whipped around and flung the dagger he held in his hand towards Cisco. Cadence reacted fast, teleporting in front of Cisco and brought up her hand to send out a wave of fire. The dagger shifted at the last moment, her timing a bit off. Or, Barry noted, she wasn't really trying to hit her target. The blade flung by her, slashing her arm, before it clattered to the floor.

"Ah!" Cadence grasped her arm, a bead of blood starting to roll down her arm.

Barry whipped around to face the man again and, to his surprised, he was gone. His eyebrows came together in confusion and he turned back around to see where he went. Cisco let out a long sigh of relief and grabbed Barry's shoulder as Cadence bent to retrieve the knife. "Thank _God_ , Barry," he said.

Barry sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, eyes narrowing as he glared down at Cisco's face. Then he lifted his gaze to Kendra, whose eyes lit up in recognition and she started to point at him. Barry glanced round Jitters, suddenly grateful that it was closed that day. Even that early in the morning there were enough people walking around outside that if it were open the place would've been packed and more people would've known their identities.

"The same Barry from going to see the Princess Bride?" Kendra asked. Nodding, Barry reached up and grabbed his hood, lowering it around his neck. Kendra's eyes widened even further. Cisco lowered his head, trying his best to look as inconspicuous as possible, going so far as to closely examining the ground. "So that makes you…" Cadence turned and shifted the dagger to her left hand, using her right to lower her goggles around her neck. "Cadence. Huh, I should've figured that one out sooner."

"Yeah, we don't have time to talk about this," Cadence interrupted. She spun the dagger in her hand and pointed it towards Barry. "We need to talk." She reached out and grabbed Kendra's shoulder before teleporting the two.

Cisco let out a low whistle. "Those aren't the four words a guy _ever_ wants to hear," he said.

"Shut up, Cisco," Barry said. He grabbed Cisco's shoulder and ran the two to STAR Labs.

Kendra looked around in awe when she arrived in the Cortex. Her eyes first landed on the mannequins that held Barry's and Cadence's suits seconds before they were replaced on them. "Whoa!" Kendra took a step back and turned to the two heroes who were now fully dressed. "I guess…you really _are_ The Flash and Flare. Wow." She then walked over to Cisco and grabbed his arm. "And that you _work_ with him."

"Normally we try to keep it on the downlow," Caitlin remarked as she walked over. Her arms were crossed and she gave her best friend a pointed look. At least he had the sense to look away from _her,_ too. "Hi, I'm Caitlin Snow. I wish I was meeting you when I wasn't so mad at Cisco."

"Hi, I'm Kendra." Kendra shook her hand. Then she noticed the others in the Cortex. "And, wow Dr…Wells?" She looked back and forth between the two.

" _I'm_ Dr. Harrison Wells," Harrison said. He gestured towards Harry. "And this is my cousin, Harry." Harry's frown deepened at his introduction. "Yes, the family resemblance is uncanny. What is she doing here?" His last question was addressed to Barry.

"Barry and I went after Cisco when he sent out a distress signal," Cadence explained. "They were being attacked at Jitters with a guy who was wielding, this." She lifted the dagger in her hand and tossed it over to Harrison. He and Harry crowded over the weapon to look it over themselves. Even from where she stood, the jewels encrusted in it shone even in the florescent light.

"The thing is, that's the same knife that was used at the attack on the docks," Barry explained to the room. "The residue from it is a perfect match."

"When did you test it?" Kendra asked, tilting her head.

"On the way here," Barry said. "I stopped by the CCPD to pick up the testing I was doing over there.

"Wow, you _are_ fast," Kendra remarked. She sounded impressed.

Cisco sniffed. "It's not _that_ impressive," he said. "Once you see how he can do things fast once, you've seen them all." Caitlin shot him a knowing look and Cisco stuck his tongue out in reply.

Undeterred by Cisco's remark, Barry held up his hand and gestured toward the daggers once more. "The thing is, those blades are old." He paused for emphasis. "Centuries old." With those words he knew he had everyone's attention, the temperature seemed to have dropped a couple of degrees around them.

Cadence cleared her throat. "Do you have any idea of why he's after you?"

"No." Kendra shook her head, her ringlets bouncing as she did so. "I've never seen him before."

"Well, he acted like he knew you," Cisco reminded her. He thought for a moment, snapping his fingers. His hand dropped to his side when he finally figured it out. "He kept calling you Priestess Chay-Ara."

"That's Coptic," Harry remarked.

"You mean Egyptian?" Caitlin asked.

He smiled a little, nodding. "That's right."

Kendra's eyes widened in surprise. Then she closed them, shaking her head. "Wha? But…I grew up in Wisconsin and never left the country so I don't know…"

No one knew anything about this guy. That was the point. And they weren't going to get any answers if the guy came back to attack her again. They needed to get her somewhere safe so they could come up with a game plan. But what was safer than Central City? The idea popped into Barry's mind almost immediately and he had to stop the mischievous smile that almost worked its way to his face. "This guy is obviously very dangerous. So, I need you to at least let us try to protect you."

Caitlin chewed her lip. She hesitated before asking, "Do you think the CCPD can really hold him? He got away from you twice."

"No," Barry said honestly. "We have some friends who can help, but we'd need to leave Central City to do it."

"To go where?" Kendra asked.

"Star City," Cadence said.

Barry nodded and smiled. Glad to know his partner still could read his mind as easily as she had before and that the two weeks of her absence. Cisco, however, didn't seem to get the memo as he said, "You think we need to go to Star City to take this guy down? We've fought metahumans with abilities worse than knife throwing."

"I don't think he's a meta," Barry admitted. There was something to him. As far as he knew, this man was the most normal person he had ever seen. But at the same time, he had moved as fast as Barry had, fast enough that he didn't anticipate his knife throwing skills. And Barry had nearly watched it take off straight into Cisco's heart he moved so fast. And there was that sense of energy… "There's something different about him, something mystical. We stop metahumans because we're scientists."

Cadence brought up a fist to her mouth and noisily coughed into it. Barry glanced at the ceiling for a moment before correcting himself. " _Most_ of us are scientists." Cadence smiled. "We can figure out what their weaknesses are. But we don't have any experience with magic. They do."

"Barry." Caitlin's voice was quiet. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Zoom would it?"

All eyes turned to Barry and he suddenly felt like he was set on fire. Of course, everything had to be brought back to Zoom. He knew she was worried about their conversation from earlier that day. He didn't have much time to think about it since then, either.

"No." He looked her in the eye. "I'm trying to keep Kendra safe. That's it."

"Okay, but how do we know Oliver will help us?" Caitlin asked.

Barry shrugged. "How busy can they be?"

"Besides." Cadence smiled. "Oliver owes me a favor."

* * *

Damien Darkh stood in the floor of ARGUS security mimicking the terrified face of the man he was killing. He chuckled to himself then stiff-armed, shoving the guy to the ground. He fell back so fast that the back of his head smacked into the ground with a loud 'thwack' and lay still. He wasn't getting back up after that.

"Oh, that was fun." Damien walked over to the men that stood around him dressed in tactical gear. He waved his hands and they parted like the Red Sea, the last two in the line opening the back of the military grade armored truck. The smile on Damien's face never wavered as he looked at the cargo inside. "They thought they could hide this chemical bomb from me," he remarked. "Serves them right. It's getting stolen and used against them." The light lift to his voice was cut off as an arrow pierced the air and embedded itself into the ground.

Damien cast it a dismissive glance. Then he angled his head back, blue eyes landing on the Green Arrow—Oliver Queen, Spartan—John Diggle, and Speedy—Thea Queen, as they stood atop the armored truck. His eyes shot back over to the arrow once more. "Oh, you brought arrows to a gun fight."

"What guns?" Oliver demanded, voice deepened by his voice modulator. He lifted his hand and pressed it to the front of his suit. At the same time, the guns that were in the ARGUS member's hands flew and clumped together at the arrow that had been shot into the ground.

Damien nodded. He smiled. His eyes lit up with mirth. "Ah, that was honestly, pretty clever." His smile faded quick as a candle being blown out. The change in his demeanor was unsettling. "Kill them."

Oliver, Diggle, and Thea leapt down from the top of the armored truck. The second they touched the ground a wave of armored men attacked them. Thea ducked out of the way and used the bow in her hand to strike the nearest man in their face. She then spun on the balls of her left foot and arched her right foot around to slam her heel into his jaw. Blood spurted from his mouth as he spun and hit the ground, giving her a chance to leap over him and attack the next one that came after her.

Diggle, not using a bow and arrow as a weapon, but a pistol, lifted it and fired a shot towards a man that raced towards him. The bullet shot by his head, making him stop in his tracks and bring up a hand to assess the damage to his neck. That gave Diggle the perfect placement to slam the tip of his foot into the man's stomach. When he bent over under the force of the blow, Diggle slammed an elbow in the man's face, knocking him backward. Then he grabbed the arm of another one and used it as leverage to throw him aside.

Oliver, on the other hand, had his eyes set on Damien. He made quick work of the men in front of him, sticking arrows directly in the chest of a few of them. They dropped like flies at his feet. Oliver then raced towards Damien, bringing back his fist to punch him. Damien ducked out of the way and sent a cruel flat side of his palm into Oliver's neck. Then followed it up with a devastating strike to the face. Oliver followed the momentum of his head being pushed back and landed on his back. Damien had followed through with his punch, ready to strike with his elbow, but Oliver wasn't close enough for him to do so. Instead, Oliver flipped himself back to his feet and roundhouse kicked Damien in the side, sending him down to a knee. Oliver then leapt up and slammed the bottoms of both of his feet into Damien's face.

Damien flipped over onto the ground with a low growl. But even he wasn't going to go down without a fight. He spun and held up a hand. Oliver ran right into his grasp and came to a stop, blue eyes opening wide. His jaw dropped and a harsh whisper hissed from Oliver's mouth. Damien pressed his fingertips ito Oliver's chest, watching as the back of his hand turned a sickly black color, the same it always did when he used his dark magic to absorb the life of someone.

"I thought this was going to be easier, but at least I—"

 _Bang!_

Damien was suddenly cut off by a bright blast of light. He flinched and turned away, releasing his grasp on Oliver. Then he whipped around to determine where the shot came from. His eyes were high, expecting to find a man or woman coming towards him. But he didn't expect a kid. Brady had used his abilities to blend in with his surroundings so Damien and his lackeys never would've seen him. So he used that to step away from the shadows that covered him and brought back his arm to bring tension to the rubber. He let go and there was another loud bang and another blast of bright light.

"What the heck?" Damien asked.

He was suddenly knocked aside when Cadence teleported in front of him. She drove her feet into Damien's chest, knocking him flat onto his back. His eyes widened in surprise as he lay flat on his back, stunned. Cadence then lay on top of him, sliding her hands under his armpits. She lifted her feet to press into a handstand and arched herself over into a boat position. Once her feet hit the ground she swung up hard, pulling Damien with her and threw him as hard as she could. Damien arched through the air and crashed into a stack of wooden crates. Cadence threw out her hand and a stream of fire came out of her hand, she leapt atop it and surfed over to where Damien had been seconds before.

But he was gone. Cadence frowned, landing on the ground once more.

"You can't _possibly_ think it was that easy," he remarked from behind her.

Cadence whipped around in surprised. He could teleport as fast as she could. Thankfully, there was a burst of lightning and Damien was swept off his feet once more. Taking that time, Cadence teleported out of the warehouse, coming to a stop next to Barry and Brady as Barry pulled the last of the warehouse. Diggle turned aside and lifted his mask, seconds before he threw up.

"Damn it," Diggle groaned. "Every time." He glared at Barry, who smiled sheepishly in reply.

Thea, though, wasn't affected by Barry's speed rather than Barry's presence. Her eyes were wide behind her domino mask, beneath her red hood. "It's the Flash?" She looked back and forth between Oliver and Diggle, who clearly weren't having the same reaction as her. "Did I know we know the Flash?"

"You know Flare, too," Cadence said. Brady nodded beside her.

Oliver coughed, rubbing his hand across his chest. "Thanks," he said. Barry nodded. Then Oliver looked at him warily, slightly shaking his head. "But you didn't come here to help us, did you?"

"No," Barry agreed. "To call in a favor. We need to protect a friend."

Oliver stood up straight. "I'm listening."

Barry hesitated for a moment then tilted his head. "Let's talk in the Arrowcave."

Oliver licked his lips. He certainly wasn't used to not calling the shots. Nevertheless, it had to be important if Barry had come around like that. Instead, he nodded again and held out his arm for Barry to take. Barry grabbed onto Oliver and Diggle while Cadence took Thea and Brady, the group racing back to the Arrowcave. Oliver didn't say a word until they were down in the Arrowcave, which was now, as he explained, beneath the headquarters that was to his be mayoral campaign.

"You're actually running?" Cadence asked.

"You sound surprised," Oliver said.

"Not at all," She said honestly. "If there's anyone that knows the city, it's you. You're doing everything you can to take down whoever's a threat."

 _Something that I can't do,_ Barry thought. He knew Cadence didn't mean it that way, but Oliver had been doing this for four years now and he managed to take down every person that came his way with relative ease. Well, maybe not relative ease. He had asked for Barry's help when he was still part of the League of Assassins and needed his friends and teammates to be taken out of their prison. And they _had_ just saved Oliver from an entire warehouse of minions.

Barry's mind immediately went blank of his insecurities when the doors to the Arrowcave opened. Brady immediately pushed himself out from the back of the elevator and hurried inside, pushing past Felicity who had turned to greet their friends, and raced from thing to thing.

"Wow," Barry said, looking around. "Nice new digs." He nodded at Oliver in approval, who smiled with pride. Then Barry got a good look at him and his new suit. And he thought his suit upgrade had been cool. "So, I just noticed, no sleeves." He lifted his gaze to meet Oliver's. "Don't you get cold?"

Oliver lifted an eyebrow. He did all but snort and roll his eyes "I spent the better part of five years on an island in the north China sea. I don't get cold, Barry."

"Join the club, Oliver," Cadence said, patting him on the shoulder. She leaned over, looking around the Arrowcave. "Wow, imagine what we could do with all of this space. We've already got a couple of floors that we're not using. Like the one below the Cortex."

"That's taken," Cisco said absentmindedly. He took Kendra's hand as the two came off the elevator, still a little dazed by Barry's picking them up along the way. Barry elbowed him in the side and Cisco glanced at him for a moment before his eyes widened in shame.

"For real?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, now I get what you mean when you say I can't keep a secret."

"What's it being used by?" Cadence asked.

"Forget that," Thea said. She reached out, grabbing onto Cadence's arm to turn her to examine her suit. "Why didn't you tell me you were Flare? We've been talking on the phone all the time and I've been telling you everything about being Speedy."

Cadence shrugged, blushing a little at her hypocrisy. "I guess I had a lot on my mind."

Thea nodded. "I'm still so sorry for your loss."

"It's alright."

The group was then broken out of their admiration of the vigilante's underground base by Felicity's smacking Barry on the arm. Barry's eyes widened in surprise when Felicity grabbed him and pulled him into her arms in a crushing hug. She was talking a mile a minute. "How come you didn't tell me Zoom broke your back? Are you crazy? How can you keep that a secret?"

"Felicity, honey, let him breathe," Oliver said to her.

"Honey?" Cadence repeated. "I thought she was dating Ray."

"It's a long story," Oliver said.

"Knowing you, 'Liver, it always is."

"Must you insist on calling me 'Liver?"

Cisco threw his hands into the air. "You wired this play all wrong! Wrong, wrong, _so_ wrong! My mechanical engineering heart is crying." He waved his arms, looking around the spacious green and silver accented base filled with the highest quality technology. "Do you know how easily your system can overload?"

Before Cisco could continue with his ramble, Kendra broke in, thrusting her hand out towards the blonde IT expert. "Hi, I'm Kendra Saunders."

"I'm Felicity." She shook her hand firmly.

"I'm Thea," Thea said. She motioned over to Diggle. "This is John Diggle and my brother, Oliver."

"Hi." Oliver smiled.

"Okay, so first I meet the Flash and Flare," Kendra said. She turned and pointed to Brady, who was now kneeling in one of the computer chairs, examining the computer screen in front of him. "I find out a little kid is training along with Flash and Flare." Brady smiled and nodded. "And then I meet the Green Arrow."

"Barry says you need our help," Oliver said.

"Yeah, he said there's dangerous after you?" Brady asked, finally addressing her. His eyes widened earnestly.

"In our line of work, they're all dangerous, bud," Cadence reminded him.

"Well, I didn't think anyone was going to tickle her to death."

Even Oliver couldn't help but smile at the young boy's rebuttal to his mother. "What does he look like?" Thea asked when she calmed down. "This guy that's after you."

"Hold on." Barry lifted a finger. He glanced around the room and walked over to a pad of paper that sat on a nearby desk. Picking up a pencil, he used his super speed to draw a face on the pad of paper, it came together in only a few seconds. "This is him." He turned the computer around to show it.

"That's him alright!" Cisco declared. "I'll never forget his face."

"Huh, I never would've thought you could use your powers for that," Diggle said. He rubbed his chin and nodded in approval.

"So, you'll draw someone for this but you can't take the time to draw something for me?" Cadence asked, referring to her request on their date. Barry pressed his lips together, the corners of his lips twitching upwards when Cadence took the pad of paper. She looked it over. "This is really good, Tholly."

"Great, let's check to see if the facial recognizer will get a hit." Felicity swiped the pad of paper and walked over to her computer desk. She gently pushed Brady out of the way and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard to scan through the system. Barry stood behind her, his eyes shifting back and forth as it scanned. Finally, it stopped on a black and white photo of a man who looked to be running form something. "That's him. It says it's from 1975. If that were true, he'd be in his eighties right now."

Oliver sucked in a breath through his teeth and turned to Kendra. "Okay, what else can you tell us about this guy?"

"He said we've known each other for ages." Kendra shrugged. Doubt swirled through her blue eyes. "But I've never met him before."

"There has to be a connection," Oliver insisted. Barry could hear a harder tone coming to his voice, could see the muscles in his arms start to tense. Even the veins in his neck were starting to throb a little bit.

"Not that I know of. I just moved there six months ago."

"Why?" Oliver barked.

Kendra jumped. "I—I was drawn to the city."

"There has to be something else, think."

Cisco held out his arm. "Hey! We just came here to hide out, okay?"

Oliver's nostrils flared. "You came here for my help, this is what my help looks like."

"Ollie, we just saved you from—" Barry started.

"—And we thank you for what you did, Barry. Really, we do. But most of us don't have superpowers. You brought Kendra here not knowing anything about her. Taking her word for it that she doesn't know this guy who has this dude chasing after her. We don't know what he's looking for! That's putting the rest of us at risk. _You_ made all of us unsafe, so maybe _you_ ask the questions."

"Okay!" Felicity threw up her hands. She reached out and gently rubbed Oliver's arm. Barry noticed the tension almost immediately run out of Oliver's arms but he still held it in his face. "Let's calm down. Why don't we go back to our place and have some drinks and talk?"

"Fine," Oliver agreed, but only after taking a deep breath. He led the others out of the Arrowcave. Barry hung back for a few moments, lost in thought. Oliver was always able to get people to fall behind him with only a few words. A few harsh words, and yet people respected his authority with on pushback.

Barry, on the other hand, had no idea where to begin, to be as strong. Barry placed his hands on his hips and nodded. "Okay," he said to himself. Barry turned to go then noticed Cadence waiting for him. Then he noticed the look on her face. He sighed. "Don't say it," Barry warned.

"He's right," Cadence said.

"Ugh!" Barry tilted his head back. "I _knew_ you were going to say that."

"You should've worked faster to stop me, then." Cadence's smile faded. "We're putting them in more danger than we would have if we stayed in Central City. Maybe we should've tried to handle things on our own. We've done it before."

"Like you did at Jitters?" Barry asked. Cadence made a face. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to bring it up like that but…I saw you…you weren't trying your hardest to stop him. Normally, you wouldn't have missed like that."

Cadence swallowed hard. She wasn't offended by his statement. It was good if they could call each other out on things they did wrong. "I didn't want to lose control again," she said. "Like with Nightmare. I messed up, I really hurt her. I don't want to do it again. Not when everyone is looking for an excuse to shuttle us metas out of town as soon as the next shipment of torches and pitchforks comes to town."

"That was an accident," Barry reassured her. "That's what happened because you thought you were seeing Breathtaker again. I might've done the same if I thought it was Zoom or the Reverse-Flash that was about to come and attack me again."

"No, it felt…different." Cadence ran a hand through her hair. "I can't explain it. The last time I felt like that was when we were fighting Zoom and—"

"Hey, listen to me." Barry gently grasped her face. "Everything's going to be okay. We're going to save Kendra and figure out what this guy wants. Then we're going to take down Zoom. Together. Okay?"

"Promise?' Cadence asked.

"Promise," he replied readily. Cadence tilted her head, her eyes gently shifting back and forth as she looked at him. "What?"

It looked like she was going to ask him something, or was trying to work out something confusing. "Nothing," she said. "You're right. I guess…I'm just thinking about my dad. Wondering what he'd say about all of this." She laughed. "Actually, I know what he'd say. He'd say the same thing each time I was worried about a competition."

"What'd he say?"

"Use your fear," she said simply. "That's worked for me through all of this, why should I let it hold me back now?"

"I never thought you were afraid," Barry remarked.

"Having powers that I couldn't control until not long ago, having the people I love being potential targets, having the entirety of Central City on our backs to protect, and now my nine-year-old son is fighting alongside us. No, I'm not scared at all," Cadence said sarcastically. "But that's life. Life's scary. It's about change, sometimes it's painful—"

"Sometimes it's beautiful, most of the time it's both," Barry finished. His nose wrinkled. "I think I remember you telling me that before."

Cadence smiled.

Twenty minutes later they were all gathered up in Oliver's apartment as if things hadn't been tense with them before. Oliver went around the loft, giving everyone drinks as they conversed. Cisco and Thea jokingly argued about Thea's vigilante name, Speedy, while Barry and Felicity looked on in amusement.

"I'm not changing my nickname," Thea insisted. She glanced at her brother, who had bestowed the name upon her ages ago when she was still very much a party girl. Oliver smiled back. "I like Speedy."

"I could come up with something better than Speedy," Cisco said.

"So could I," Brady remarked. He thought for a moment, closing an eye. "Like…Red Hood." He laughed at his own joked. "Get it?"

Thea ruffled his hair. "Okay, you get a reprieve because you're young and cute." Brady beamed at the complement. Then Thea turned her gaze to Cisco and some of the charm left her face. "I'm not so sure about you."

Cisco was about to protest but Kendra grasped his hand to calm him down. Cisco smiled back at her, taking the bait. Barry laughed at the exchange then turned to Felicity, holding a glass of soda, Oliver's own joke for him not being able to get drunk.

"So, you're the CEO of Palmer Tech and you're living here with Oliver Queen," Barry said. He shook his head. "It's so strange how much life can change in six months."

"Which you would now better than anyone," Felicity agreed. "You already went through a nine-month coma that was hard to come to terms with your new powers form that. But now there's a whole other speedster and entire other Earth that we need to deal with." Her eyes widened behind her glasses as she shook her head. "And I thought things were strange here."

"Yeah, you're dealing with magic now?" Barry gestured towards Oliver, who moved to get himself a drink. "And a domestic Oliver. Never thought I'd see the day."

"You know, neither did I, honestly," Felicity said. "Like, I imagined it like I've imagined a _lot_ of things about Oliver…" Felicity blinked rapidly. Barry made a point of sipping his soda. "I mean…now that I Have to imagine it. Wow, that's not…I guess that's not what you wanted to hear."

"No, definitely not," Barry agreed. "I already know his track record with women, I don't need any more proof he was the Big Man on Campus." He narrowed his eyes at Oliver. "I bet his doppelganger is bald and has a potbelly."

"You still haven't gotten over him shooting arrows in your back, have you?"

"Not yet."

Felicity laughed along with Barry. Then she tilted her head, giving him a knowing look. He looked back at her and she raised her eyebrows. Barry continued to look at her. Finally, Felicity asked, "Seeing anyone?"

Barry's eyes lit up. "I am, actually," he said. He looked over his shoulder to look at Cadence, who was sitting along with Brady and the others, listening with complete attention to the story Thea was telling. "She's amazing." He really had no other word he could use to describe her and hoped it was the same the other way around.

"You deserve someone amazing," Felicity said.

"Thanks. I mean, we're not official or anything and we're taking things slow—"

"Can you do that?" Felicity asked. "Do anything slow, I mean?" She winced. "Not that, _that's_ what I'm asking—"

"Don't worry about it, you wouldn't be the first person to ask me that." He tried not to think about how much of that conversation he had with Cisco and Caitlin when he started going out with Linda. Barry's eyes shifted to Oliver as he approached the two. He suddenly felt apologetic. "Hey, Ollie, uh, I'm sorry that I laid all of this on you. I know it's not fair.

Oliver held up his hand. "That's okay, I'm sorry if earlier I was a little—"

"—snippy?" Barry tossed out. It wasn't as if he hadn't been thinking about it for a while.

"I've been called worse. Cade could tell you, so could Thea. But it shows a great deal of maturity that you came to us to ask for help." Oliver paused for a moment. "And I would know because I've never been that mature. I'm always here for you. I'm proud of you."

Barry tried not to let the large smile worm on his face. It was like he had been praised for being at the top of the class and winning the science fair all at once. "Thanks. But, uh, I have to say you got over that really fast. Almost like you're a different Oliver Queen you seem really…happy"

"I am happy." Oliver wrapped his arm around Felicity's shoulder. "I have everything I wanted. Being with Felicity has given me a sense of peace." Felicity smiled up at him and he pressed a kiss to her head.

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "Didn't you tell me that guys like us don't get the girl?"

"Yeah, I was wrong."

Across the room, Cadence laughed along with Cisco as he told the tale of her and Barry fighting against Thorn. It wasn't a fight that lasted too long, she had obviously only just gotten her powers. But at least she could laugh about that part of the day instead of flinching about it or falling into a sullen darkness that draped and molded over every part of her body. She was having such a good time that it took her a few seconds before she realized that Brady had fallen quiet as he sat next to her.

"Mom," he said finally, leaning against her. "I don't feel so good."

"You don't?" She didn't have to touch him to know he was running a little warm. "What's wrong? Is it your stomach?"

He nodded. "I didn't feel good all day."

"Did you eat something funny?"

"No."

"Okay, hold on." Cadence got up from the couch and walked over to Oliver, Felicity, and Barry. "Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys have any Ginger Ale or anything."

"Don't tell me you can't get drunk either," Felicity joked. Barry rolled his eyes, letting out a quiet 'oh my god' as he did so.

"It's not for me, Brady doesn't feel very well," Cadence explained. "His stomach hurts."

"Yeah, there's some in the kitchen," Oliver said. "I'll show you where it is."

"Thanks."

Cadence stopped back with Brady, ruffling his hair. He looked miserable. "I'm going to get you some Ginger Ale okay?" He nodded and curled up onto the couch. Cadence reached over and grabbed her phone, handing it to him. "Here, why don't you play a game?" He took the phone and slowly scrolled through the options.

Then he made a whining sound, kicking his feet as he turned onto his side. Cadence frowned, she hated to see him sick. Partly because he became whiny when he was sick and partly because she hated seeing her son with such little energy.

"It's alright," Barry said. He sat down on the couch next to Brady, allowing the young boy to lean against his side. "We can just hang out until you feel better." He looked over Brady's head and winked to Cadence.

'Thank You,' she mouthed back before following Oliver into the kitchen. She blinked, looking around at the spacious area. "You know, if I didn't know you personally, I'd say you were lying about not having much money anymore."

"This is all Felicity," Oliver replied. "Being the CEO of a company has its perks."

"Weren't you the CEO of Queen Consolidated at one point?"

"At one point. But, I'm kind of glad it's gone. I could never live up to the legacy."

"I don't think you ever had that problem, before. You didn't care so much about it."

"I didn't care so much about anything back then." Oliver picked up a crystal glass and filled it with ginger ale he found in the refrigerator. "Nothing other than myself. But…that's all different now." He smiled to himself. "Sometimes I can't believe I'm running for Mayor of Star City."

"I wasn't lying earlier, I think you could do a really great thing as the mayor," Cadence said. "I might rag on you all the time, but you're probably one of the best things that's ever happened to this city."

"I don't completely agree with that, but thank you for that sentiment," Oliver said. "There're plenty of people who are better than me. They're all in that room over there, without them behind me I wouldn't have even thought of it." He looked lost in thought. "I want people to be proud of me."

"We already are."

"Not just us…everyone that matters," Oliver said mysteriously. He blinked and stood up straight. "If you and others can see that I've changed, I want everyone else to be able to see it too. People that may have written me off or forgotten about me."

"It's hard to forget about Oliver Queen."

"I hope you're right."

Cadence took the glass and walked back to the living room. She slowed as she approached the couch. Barry had his arms wrapped around Brady and was holding onto her phone, helping him through the video game he had started up. For a second he stopped to reach up and rest his palm against Brady's forehead before starting the game again.

And as Cadence stood behind them, watching Barry help play his video game, she finally had an answer to her question.

* * *

 **A/N:** This chapter ended up so long I had to split it in two. Otherwise you would've been reading a _very_ long chapter. That being said, not so good news on the MRA front. Security measures are starting to be put up and even fighting against metas is starting to affect everyone else in the city in ways they didn't expect. But, hey, we finally got to Legends. Even though we're at that episode there's still stuff that needs to go with Mick and Snart before they're redeemed enough to shift over to that part of their storylines.

Lot of little things going on. There's going to be more with Vandal Savage. For someone who's supposed to be scary I plan to make him a bit more vicious but this chapter has gone on long enough. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. And guess what? We're almost at Earth-2. At this point I'm not sure how long (chapter wise) this story will be, I know my pacing is a big slower than the last few but I hope it continues to hold your guys' attention as the story progresses.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Well, Barry's not going to be 100% off the hook with that as you see here. Barry's and Cisco's project will be revealed soon. I'm projecting in about two chapters. Mary-Rose's strength came from both, she was already strong but it was tacked onto it afterwards. Cadence's takedown of Nightmare was to prove her strength with her abilities as well as to show another instance of what happens when she loses control, like with Zoom.

 **Noblecrescent:** More with them coming! Thanks for the review!

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you. That's really motivating.

 **DarkHelm145:** I thought of using Scarecrow, but I don't want to use too many things from Batman. So, I decided to make it my own meta.

 **Yummers:** Thanks. Glad you liked it.

 **Guest:** More West family stuff coming up. I have to gradually bring Wally rather than just being Linda's boyfriend.

 **Spinquin142:** I was excited to get to Cade's background with AB. It was a longtime coming.

 **WinterRain36:** Yep, yep. She's becoming more powerful as time goes on. Thanks for taking the time to review.

 **Babyj:** Barry's decision to tell isn't supposed to be 100% right or 100% wrong, so that's going to come up a bit. I agree, the fight was a little rushed but I struggle to keep fight scenes interesting sometimes.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday. Follow our twitter (DarkElements10) for status updates if a chapter will be late. Also, follow us on tumblr at purple-and-red-ribbons.  
****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	30. Living Legend (2)

**A/N:** To _Guest 2_ asking about putting in more BarryCade; Hi! *waves* In my stories I try to have a balance of their blooming romance along with their superheroics, but if you want more BarryCade romance centered chapters, then I'll do that. It especially helps with the plot I've got going for the crossover! I hope the opening of this one had a good moment between them (or at least on Cade's part) for you, it was originally going to be in the last chapter but I changed it. I hope you continue to read, review, and enjoy. Please let me know what you think, whether in a review or in a PM if you have an account.

* * *

 **.:30.**

 _Living Legend  
_

* * *

Cadence Nash was falling in love with Barry Allen.

She always thought it was a load of crap when people said, 'they just knew' when they suddenly felt differently about the person they had been seeing. It was something she had questioned with Ryder until he admitted he was feeling the same thing. But in this case, it was something she had literally spelt out for her. Barry had helped her out, looking after Brady many times before but seeing him quickly fall into a parental role to make him feel better clinched it for her.

Complete with him carrying the young boy all the way back to their hotel room and not making a fuss when he accidentally threw up on him. "Sorry, Barry," Brady muttered miserably after wiping his mouth.

"Don't worry about it, it happens," Barry replied. Cadence ushered Brady into the bathroom and took his pajamas in with him to be changed. She came back out with a plastic bag in her hands, and held her hand out for Barry's sweater.

"I really am sorry," she apologized. "I was trying to make sure he didn't puke on Oliver's and Felicity's couch, didn't think that your sweater would get caught in the crossfire." She couldn't help but feel completely mortified. She just realized she was falling in love again and now her son had managed to get sick on him only a few moments later.

"Here's your Ginger Ale," Cadence said, handing the drink to Brady. Barry moved his arms from around the young boy so he could lean forward and take the glass. He took only a sip before he turned his head, wincing. "Still feel that bad?" Brady nodded. "Okay, I'll just take you to the hotel." Brady nodded again and half-slid, half-melted down from the couch. "Tell Oliver and Felicity thank you for their hospitality."

"Thank you," Brady mumbled, turning to face them.

"You're very welcome," Felicity said. A nervous smile came to her face. She skirted around the couch and placed her hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him away from the couch. She reached out and ran her hand along the cushion, smoothing it out. Or checking for any stains. "Just…you know…I hope you feel better."

"Thank you for dropping by," Oliver agreed. "If there's anything I can do to help."

"I'll let you know," Cadence said. What else could they do when they had no ideas of where this guy after Kendra was? Not to mention they rarely had time to themselves just have fun and enjoy each other's company. What point was there to stress now? "C'mon, bud." She reached for his arms but Barry wrapped his arms around the boy and lifted him up into his arms, cheeks resting on his shoulder.

"I can take him," Barry offered, answering Cadence's unasked question. "We still need to check into our hotel rooms anyway." He looked over at Cisco and Kendra. "Are you guys coming?"

"Well, I was thinking we could keep hanging out for a while," Cisco said. He looked to Kendra for confirmation.

Kendra nodded. "Yeah, I'm still trying to get to know these guys. And…still trying to wrap my head around what you guys do here and in Central City." She smiled a little. "If this guy is going to keep coming after me then I guess it's good to know the people that are going to protect me, right?" She smiled and reached out, clasped her hands into Cisco's, who looked like his birthday and Christmas came on the same day.

"Besides, I still want to hear what nickname this guy can come up with for me," Thea said. Her eyes flashed as she looked at Cisco, waiting. "You still haven't said yet."

"I'm just holding you in suspense, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

"If anything happens," Barry said to Oliver.

It took Oliver a few moments before he realized Barry was talking to him. He watched Barry and Brady with an odd expression on his face. Finally, Barry said his name again, making him blink and snap to attention. A stern expression came to his face, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You'll be the first one I notify," Oliver promised.

"Okay, thanks again." Cadence waved and she and Barry left Oliver's and Felicity's apartment.

"It's not a big deal," Barry said, pulling off his sweater and handing it over to her. He pulled down the bottom of his t-shirt and crossed his arms. "I'm just glad it wasn't my shoes." The two looked down and laughed at Barry's joke, noting the holes and burned out spots that dotted his shoes. The side of his right shoe was threatening to split open at the seam, probably from the many times he had to make sudden stops when running. "That definitely would've been unpleasant."

"What about when you're running when it's raining?"

"That's when Captain Singh gets mad at the puddles of water that drip everywhere."

Cadence laughed. "So just buy new shoes, Barry!"

"Do you know how many I'd have to buy in a year?" He laughed, too then looked over when the bathroom door opened and Brady, fresh from a shower, walked out and immediately climbed into bed. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Okay," Brady replied. He pulled the blankets up to his chin and looked back at Barry and Cadence as if uninterested that they were there. He eyed Barry warily when he walked over and knelt by his bed.

"You know what always made me feel better when I was sick?"

"What?"

"When my mom would let me have ice cream," Barry said, almost conspiratorially. "Maybe if you ask nicely, your mom will let you get some room service." He reached out and ruffled Brady's hair. "Feel better soon, okay? We need to make sure you're there to help take down this guy."

"Okay." Brady managed a small smile.

Barry patted him on the leg then moved to the door. Cadence followed him. "Thanks for the help, Barry," she said. She reached around him for the door and opened it. "You didn't have to do that."

"I just wanted to make sure he was okay," Barry said.

"And make sure we weren't attacked, right?" Cadence smiled when she noticed the blush come to Barry's cheeks, knowing it was the truth. She was sure her smile was splitting her entire face. Either that or she was mooning after him like a little school girl. Even the thought alone made her stomach feel queasy with nerves. Good nerves. Excited nerves. "I don't know if you know, but you're not always going to have arrows jettisoned into you whenever your back is turned."

"Knowing Oliver and his training tactics, it's possible," Barry said. He reached out and rubbed her shoulder, where she had been shot by Roy's arrow ages ago. She wasn't sure if it was her powers or his touch that made her skin burn. Considering how it lasted when he pulled his hand away, she was sure it wasn't her powers. "At least I had the excuse of not being able to see them coming. What was yours?"

"I was probably too busy trying to save your ass," she teased back. "Like always."

Barry laughed again. "Yeah, like always." He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later."

"See ya." Cadence waved and closed and locked the door behind him. Then she went over to her bed and laid down, picking up her phone. She quickly sent a text to her mother, thanking her for looking after the apartment for her while she was gone, and smiling when Maya responded that she couldn't wait to hear the story of their victory and that she would have a cake waiting for them when they got back. Then she called Caitlin, waiting impatiently for her to pick up.

"Hello?" Caitlin answered.

Cadence glanced over at Brady, who curled up in a ball and was now breathing heavily. Not far away from being in a deep sleep. "I know this is a strange conversation to have but I really need to ask. When you were with Ronnie, when did you know you were in love with him? And how?"

There was a moment of silence on Caitlin's end of the phone. Cadence could practically see her blinking at her phone, trying to figure out what was just said to her. Then she said, "I was going to ask how things were going in Star City, but this sounds a lot more interesting."

Cadence smiled. "Very funny." She took a deep breath. "If I tell you something can you promise not to tell anyone else? Especially Cisco, because we all know what he would do with that information."

"Okay. I promise."

"I think I'm in love with Barry," Cadence said slowly, quietly. Still, a rush of excitement flooded through her as she said it out loud. She looked over at Brady again. This time he let out a short snore, but didn't stir.

"And?"

"What do you mean, 'and'?"

"I mean…well, Cisco and I have had our suspicions for a while. We just weren't sure how long it would take for either of you to say anything?"

Cadence smirked. "So, you notice that, but you don't notice when I was flirting with you?"

"Wait. You flirted with me?"

"There's missing signs then there's being physically buried under a truck carrying road signs, Caity."

"Ha ha, very funny. So, what was it that made you realize?"

"Well, I've been thinking about it for a while. I thought I might have been but it wasn't until we got here that I figured it out. It's a lot of things, Cait. I love how excited he gets over things he's passionate about." She realized how much easier it was getting to say it. Though the thought of saying it _to_ him made her want to pass out. How ironic, the girl that basically told him he was going out on a date with her was too scared to tell him she loved him. "And how he cares about other people so much, how he doesn't apologize for being such a nerd." She found herself laughing.

"So, what's keeping you from saying it to him?" Caitlin's voice was soothing, making Cadence feel better.

Cadence's voice took on a sarcastic tone. "Well, the thought of death at a moment's notice isn't very appealing. It's not just that, I'm thinking of Brady, too. If we break up then that's just someone else that'll leave his life—"

"Out of everything that Barry's done, what makes you think that would happen? You've broken up before and he didn't leave."

"I know, but I wasn't as emotionally invested, then."

Now Caitlin laughed. "That's terrible, Cade." Cadence joined in with her laughter then fell silent, thinking. It wasn't like death and life's natural experiences weren't always something that was a threat to them. Or maybe she was just making excuses. Not wanting to completely come to terms with things. For a moment, she wondered if she thought Ryder would be an issue then very quickly shot the thought down. Ryder had never been a problem before and wouldn't start after, the two of them had been very honest about not wanting to get back together. And things were working exceedingly well with Brady even if they weren't together. "I think you already know how you feel. And I'm very happy for both of you. I don't know anyone else better suited for each other."

"Thanks, Cait."

"You're welcome, Cade."

"So, what's been going on over there?"

"Nice change in topic but not much. If something does we'll let you know. And keep us updated over here, too, okay?"

"I promise. I'll talk to you later, Caitlin."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Cadence hung up and quickly checked her work and personal email. But she soon found herself reading the same lines repeatedly, mind wandering elsewhere. Instead, she put down her phone and picked up the plastic bag that held the soiled clothes and the card key. She left the room and teleported down to the lobby, around the corner from the front desk. Upon arriving at the hotel, they had done a preliminary check to see where security cameras were stationed. Thankfully, there only appeared to be some at the front desk.

"Hi," she greeted the night manager. "I'm sorry, but do you have a washer and dryer here that I can use?"

"Yes, just go around the corner over there,"—he pointed in the opposite direction she had come—"And it's the second door on the left."

"Thank you."

Cadence followed the directions the man gave her and found the laundry room. Using the detergent that was provided she measured out the correct scoopfuls and dumped them into the machine before closing the lid and putting it on the correct pre-set. The dryer she wouldn't need, once things were cleaned she could just heat up the clothes until they were dry. As it was; it should only take about an hour for the cycle to finish. Leaving the laundry room, Cadence closed the door behind her. She turned the corner and yelped in surprise when she nearly crashed into Barry.

He jumped as well, but not before placing a hand over her throat, slamming her back into the wall behind her. Immediately realizing what he had done, Barry lowered his hand and backed away, bringing that same hand to his chest.

"I hate to see what happens when someone confronts you on a dark street corner, Tholly," Cadence said, fighting to catch her breath and slow down her heartbeat. "You scared me."

" _You_ scared me," Barry replied. "What are you doing down here?"

Cadence motioned towards the door she had just left. "Laundry. What are you doing?"

Barry held up his hand to show off the change and dollar bills nestles in his palm. "I was getting food from the vending machine, I'm starving. Room service is closed."

"Good thing, too, I think they would've been suspicious with all of the food you would've sent up to your room."

"I would've shared."

Cadence smiled. She was doing that a lot lately. "Did you get tired of Big Belly Burger already?" She went to the vending machine and looked over the selection. Her eyes lit up when she spotted the Twizzlers inside. Barry noticed and quickly fed the machine some quarters, retrieving the candy when it was dropped and tossed it to her. "I thought that was your favorite food."

"I don't want to go too far, just in case," he explained. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what it is about this guy but…I can tell he's different. If he really is eighty years old then he's a strong eighty. Whether he's using magic or not…he can move fast." He looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "Even faster than you."

"You're just mad because _I'm_ faster than you," Cadence teased.

Barry took a bite of the chocolate bar he bought and waved it towards her. "That hasn't actually been proven yet."

"What do you want? A picture?"

"A fair fight."

Cadence thought for a moment. Then she turned on her heel and started to look through some of the doors within the hallway. A sly smile came to her face when she opened one of the last doors and found what she had been looking for. She motioned with her head and Barry chuckled when he noticed the pool in front of them. "How about a race?" She asked. Her voice echoed along the sloping walls.

"I can run on water, I don't think that'd be too fair," Barry pointed out. He walked along the edge of the pool, glancing down at the water.

Cadence shrugged, and bent to take off her shoes, quickly tossing them aside. Then she stepped up onto the diving board, bending her knees as she gracefully tiptoed to the end of the board. She glanced over the edge, at her rippling reflection. Lifting her head, she said, "So prove it."

"I don't have a suit," he said.

"So just use your underwear, it's the same thing." Cadence shed her jeans and blouse so that she stood in her bra and underwear. She could feel Barry's eyes on her. Holding her arms out for balance, she turned her back towards the pool. With a few bends of her knee she flipped backwards in a backhand spring then did a back tuck, clearing the end of the diving board and landed in the pool feet first.

She broke the surface, brushing her hair back from her face seconds before a wave of water splashed her, making her turn away. Sputtering, Cadence turned back in time for Barry to splash her again. It was a welcome splash, she was sure he would catch her obviously checking him out. She turned to splash him back. Leaning to the side, he cut through the water with one arm before disappearing to the far side of the pool with the aid of his powers. Cadence's eyes widened in surprise at the burst of speed, hardly paying attention to the wave of water that came up behind him.

"Wow, you can swim fast, too," She said. "Where were you when the swim team was recruiting?"

"Well, if the Olympics ever decide to come calling—"

"—Caitlin would kill you," Cadence broke in. "You know how she gets making sure that we keep our identities a secret." A mocking surprised look came to Cadence's face and she brought up a hand to cover her mouth. "I'm sorry, I mean apart from the people who may or may not be married."

"Okay, that was an accident," Barry defended himself. "How was I supposed to think someone who was down in the Arrowcave _didn't_ know who I was?"

"It's called a 'secret identity' for a reason." She used air quotes around the words.

"And setting an entire forest on fire was a great way to stay inconspicuous," Barry teased back.

Cadence reached out a hand and batted the water, splashing him in the face. "At least I didn't smile and get excited when I was facing my first mugger."

"Excuse me, Grand Theft Auto, at least I haven't blown up half of the cars we've ever come across when we're fighting someone." Barry splashed her back.

"In my defense, I can't control the distance my flames can be felt."

"Feel this."

The two started to laugh as the two continued to splash each other back and forth. Finally, Cadence shot forward and pressed her hands to Barry's bare shoulders, pushing his head under water. She resurfaced, wiping water droplets from her eyes then turned around. She looked through the water, not finding Barry behind her. Her eyes searched the water for a few moments, lips parted to call out his name then jerked back in surprise when he appeared right in front of her, spitting a mouthful of water in her face.

He laughed hysterically, making her glare.

"That is _never_ funny!" She declared and smashed her closed fist into the water with a punch so hard that a wave, bigger than what would come from a normal hit.

She continued to splash him and Barry held up his hand to block the splashes of water before grabbing her hands, pulling her closer to him. She stopped her movements and tilted her head down, finding herself unsure of where to look. Then Barry bumped his forehead against hers and she tilted her head back, giving him enough space to kiss her.

Cadence lifted her arms to drape around Barry's shoulders, pulling herself closer to him, eagerly responding to the kiss. Barr gently placed his hands on her wait, pressing his fingertips into her lower back. She could feel her skin flush at his touch and lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist. Barry lifted a hand to her hair, cradling the back of her head. He shifted his head to the side, deepening the kiss when he opened his mouth to suck in a quick gasp of air. Cadence grabbed the sides of his face and gently flicked her tongue against his, making him moan softly.

Barry swam to the side of the pool, pinning Cadence's back against it as he rested his hands on the side of the pool. Cadence ran her hands up and down Barry's back, pressing her fingertips into his skin, leaving a burning trail as she did so, making Barry gasp at the sensation.

They continued to kiss until Barry suddenly started to rapidly vibrate, making Cadence pull away from him.

"Are you going to laugh every time that happens?" Barry asked, exasperatedly, voice echoing as he spoke.

"It's not that," Cadence said slowly. "I just became painfully aware that we're in water and you can create electricity." She laughed when Barry's eyes shifted, suddenly remembering the very same fact. He slowly lowered her back to the bottom of the pool.

"That's a good point. We should head back. If you want. I mean, you could, um," Barry said. He brought up a hand and ran it through his hair. "We could…go back to my room."

"Uh, sure." Cadence nodded. "I just need to—"

There was the sound of a door nearby closing, footsteps heading in their direction. All at once, Barry raced from the pool in a blast of lightning, grabbing his clothes along the way. Cadence scrambled out of the pool and grabbed her clothes before she teleported to the laundry room. She grabbed the clean clothes then joined him in his room. Dressing once more, she shivered, noticing the chill.

"Do you mind if I borrow your sweater?" She asked Barry, holding it up. "I'm a little cold.

"If _you're_ cold then that's saying something," Barry remarked, roughing a towel over his hair. "Go ahead, I don't mind."

"Thanks." She pulled the sweater on, taking note of the sleeves that fell over her hands. With her back turned, she quickly brought the sleeves up to her nose and gently sniffed it. Barry laughed when he noticed and said, "I hope it smells good."

"What?" Cadence bashed herself in the nose, at her surprise and winced in embarrassment at being caught and from the pain. Turning back to him, she gently shook the long sleeves back and forth. "I guess it's a little big on me."

"Everything's big on you, Cade."

"Hey, I'm tiny but mighty, don't forget that."

"So maybe your new nickname should be 'the Maiden of Might'," Barry teased.

"Actually, I think that name's already taken." Cadence then made a show of doing a quick pirouette. "And I prefer the Dancing Flame, thank you very much." To punctuate her statement, she flapped her sleeves into Barry's face. He pushed her hands away and Cadence rested her hands on his neck and kissed him first this time.

Barry grasped her waist and pulled her onto his lap, immediately becoming lightheaded at the added warmth she radiated. They kissed for a few minutes before Barry pulled back. "What?" Cadence asked quietly. Her lips tugged into a smile. "I swear I'm not laughing at you this time."

"No, it's not that." Barry pulled up her arm, pushing back her sleeve. "What happened to your arm?"

"What?" Cadence tilted her head to look for herself. "I don't see anything."

"That's what I mean. Didn't you get hit by the dagger, back at Jitters?" He asked. He continued to examine her skin. "I could've sworn you got hit." He looked to be lost in thought for a long moment, eyebrows pinched together so hard the skin between his eyebrows creased.

"Tholly," Cadence gently rubbed his neck. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He smiled up at her. "But, uh, this is probably as good a time as any to say…I was talking to Felicity and Oliver earlier tonight. She asked if I was dating anyone and I explained how we were going out." Cadence nodded, urging him to continue. "And I explained how I think you're great and that I don't have to question if you have my back, in a fight or not. And I thought of a conversation I had with Oliver a while ago about whether we can be a hero for the city and be happy in all areas of our lives. You're amazing, Cade, and I love how you can take everything life throws at you and not give up. I just hope that…with what's happening with Zoom, you don't give up on me."

"Why would I do that?" She asked.

"I'm not saying you will, Cade, I'm saying I…" Barry trailed off. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, how long he had wanted to say it. Saying it out loud would make things even more real. But he wasn't afraid of it anymore. "I'm saying I want to be your boyfriend, that I'll take things as slow as you want but I'm not afraid of other people knowing or the consequences of it." He grimaced. "I'm not sure if I'm being clear."

"No, Barry, I think I know what you mean," Cadence said, her eyes searching his.

There was a sudden, frantic knock at the door. Cadence muttered something under her breath and got off Barry's lap so he could go to the door. He opened it to find Cisco standing on the other side of the door, running his hands over each other. After a nervous glance over his shoulder, Cisco said, "Dude, I need to talk to you."

Barry lifted an eyebrow, trying not to let his frustration show. "Now?"

"Yes, 'now'," Cisco insisted. Then he got a good look at Barry's face. "Why? Is something wrong."

"No, it's just, I'm kind of in the middle of something."

Cisco continued to look confused, then glanced over Barry's shoulder, finding Cadence squeezing eh excess water droplets off the end of her hair. Then his eyes zeroed in on her wearing Barry's sweater and he took a step back, trying and failing to hide his smile. "Sorry, I interrupted something did I?"

"Nothing to call home about," Cadence called. She walked up to Barry' side and crossed her arms, tossing her wet hair over her shoulders. "What's up?"

* * *

Caitlin hung up after he phone call with Cadence and walked into the Cortex. Carefully balancing a tray of coffee in her left hand, she replaced her phone in her pocket with her right. Pausing, Caitlin looked around the cortex. It had been filled not too long before but now, with Barry, Cisco, _and_ Cadence gone, it seemed emptier than usual. Even with Harry's presence on one side of the Cortex was nothing. Last she checked, Henry was in the medical bay and Jay and Harrison had been around.

"Where is everybody?" She asked, walking to her computer terminal.

"Harrison is getting prepared for a meeting he and Tess have with Mayor Bellows," Harry explained. Then he sat back and rolled his eyes. "Jay's somewhere, he always tends to disappear at this point in time. Probably working on the breaches again."

"But isn't that important?" Caitlin pointed out. She picked up a coffee and walked it over to Harry. "If the breaches continue to stay open, that just means Zoom can send more metas over here."

"Yes, it is important," Harry said almost begrudgingly. Caitlin watched him as he did so. Clearly there was more between him and Jay that either of them were willing to admit. "However, I think focusing on getting faster than Zoom is more imperative in the grand scheme of things." He looked up at the coffee Caitlin held. "Thanks," he said without enthusiasm.

"So, is that what you're working on?" Caitlin nodded at the figures and charts on his computer screen.

Harry nodded. "I'm working on a prototype I started back on my Earth. It's a formula that, if used correctly, will increase a speedster's velocity and enhance their senses. this is a formula meant to increase a speedster's velocity and develop their senses." He bobbed his head back and forth. "It's what I was working on for Jay."

"Back before he lost his powers," Caitlin realized.

"Exactly."

"So that's why you hate each other?"

"Jay and I don't hate each other. We have a mutual disrespect of each other's tactics to defeat Zoom and nothing more," Harry remarked. "You actually have to care about someone enough to hate them and I don't care about Jay Garrick."

"Okay." Caitlin realized she was treading on very dangerous territory. Instead, she motioned towards the empty chair next to him and Harry nodded, allowing her to sit down. "This formula you're working on…" she studied the screen. "You want to make a drug to make Barry run faster."

"It will temporarily enhance the speed force in his system," Harry corrected her. His glasses reflected the figures on screen. "And hopefully stop the nose bleeds he's been getting at the same time. Once he had a good grasp of the speed force in his system he should be able to increase his speed enough to reach his ultimate potential."

"So, it's like nitrous oxide for speedsters."

"You can put it that way, though I can assure you I would never market it like that." Harry managed a rare smile at his own joke. Then he reached up and took off his glasses. He rubbed at his eyes. "I've tried five time and I've failed five times. But that's what happens when your background is in technology and not biochemistry."

A small smile came to Caitlin's face. "Then you're lucky I'm here. This isn't a mechanical problem it's a biomechanic one. Thinking of everything we know with speedsters Barry's speed not getting high enough should do with how much oxygen he's consuming. Considering how often he's gotten nosebleeds lately, it can only be seen that he's having a hard time keeping things running at an even rate. So, we need something to give him an extra boost in oxygen, like the decomposing state of sodium chlorate. Then all that's needed is heat to release the oxygen."

"Which a speedster generates in the form of lightning," Harry realized. "I like the way you think, Snow."

"I hope you like the way I work, too," Caitlin agreed. "Because it's going to be some time until I can get to the root of where to start. Once I figure out how to completely re-enact what we're hoping to achieve, then the creation of this formula on a trial run should be effective."

The corner of Harry's lips turned up. "So, you think you can help me."

"I can certainly try."

"If that's the case, then you should become familiar with all my other work," Harry said. He navigated to a database on the computer where a running log of his former experiments were detailed. "Please let me know when you're finished. I'd…be grateful to get your opinion on the matter."

Caitlin smiled over at Harry before turning her attention back to the file. She scrolled up and down for a few moments, looking over a few pages of the document. Caitlin blinked a few times, realizing after a few long moments that she hadn't actually read anything no matter how long she was looking at the document. "Get it together, Caitlin," she whispered to herself.

Her mind was a million miles away. Or, if she were being more specific, it was everywhere and nowhere all at once. She hadn't thought about Ronnie in a long time. Even though Cadence said there was a chance he was still alive she hadn't thought of him. What was the point if she didn't have the proof. If she didn't have anything directly in front of her that would show he hadn't separated from Professor Stein and disappeared. It was easier for her to focus on her work, to focus on Zoom and everything else that was happening.

Her own powers aside, there was too much going on.

But it was a good question Cadence had asked; how did she knew she was in love with Ronnie? It hadn't been as big of a slap in the face as others would say they experienced. They were such opposites that she hadn't really entertained it. Truth be told, the day she started to talk to him, to _really_ talk to him was when she realized there was something different about him. Maybe then. Maybe she fell in love with him at that exact moment and her growing feelings over time was just that love growing stronger.

"I guess this is the time that I ask if you're working hard," Jay's voice came from in front of her. Caitlin looked up and leaned back in her seat. "You haven't blinked in the last five minutes."

"Were you watching me?" She asked, surprised to find she didn't feel embarrassed.

"I was trying to get your attention," Jay said. Then she started to smile. "But for the last few minutes I was watching you, yes. You looked like you were really encompassed by whatever it is you're working on." He glanced at her screen. "What _are_ you working on?"

"I'm helping Harry with this formula he's creating," Caitlin explained. "To enhance the speed force presence."

"Oh, the velocity series." Jay's smile faded.

"That's right, he mentioned you were the one he had created the formula for," Caitlin said. Her nose wrinkled. "Velocity?"

"That's the name of the series. I tested Velocity 1 through 5 If my memory serves correctly. Let's just say there's a reason it's still being tested." Jay shrugged. "But if there's anyone that can have this work, I wouldn't doubt your spear heading of the test. I'm sure with your added touch it'd be a success."

"Do you think it'd work to give you your powers back?"

"I have no traces of the speed force within my body, it was stolen by Zoom."

"How do we know it's completely stolen, though?" Caitlin pointed out. "If you have the metahuman gene, there's a chance it can be restored. Like a battery. Maybe once it's given to you, you'll be able to work as The Flash again. On your Earth, anyway."

Jay smirked, his eyes flashed. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

Caitlin blushed. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way. But, that's the plan we have, right? Stop Zoom, you go back to your Earth as The Flash, Harry goes back to his Earth to be with Jesse."

Jay's smile faded, quick as a wink. "You know about Jesse?"

"No one else does, just me. Is it true that she's Cadence's doppelganger?"

"I wouldn't know, I haven't met her."

"I wonder what my doppelganger would be like," Caitlin admitted. "I think about it sometimes. Would I still be with my mom, would my dad be alive? Would I have studied biochemistry or maybe I would've gotten a degree in soccer?" She noticed Jay's lift of his eyebrows. "I used to play soccer when I was young. I used to play in middle school and part of my freshman year…but then my studies became to be too much and… I didn't have much time for it anymore."

"I don't mean to be rude, but I don't really see you as the type to enjoy the sport."

Caitlin chuckled. "Like I said, my studies became important to me and after that, soccer to me was just a game. It wasn't as important."

"Your father died?" Jay asked. He stumbled over his words when he said, "That's what got you into science?"

"Yeah." Caitlin nodded. "But maybe that's what I was always destined to do."

"What about your powers?"

Caitlin looked at her hands. She hadn't had anything of her powers within the last couple of hours. No matter how hard she tried to use them, she couldn't tap into it. Nothing even focusing on it coming from one finger. Almost like when the time wasn't' right for her to use it, she couldn't do it.

What about them indeed?

* * *

"You think Kendra's a meta?" Barry repeated Cisco's statement. His eyes widened and he exchanged a glance with Cadence, who looked as skeptical as he did. Or maybe as skeptical as he felt. "I mean, I promised we'd keep her safe but—"

"Yeah, I know." Cisco sucked in a deep breath and went into the hotel room. He started to pace back and forth as Barry closed the door behind him. "I just walked Kendra back to her room after she got tired of listening to me and Thea argue about her nickname. But I mean, c'mon, Speedy? Anyway, we…I gave her a goodnight kiss and I saw something."

"Heaven?" Cadence guessed. Cisco gave her a look at her teasing and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth, hoping to hide her laughter. "Sorry, go ahead."

"No, I saw…" Cisco licked his lips. He looked resigned. "When I went on a date with her, when we went to the movies together…I got a vibe."

Surprised, Barry's eyebrows rose. He was sure his eyes nearly bugged out of his head as well, they had grown that wide. He brought a hand up to tug at the collar of his t-shirt, suddenly feeling very warm, waiting for Cisco to elaborate. Cadence, on the other hand, laughed. "Whoa, really?"

It took a moment for Cisco to realize his faux pas then made a face. "No, not like that kind of vibe."

"Darn," Cadence said.

Barry shot her another look and she pressed her lips together, in turn making Barry try to hide his smile as well. It wasn't _that_ funny, but at least they could see the humor in the conversation.

"I mean I vibed!" Cisco insisted. "I saw what I thought was a man with wings standing on a rooftop. But, it turns out, the man wasn't a man at all. It was Kendra. Kendra's the one with wings."

"If that's the case, then why didn't you say anything?" Barry asked.

"Honestly, a lot of weird things has happened to us that I thought I was just seeing things," Cisco admitted. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I…I guess I didn't _want_ her to be a meta, or whatever she is. I was hoping she was normal. I don't want her to know about my powers."

"How do you think that's going to work out when you lift your hand and open a breach to anywhere?" Cadence asked. Then her face softened. "Did you plan on never telling her? It's probably bound to come up in conversation."

There was a moment of silence before Cisco explained. "You and Barry are both metas and it's easier for you because you already knew how to handle your powers when you got together." Barry nodded. That was certainly true. "But for me, I have this great thing going with her, powers aside. She laughs at my jokes, she loves movies…I just never felt like this before and I didn't want to sabotage it with something that may scare her away."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Barry agreed. Not just for being in a relationship, but for letting other people into his life with his powers in general. It was a nightmare to keep it from Iris whether he loved her or not. Knowing there was something he could do that would scare anyone and condemn him to a life of science experiments and scrutiny was hard to bare.

"But what does that mean for—"

There was a sudden, loud explosion that rocked the room. Seconds later, the blare of fire alarms went off and screams erupted through the hallway. Barry, Cisco, and Cadence flung open the door to the room and looked out to find Kendra racing up the hallway, fear evident over her face. Cisco grabbed onto her as she ran by, holding her to him. The group backed out of the way when other hotel patrons raced towards the stairwells and elevators.

There was another explosion and around the corner came the man they had seen in Jitters, glaring towards them.

"Mom!" Cadence turned and saw Brady pushing his way to the crowd, hurrying to them. He still looked pale, but he had at least regained some energy. He stopped and looked at the man. "Was that the guy you were talking about?"

"Yeah," Barry said. "That's him."

The man continued to walk towards them, his eyes only on Kendra. His lips pulled back into a snarl. "I will always find you, Chay-Ara," he drawled. He held out his hand towards her. Kendra shivered and hugged Cisco tighter.

"Who are you?" She demanded. "What do you want from me?"

"The only thing I've wanted for years," the man replied. "Your love."

Cadence flung out her hands, her arms immediately becoming encompassed with flames. At the same time, Brady pulled out his slingshot and aimed it towards the man.

"Don't move," Cadence snarled.

The man continued to smile his slasher smile. "Then how will I kill you all?" He reached into his cloak and flung something glinting out towards them. It took Barry a second before he realized they were daggers that were streaking towards him, the same kind he had seen at the crime scene back in Central City.

When Barry blinked again, the daggers were even closer to his friends and he raced to grab them before they could embed themselves into their skin. He snagged the ones from in front of Cadence and Brady with ease. Then he knocked away the one that was headed towards him and flipped around for face Cisco and Kendra. He flipped one out of the way and as he stretched of the last one, it struck him in the arm near his shoulder. He had stretched out too far and the force of the blade digging into him knocked him off balance and crashed into the wall beside him.

Everything went back at top speed. While Brady let loose a smoke bomb, Cadence sent a spiraling stream of fire down the hallway towards the man. But that undeterred him. He moved out of the way as if the two obstacles were nothing. He ducked under the flames and continued forward through the smoke, his cloak pushing it out of the way, but simultaneously using it as a cover for himself.

Cadence's eyes glowed orange, using her heat vision to track his movements. There was another blaring sound and the smoke was suddenly cleared away with water cascading down from the sprinkler system that went off. She charged forward in a teleport and immediately caught the man up in hand to hand combat. Cadence punched him hard in the side of the face, knocking him halfway into the wall beside him. He quickly lashed out and kicked her in the face, sending her stumbling back.

The man pulled himself from the wall and glared at her, half of his face immediately started to swell from her blow. He growled and sent a strong blow towards her head, which she blocked with a raised fist. Then she teleported behind him, hoping to catch him off-guard. He spun around and the two traded blows, punching each other in the face and stomach until the man overpowered Cadence, knocking her onto her back.

The man pulled out another dagger and threw it. This time it was knocked out of the air by an ammo pellet Brady shot towards him. Then he rapid-fire shot three more towards him, these ammo pellets opening to reveal small darts that imbedded into the man's chest. He backed away, looking surprised that he'd been hit. Brady then leapt over his mother and went into the fight.

"No!" Kendra cried. "Stop it. What do you want?"

The man arched a punch towards Brady that went straight through him. His momentum carried him around, opening up his back to be hit. Brady kicked him hard in the back then leap-frogged overhead to kick low at his legs, knocking him down. The man snarled and swung again, clearly not worried about hitting a child, and phased through Brady once more. Brady slammed his elbow into the man's face then rolled forward until he as on his back, kicking him in the neck and stomach.

The man then grabbed Brady by the leg and heaved him down the hallway, where he landed hard on his side and rolled.

Barry flipped up to his feet and used his super speed to swiftly land punch after punch on the man's face and chest. Then the man looked at him with a malicious gleam and before Barry could react there was a bright blue energy that knocked him off his feet and arched through the air. As he twisted, Barry rubbed his hands together, creating static electricity and threw it to the man, who stood in a puddle in the middle of the floor. There was another bright light followed by a hollow 'boom' that rocked the entire floor.

Barry landed hard on the ground and immediately flipped over to look up the hallway. Cadence looked back at him in surprise and confusion.

Somehow, the man had gotten away again.

* * *

 **A/N:** Now you know why I split the chapter in half. Without doing that, it would've been about 20,000 words and I didn't want anyone to read something that long. That being said, the next chapter speeds things along. What did you all think of this one?

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Yeah, it's a badly kept secret between them all. Though at this point it may as well just be speculation with Captain Singh. It wouldn't be that bad of a blow to Oliver's ego considering Oliver was the one who taught him to be better with his slingshot. If anything, he'd probably see it as a complement in some way. Deep, deep, deep, _deep_ down.

 **Guest:** Glad you liked it! I hope to show him being even more cruel.

 **DarkHelm145:** Thanks! Joker is back in the next chapter, btw.

 **Yummers:** Thanks. Glad you liked it.

 **Guest 2:** I already addressed your review at the beginning, but thank you for the love on the characters, story, and world I've created.

 **Spinquin142:** So were you right or wrong? ;)


	31. It Always Comes in Twos

**.:31:.**

 _It Always Comes in Twos_

* * *

As Starling City was being terrorized by the mystical man that seemed to eek away from his confrontations without a scratch, Central City was in just as much trouble though they didn't know it yet.

Caitlin let out a sigh of frustration, pushing her hair back from her forehead, finishing up the long document. Harry really had been working hard to get his Velocity project to work and something had caused each of them to fail. Sometimes, they had too much oxygen with not enough heat to come with it, other times they had too much heat and not enough oxygen, sometimes too little levels of either. There was always something that went wrong and she couldn't quite figure out what it was going to take to make it work.

Chewing her lower lip, Caitlin rested her chin in her hand. On one monitor, she could see the document, on another was the simulation of what was to be called Velocity 6 if it was a success. Colorful spheres that represented the molecules of oxygen, heat, and electricity wiggled and wormed back and forth. But they didn't want to come together the way she was trying. On her other side, Harry sat quietly as he had since coming back from where he had been.

Finally, he spoke up, his voice nearly making her jump out of her skin. "Have you made any progress yet?"

"Not yet," She replied slowly. "I took a break to help Jay with the breaches."

Harry cleared his throat, suddenly shifting in his seat. "Have you had any progress there?"

"No, unfortunately I haven't been able to do that either. But I work in bioengineering, not actual engineering. The learning curve isn't as easy as I thought it'd be." She managed a half smile. "Especially considering I don't know one tool from another."

"Let me guess, you weren't the one who would change a flat tire when your car broke down?"

Caitlin glanced at Harry. Was that a hint of teasing in his voice? She wasn't quite sure. He looked at her for a moment, flashing her a rare smile—something that even Cisco couldn't do—then turned his attention back to his computer. "No, that was Ronnie's job. I handled talking to customer service. He did the hard labor."

"I can see that. Something tells me you managed to get a lot of discounts."

"I wouldn't say that. I think I could make things work faster, though. But that's not saying I can't get a little frosty when I need to." Caitlin absentmindedly started to spin her wedding ring back and forth around her finger. She hadn't realized she was doing it until Harry made another sound of clearing his throat and she quickly stopped her movement. She quickly changed the subject. "On your Earth…is it just you and Jesse or…?"

"Yep, just the two of us," Harry said.

"So, you weren't married to Tess over there?"

Harry didn't respond. That was odd, Caitlin couldn't help but notice. Harry practically sprinted out of the room whenever Cadence was around but he never had any adverse response to Tess being around him. Not to mention he reacted well to Harrison, despite the surprise of being around an exact copy of his likeness. _Well, he did know about different Earths in general,_ Caitlin reminded herself. _He must have a lot of experience with doppelgangers of himself and the people he loves._ She started to say something else but was cut off by her phone ringing.

"Oh." Caitlin hurried to answer it, seeing it was Joe calling her. "Hi, Joe, what's— "

"Where are you right now?" Joe interrupted.

"I'm in the Cortex," Caitlin said. "Wh— "

"Turn on the TV right now!"

"Okay!" Keeping her phone to her ear, Caitlin searched her desk for the remote to the TV and found it underneath a pile of takeout packages that Cisco hadn't thrown out before he left. She jabbed her thumb into the power button and watched the tail end of the news cast.

"And police say while there's no reason for us to believe that the Joker's escape from prison in Gotham and James Jesse's escape from prison in Central City to be connected, they should be considered armed and dangerous. Any information leading to their capture will be rewarded handsomely."

"You don't think they're both working together, do you?" Caitlin asked.

"I have no doubt about it," Joe said. "This isn't public knowledge yet as Chief Paulson and Captain Singh don't want to create unnecessary links between the two. What reason would Joker have to be in Central City?"

"If he's anything like the Joker on my Earth, then nothing good," Harry remarked.

"The CCPD are trailing after their last known place of sighting, I called to let you keep on the lookout. Mark Mardon was broken out of jail at the same time, no doubt he's working with them as well."

"Don't worry, Joe, we'll keep an eye out for them— "

There was a sudden blast of wind that knocked Caitlin and Harry forward onto the table in front of them. Caitlin's forehead connected with the metal table with a loud _thwack_ and stars exploded in front of her eyes. She crumpled to the floor with Harry, who had stood up when the voice started, flipped over the front of the counter. He fell to the ground, facing Caitlin, before the two whipped around to find the three mentioned figures standing behind them. Mark lowered his arms, making the wind immediately die down.

Trickster walked towards them a manic smile stretched on his face, holding onto a gun. Joker, who stood behind him bright red lips standing out against his pale skin and equally manic eyes. "Nice place you've got here," Trickster declared. "It could use with a little bit of sprucing up. Some blood painting the walls maybe."

Caitlin lifted her hands and started to form ice to throw at the three. Mark moved faster. He shifted his hands, creating a large ball of ice between his palms and flung it right at Caitlin. It struck her in the chest, immediately soaking through her clothes, burning her skin, and flung her backwards. A low groan escaped her lips. Harry didn't move, he continued to watch the three.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"What do you think?" Mark shot back. "We're here to kill the Flash."

"That was more of a New Year's Resolution for me," Trickster said. Then he shrugged. "But, hey, I'm flexible."

"Don't mind me," Joker said. He clasped his hands together behind his back, walking through the doorway of the Cortex. His eyes shifted around the Cortex, taking in the advanced technology. "I'm just seeing what Central City has to work with. I've heard _nothing_ but _great_ things about The Flash and decided I wanted to know how he ticked." Trickster giggled at Joker's choice of words, as if he knew something Caitlin and Harry didn't. Joker stepped over Caitlin as if she were a throw rug, digging into the breast pocket of his purple suit. When he removed his hand, a thing card was held between his fingertips. He flicked it towards her like a cigarette butt "My card."

Harry started to get to his feet but Mark sent out another blast of air. "It's not going to be that easy for you," Mark said. "Where's The Flash? Usually he's her in a couple of seconds. What with that speed he's got. But then again…there's that new speedster around. Zoom. Took him out a few weeks ago and he's vulnerable and weak. What a better time to take him down."

"Ah, ah, ah," Joker wagged his finger as if disciplining a spoiled child. "Never underestimate your opponent."

"With my power, his flare, and your…explosive personality, we could put him in the ground for good," Mark said. He walked over to Caitlin and grabbed her wrist, making her gasp when she felt ice seep into her skin.

"Mellow out, Mardon. We don't want to overestimate these guys. Let's go out and kill some people first, we'll all feel better," Trickster said.

Joker laughed gleefully, turning back to the group. He whipped a hand towards his suit pocket again and pulled out what looked like a tiny remote. "I'm glad you said that."

"What is that thing?" Harry demanded.

"A surprise," Joker said. He pressed the button with his thumb. "Woops! My finger slipped!" For a moment, Caitlin wasn't sure what happened, but then she heard it, a very, very low sounding boom. It had to have been close to them if they could hear it through the walls of Central City. "I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of jumpstarting the reconstruction of city hall. I've seen there's a lot of work being done around here."

Trickster shook his head at Joker, if possible his smile widening even further. "You're crazy," he said simply.

Joker shrugged. "And what's wrong with that? It's done wonders for me."

* * *

"This is why we ask questions when we bring people we don't know into our lives!" Oliver snapped as soon as he saw Barry standing in the Arrow Cave.

Barry tried not to take Oliver's accusatory stare to heart. Oliver was just projecting his frustrations on him, he understood that. He cared a lot for his city and as someone who was running for mayor and equally trying to protect it, he wasn't doing a very good job. So many innocent people had been hurt then the mysterious man attacked the hotel. He wouldn't stand for anymore to be hurt.

"You're acting like we knew this guy was going to attack us there," Cadence said, coming to Barry's defense. He gave her a quick look of 'thanks' and she nodded back in response, giving him a smile as well.

"We already knew this guy was after Kendra, we should've kept her in one place so we could keep an eye on where this guy was going to attack next. We shouldn't have let our guard down!" Oliver took in a deep breath between his teeth, puffing up his cheeks, and slowly let it back out. His shoulders slumped as he calmed himself down. "We've got Lance ready to get some information on whomever this is, but we'll need to go off on more than that."

"What else can we use?" Thea asked. "All that we've got from this guy when he attacked the hotel was that dagger." She motioned to the blade that sat on Felicity's computer desk. It looked very old, like the ones found at the scene from the attack in Central City. The only difference being the blood stained on the tip from Barry's wound.

Barry looked over the dagger for a minute. Then he looked at Cisco, who briefly closed his eyes before nodding. "Well," Barry said slowly. "I have an idea of where we can get some info. Of this guy and from the dagger."

"Um, you see," Cisco started. "I have powers. I can get visions of people or things I touch. And…when I got the visions of you, you could fly." Kendra's eyes widened but Barry wasn't sure if it was from her surprise at knowing Cisco was a meta and kept it from her, or his indication that she was a meta, too. "You had wings and…a pretty cool suit if I do say so myself."

"What else did you see?" Oliver demanded.

"Nothing. I— "

The lights suddenly went out and Team Flash and Team Arrow quickly fell into defensive stances. The lights came back on and they suddenly weren't alone in the Arrow Cave. A swarm of people dressed in black leather outfits carrying weapons stood in front of the group. Barry, Cadence, and Cisco exchanged glances while those of Team Arrow looked angry more than concerned.

"Who's that?" Brady asked.

"That's my dad," Thea said.

Cadence's eyebrows rose. "And I thought _my_ family was messed up."

"The man you're looking for is Vandal Savage," Malcom Merlyn commented. He took a few steps forward, his eyes locked on Oliver, who glared back at him. "Some say he was the most trusted advisor to Genghis Khan, others say he guided Julius Caesar through the gallic wars." He paused. But one thing the league knows for sure; he was there for all of it. He's immortal."

Cisco snapped his fingers. "That's why he continued to make it through the attacks we threw at him."

"And how he disappeared after that explosion at the hotel," Cadence agreed.

"It explains why he looks the same as he did in 1975," Diggle agreed.

"There's nothing you can do to save her now," Malcolm said. "Nothing can be done to stop him."

Barry shook his head. He took a step towards Malcom, taking his gaze from Oliver. "Hey, we're going to do whatever we have to keep Kendra safe, whether you think we can or not."

Malcom smirked. "I'd love to see you try."

"Just get out of here," Thea snarled towards her father. Malcolm looked at her with a glance that was hard to read. Then, as quickly as he had arrived, he disappeared. The lights flickered and went out and when they came bac on, they were gone. Barry brought up a hand and rubbed it over his mouth.

"We…we just need to figure out where that dagger came from, to see if what Malcom is saying is true," Barry said, turning to the others, who were silent after watching Malcom's disappearance. Each of them seeming to be lost in thought. Kendra continued to stand stock still, taking in everything that had been said to her, not seeming to notice Cisco's comforting hand on her shoulder.

Barry snapped his fingers together. "I think I know how to do that."

Cadence immediately noticed the look on his face. "Don't say it," she warned.

Barry looked like he had swallowed a bug as he said, "We're going to need Snart's help."

"I knew you were going to say that."

"Who else can you think of that would know the background of these things?" Barry pointed out. "If there's anyone that knows anything about valuables, it's Snart. And as soon as they're mentioned, he seems to know everything about it and how to get to it."

"Aww, you're giving me too much credit," Snart's voice came from behind them. He spread his arms, as if he was welcoming a parade. He really knew how to make an entrance.

Oliver, Thea, and Diggle immediately swiveled around with their weapons drawn to point at Snart and Mick as they walked out of the elevator at the back of the Arrow Cave. Kendra took a step behind Cisco and Felicity leapt to her feet. "How'd you get in here?" She demanded. "This place is supposed to be completely locked down."

"Welcome to my world," Cisco said. "No matter what I do people seem to keep getting into the Cortex all the time."

"Right?"

"Jesus Christ," Cadence whispered, rubbing her temples.

"I'm not one that would particularly consider themselves religious but even I'll take that mantle," Mick commented. He put his arm around her shoulders and she quickly threw it away. "How's it going, Princess?"

"Don't touch my mom!" Brady demanded.

Mick shot him a dismissive glance. "I see you've got the little rug rat working with you guys now."

"Flash." Snart made a tsking sound with his tongue. "How irresponsible of you."

"Who is this guy?" Oliver demanded, continuing to point the tip of his arrow directly at Snart's chest. Thea had her arrow pointed at Mick, having followed him around the Arrow Cave as he walked towards Cadence. Diggle continued to wave his pistol back and forth from Snart to Mick.

"Leonard Snart, good to meet you," Snart drawled. He rested his cold gun over his shoulder, walking further into the Arrow Cave. "But you don't need to know about me, all you need to know is that I'll give you what you need if you give us…" he pointed the barrel of the cold gun towards the dagger. "That."

"You want the dagger?" Thea's eyebrows lowered. "Why?"

"We like to go towards objects that others wouldn't find so much value in," Mick said.

"Paintings, sculptures, statues…and weaponry," Snart agreed.

"Why would we trust you?" Oliver demanded.

Snart leveled his gaze towards Barry. "I think you and I would both agree when I say that we have a…special arrangement for things like this." Barry pressed his lips together. Teaming up with Snart? That was something he never thought he'd do. But at this point, it seemed like they didn't have any other choice. "So, what is it that we're going up against this time?"

"Someone who's immortal," Cadence said. She explained everything that had been going on over the last few minutes. "So maybe you could be of some help, use the cold gun to get him to stand still."

"Or we can just roast him to a crisp," Mick said.

"She just said he's immortal," Felicity pointed out.

"I know." Mick gave a deranged smile, lovingly running his fingers over his heat gun. "I just want to see what will happen the longer I leave a flame on him."

"We'll have to find him first," Diggle pointed out.

Oliver grunted. "He's following Kendra around, I don't think it's going to be hard for him to find her. Though so far, he only seems to attack when she's alone. Or…has little to no protection against her." Barry gave him a wounded expression and Oliver finally relaxed, lowering his arms. "No offense."

"But…" Kendra took a deep breath, finally speaking up. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt. Why don't I just…turn myself in to him. To see if he'll tell me what he wants."

"Uh, no, that's the _last_ thing we're going to do," Cisco said. He reached out and took her hand in his, squeezing it tightly. "We'll figure something out but we're not going to let you go straight to him okay?" She looked at him and nodded. "And, I'm sorry I kept my powers a secret. But I thought it was the best idea at the time. If I had known…"

"None of this is your fault, Cisco," Kendra mumbled. Almost numbly. "Don't blame yourself."

An alarm suddenly went off and Felicity turned to her computer, her ponytail whipping around her shoulder. She leaned into her computer, navigating away from the picture of Vandal Savage—now they could put a name to a face—and looked to see what had caused the raise of the alarm. Her eyes widened. "Uh, you guys might want to check this out. Like, now."

Everyone crowded around Felicity's computer. She quickly backed away as a withered face filled the screen. Barry let out a low groan. "Trickster," he murmured.

"Yooo-hooo, Fla-aaaash." He finger-waved towards the screen and chuckled to himself before his smile abruptly dropped. "You know, it's a little rude to not be around when people are going to come visit you. I came with my pal Mark Mardon, and a special visitor from Gotham City." The camera panned from his face and swiveled around in a jerky circle. Grainy shots of the street flung back and forth before it settled on a fire engine screaming towards a burning building in the background. A green-haired man stood nearby, hands on his hips. Once the camera was pointed to him he turned and waved, bright red lips pulled back into a bright smile. "You know Joker, right?"

Joker motioned towards the burning building and rapidly raised and lowered his eyebrows. "Makes you want to laugh, doesn't it?" He tilted his head back and laugh maniacally, making Brady slap his hands over his ears, turning into his mother's side to block out the sound.

The camera then turned back to Trickster. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering what it is we want. We just want you, Flash. To kill you and all that. Wouldn't that be a great gift for the holidays?" Then his smile dropped. "But if you can't grant us that, then I guess we'll just have to make do with these two." The camera feed then switched, static covering the screen for a moment. When the static faded, there was a few seconds of footage of Caitlin and Harry, tied together with gags around their mouths. Mark Mardon stood aside the two, watching the captives.

"Oh no, Cait," Cadence breathed.

"They've got Harry, too," Barry said. He squeezed his eyes shut, backing away from the computer. Barry brought his hands up and ran them through his hair. He should've known something like that was going to happen. The minute he left Central City…

"So, what do you say, Flash? You want to have a rumble? We'll be waiting for you."

The feed cut off and all eyes turned towards the Central City natives. "Okay? I can handle a lot of the meta-human stuff you're dealing with. But who was that guy? He looked really…normal."

"James Jesse aka the Trickster," Barry explained. A long sigh escaped his lips. "We dealt with him before."

"Oy vey, and I thought _you_ were annoying," Snart said. He tapped the barrel of his gun against the side of his head. "If memory serves correctly, he doesn't exactly have all of his marbles there."

"You work with Mick," Cadence pointed out. "And you can't claim he's got all of _his_ marbles."

"I've got the brawn to back it up, Princess," Mick said.

Barry let out a low breath and turned to Oliver. "What are we going to do about Vandal Savage?" He asked.

Oliver blinked in surprise. "Now you want to listen to me?"

"It's your city, Oliver."

"And Central City is yours. If Vandal Savage continues his pattern, he's not going to attack until he feels that we have our guards down and we're no longer seen as a threat to him. That's not the case if Central City is under attack. Leave Kendra here and we'll protect her while you protect your city."

"So, what do you want us to do?" Mick asked.

Barry's eyebrows rose. They were going to help them with Vandal _and_ Trickster? "Uh…"

"We have a deal, don't we…?" Snart asked. His eyes narrowed as they locked on Barry's. "You're not going to renege on a deal, are you? I don't know about you, Barry, but that doesn't sound very hero-like to me."

"Well, you're not doing a very good job of being a villain," Cisco shot back.

"What can I say? I'm in a good mood."

"Enough!" Oliver snapped. Barry was startled at Oliver's sudden use of his 'arrow voice'. Forget the voice modulator he always used, Oliver could just use his arrow voice and people would do whatever he wanted. "We're going to stay here with Kendra; Barry, Cisco, Cadence, and Brady will go back to Central City. If these two can be a help with Vandal Savage then we'll need them here. That's what we're going to do and we're going to do it now!"

Cisco took in a deep breath. He turned to Kendra and started to say something, but she cut him off, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. It immediately eased his fears. "Cisco, I'm going to be okay," She said. " _We're_ going to be okay. Just…takedown these guys and get back safe, okay?"

"Yeah," Cisco said, almost as if in a daze. "Okay."

Kendra squeezed his hand and backed away to join Team Arrow. Cisco let out a low breath. No pressure. They had to go back and save Central City from three completely insane people and then go back to Starling City and hope she was still alive. If only he could vibe the future held for her. Other than having a set of wings and a bomb-ass suit.

"Don't worry, Cisco," Barry said, grabbing his attention. "Kendra's going to be okay."

"You know, I think I'm finally starting to get the whole idea of the 'can't stand leaving them' thing," Cisco said. "I used to watch my mom cry every time dad went on a business trip and I thought it was a little pathetic." He shook his head. "Not as pathetic as I thought."

Barry chuckled.

"Do you really think she'll be okay? If this guy is an immortal— "

"—We've come up against a lot of weird things before, I think we can handle this. Now, the whole Mick and Snart thing…that's something else entirely I have to get used to."

"Speaking of which." Cisco's eyes shifted for a moment. "Why was Cade wearing your sweater?"

"Oh, she got cold."

" _She_ got cold?"

Barry laughed. It was the same thing he wondered about. "Yeah, after we went swimming. I guess the blast of AC didn't help too much."

"Oh, so _that's_ why your hair was wet."

"Why else would it be?" Cisco gave him a look and Barry's eyes widened, cheeks immediately flushing. "Oh!"

"I mean, I thought I interrupted something— "

"You did, but not _that_."

"So, what? Were you _finally_ going to tell you that you're in love with her?" Cisco studied Barry's expression as he pressed his lips together. "You were, _weren't_ you? Yes! That means Caitlin owes me twenty dollars." He mimed wiping sweat from his forehead. "I'm glad you finally said something, another week and I would've had to pay Cait."

Barry blinked. "Wait? You were betting on when I was going to say something?"

Cisco shrugged. "Well, I mean, the rest of us could see it coming from a mile away. We were just waiting to see which one of you was going to say it first." He smiled, shaking Barry's shoulders. "But congratulations, man. At least we've got something happy out of all of this."

"Not exactly," Barry said. "I haven't told her yet."

"Really?" Cisco frowned. "Why?"

"Because every time I try, something keeps me from doing it."

And he had been trying for a little while. Once he managed to get through his own worries, anyway. It had hit him like a ton of bricks when he first _really_ realized that he was in love with her. He had his own suspicions about it as they grew to be closer friends since having broken up the first time. It wasn't until she pointed out that she wanted to more about his childhood that cemented it for him.

She wanted to know about him, about Barry Allen. Not Barry Allen whose father was in jail. Not Barry Allen whose mother was murdered. Not Barry Allen The Flash. Just Barry Allen. And that touched him more than he thought it would.

"Oh." Cisco winced, knowing he was the latest interruption. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault. Keeping Kendra safe, making sure Central City doesn't go to ruin…that's more important right now."

"Yeah, but if this Savage guy is as bad as Malcom says, then you might not get the chance," Cisco reminded him.

Barry nodded.

That was what his life ultimately dwindled down to with his super heroics; would he get the chance to do everything he wanted before his life was finally taken.

When they arrived back in Central City, Barry, Cadence, and Brady immediately went to Trickster's and Joker's last known location. The first thing they noticed was Town Hall was engulfed in flames. The second thing they noticed was Joker practically prancing around the streets, singing at the top of his lungs. "What a perfect day for fireworks!" He declared.

"Hold it right there!"

The three turned and found Patty getting out of her squad car, kneeling towards the ground with a pistol in her hand. She slowly made her way towards Joker, who looked back at her for a moment before taking long steps towards her.

"He's like the Smiling Man," Brady said.

"The what?" Barry asked.

"The Smiling Man," Brady repeated. "The guy with the creepy smile on his face who dances around creepily at night."

"That's the best analogy you could give this guy," Cadence said.

"Come on," Barry said. "I'll handle Joker, you guys try to find Caitlin and Harry." Cadence nodded and the two went to do as they were told.

"Be careful with this guy," Cisco said from where he was safely held at the Cortex. "There's a reason he's Batman's rival. He's completely psychotic and always seems to get away with everything he does. But here's the thing, he's a regular human."

"'Regular' isn't the word I'd use with him," Barry pointed out.

"Just don't underestimate him."

"Okay." Barry raced down the street until he stood in front of Patty. "Hold it right there!"

Joke stood up straight. Then, quick as a flash, he pulled a pistol out from behind his back, pointing it straight at Barry. "Aww, you're going to make me lose my shot. I don't know if you know this, Flash, but I especially like to torture the police a little. It gives me a good giggle."

"What do you want? Why are you destroying Central City like this?"

Joker shrugged. "Kicks?" His yellow teeth gleamed in the streetlight. He continued to point the pistol at Flash. "I have to say, though. You don't look to be such a formidable opponent. What is with that getup? It's a laugh and a half." He started walking towards the two once more.

Patty tightened her grip on her pistol. "Don't take another step," she warned.

"Oh? Like this?" Joker exaggeratedly extended his leg and pressed his foot to the ground. He paused for a second then slid his back foot forward. "See? Now was that so hard?"

"Put. Your weapon. Down!" Patty said again. "Last warning."

"Ooh, I wish you hadn't said that." Joke fired his gun. But instead of a bullet shooting out, a long pole with a flag at the end unfurled form his gun. It billowed in the wind when Patty pulled the trigger on her gun, firing a shot directly through the circled part of the 'a' of the word _Bang_! written on the flag. With that, Joker's smile faded and he fell to his knees, holding his hands up pleadingly. "Please, I'm sorry, it was just a joke."

Barry looked over his shoulder at Patty, who looked back at him in confusion. No one typically would give up that easily. And Cisco _had_ said Joker managed to get away with a lot of what he did and he shouldn't be underestimated.

Joker sniggered. "Just a joke," he repeated and pulled the trigger once more. The flag pole blasted from his gun and struck Patty in the chest, knocking her onto her back. Barry reacted and grabbed Patty, racing her out of the area and to the hospital, then raced back, striking Joker in the chest.

He skidded back against the ground then raised himself to his knees. "Careful, Flash." He held up his hand as it held another remote control. "You wouldn't want to make your friends get blown to bits, would you?"

Barry's lower jaw dropped. So, it had been a setup. Somewhere Caitlin and Harry were being held captive with a set of explosives rigged round them, much like Snart and Mick had done to Caitlin when he first started out as The Flash. But this time, Trickster and Mark Mardon were with them as well. What was it that Joker was getting out of all of this?

Bringing his hand up to his ear-piece, Barry asked, "Any luck yet?"

"No, I still haven't been able to lock onto them. Mardon hasn't been using any of his abilities either or else I would've been able to track the change of the electrical charge in the air."

"What do you want?" Barry asked again, lowering his hand from his ear.

"Something even you couldn't get me, Flash." There was a sudden whirling sound and Joker's arms were suddenly pinned to his sides with a wire that wrapped round his body. Then a black shadowy figure flew across Barry's field of vision, landing in front of Barry, his cape fluttering behind him.

Barry's eyes widened behind his cowl.

"Holy fucking shit," Cisco wheezed. "It's Batman!"

Batman walked over to Joker and grabbed him by his lapels and lifted his enemy off the ground. "How dare you come to another innocent city and take lives," Batman growled. Joker continued to smile back at him. "I'll break you in two,"

Joker sighed as if they'd had the same conversation many times before. "Batman, if you had the guts for that, you would've done it years ago. You and I both know you don't have the guts to do it. Behind all the stern and batter ranks, you're just a little boy in a playsuit crying for mommy and daddy." Batman pulled back his fist. "I'd be careful if I were you. I didn't say anything about this being the only bomb on me."

"Where are the others?"

Joker looked up.

Batman and Barry both followed his gaze and the two watched as a helicopter slowly flew overhead Central City.

Joker's laughter echoed along the streets.

* * *

"Cisco, did you get anything yet?" Cadence asked. She twisted her hand on the right throttle of Brady's ATV, making the vehicle speed along the streets even faster.

"No, I can't find them anywhere," Cisco said. "And even that, I can't get a lock on Mardon or Trickster."

"Did you check the building through the video feed?"

"It was the first place I looked but they weren't there. Either they were being held there before and were moved, or it was a trick for us to make it look like they were in trouble so they'd lure us back to Central City. I don't get it."

"We'll just keep looking then," Brady said.

Cadence urged the ATV to move faster, continuing to race along the streets of Central City. Along the way, they passed multiple CCPD vehicles and CCFD fire engines, hurrying towards the city hall that continued to smoke towards the sky. Cadence knew it was only a matter of time until Barry smothered those flames, Joker being the closest to the explosion if not being the direct reason for it. Suddenly, there was a streak of lightning that shot from the sky, nearly hitting the ATV. Cadence jerked on the handlebars, pulling the ATV aside, barely being fried by the blast, but able to feel the heat from it all the same.

"What was that?" Brady asked.

"Looks like we've found Mardon," Cadence replied. "More likely, he found us."

She tilted her head back and squinted through the darkened tints of her goggles. Above her the sky darkened with thunder clouds pulling together. Cadence continued to swerve as lightning bolts shot back and forth around her. She felt Brady tighten his grasp around her waist as they went. Heat continued to increase around them as the lightning bolts came faster and faster.

Then something else caught her attention. A massive explosion from right behind her. _What?_ The question barely passed through her mind before another one exploded in front of her. Brady cried out in surprise and squeezed Cadence tighter.

"You're kind of cutting off my circulation there, bud," Cadence called with a gasp.

Now explosions rained down around them, swerving back and forth along the streets of Central City. Cadence turned hard on the ATV, drifting around a corner, but found the explosions continuing to follow her. It was then that she realized the repetitive sound she was hearing wasn't from the ATV but from rotating blades. Squinting against the darkened sky, she spotted a helicopter following her, a second one flying in the opposite direction, probably following Barry.

As Cadence drifted there was a brilliant bright light and she felt the ATV tip over, dumping her and Brady onto the ground. They continued to roll, the ATV following along beside them. Finally, Cadence came to a stop, shielding Brady against her front. The ATV continued toward them and Brady phased the two right as the ATV barreled into them.

"Good job," Cadence said to him.

"Thanks."

The wind picked up around them and Mark Mardon lowered himself to the ground from the sky. A bolt of lightning followed him in quick succession. Brady quickly scrambled to his feet, pulling out his slingshot and ammo. He pulled back on the bow of the slingshot, holding his arm taught.

Cadence stood up, flames immediately surrounding her arms. "Where are they?" She demanded.

Mark lifted an eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Where're Caitlin and Harry?"

"Don't worry, those two are safe. We needed them to get to The Flash." Mark mimicked Cadence's stance. "But if I have to go through you two first to get to him then that's fine, too."

Flames licked up Cadence's arms. She sucked in a deep breath, focusing her energy and thrust her arms forward. The fire raced down her arms and converged at her hands before coming out in a large flaming fist, that knocked Mark in the chest. He arched back through the air, clothes smoldering, before he righted himself with his air powers. Landing back on the ground he converged the air together into a whip and shot it towards Cadence, knocking her off her feet into the store front beside her. She crashed through the glass window and landed hard on the ground, skidding across the floor.

Mark followed her and created a ball of hair, throwing it her.

Cadence flipped backwards until she was on her knees and threw a fireball back at it, immediately causing it to melt. Brady knelt behind Mark and phased through the ground. He re-appeared in front of the man and kicked him between the legs to bring him down to his height. Then Brady threw in a few elbows for added affect. Mark then lifted a hand and Brady rocketed upwards, crashing into the ceiling before he was painfully flung to the ground.

Mark lifted his hand and created a vacuum; hurricanelike winds moving through the store that pulled Cadence and Brady close to him as the seconds passed. The strength of the wind kept them pinned to the ground where they lay, an invisible pressure back against them.

They were trapped.

* * *

 **A/N:** So, how many people were expecting Batman to show up, too? I think this one is the one I've become the most excited for as I've planned things out. Though as much as I love Smallville that doesn't mean Superman won't make another appearance at some point. I haven't quiet decided yet. And more development with BarryCade as we find out that Barry loves Cadence, too!

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** Like I said on Twitter, you figured out what I was going to do with Snart and Mick. But there's still more to be seen with them as they fight Vandal Savage. I hope I got Joker and Batman done well.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you so much. Your constant support is a big help to me, honestly it is.

 **Ethan:** And Barry loves Cadence, too! Who knows how long it'll take for the two to tell each other. Spoiler alert, not too much longer. Definitely sooner rather than later.

 **Guest:** Thanks, that's where I got the inspiration! Glad you enjoyed it.

 **Spinquin142:** More coming with Vandal once they take down Joker, Trickster, and Mardon.

 **PowerHero432:** And now we know how Barry feels, too. It took me longer than I meant to for it to get to their relationship to get to that point after looking over all three of my stories. Apparently I like to torture myself, lol.

 **Babyj:** Glad you enjoyed it.


	32. Merry Christmas (1)

**.:32:.**

 _Merry Christmas_

* * *

Cadence tried to take in a breath but found herself unable to do so. The hurricane like winds around her were too strong. She turned her head to the side and watched as Brady tried to hold onto a nearby shelving structure. The cloak of his suit whipped around behind him and every few seconds Cadence could see him strain to pull himself forward on the shelf, only to have his arms extend back a second later.

"Who would've thought that takin' you down would've been so easy?" Mark called. "Now if only The Flash would come in so I could fry him to a crisp!" With that, Mark flexed his hands and the strength of the wind increased even further.

Brady let out a cry of fear, squeezing his eyes as tightly as he could. Cadence turned her head to look at him. "Brady! You have to phase!" He kept his eyes closed but turned his head towards her. "You have to find Caitlin and Harry!"

"What about you?" Brady shouted back.

"I'll be fine. This guys' powers are like Stratos." Cadence managed a small smile. She didn't have to say the rest. His powers were like Stratos', but probably not as strong. He didn't have Breathtaker's added ability behind him. Even if they weren't the same person, it was going to at least be cathartic in some way. "Go find them, okay?"

"I will."

With that, Brady slowly lowered into the floor, melting out of sight in a matter of seconds. Cadence listened hard, waiting to hear the ATV starting up before racing away. Cadence chuckled to herself. She hated the idea of Ryder giving him that ATV at first, when she asked him about it he even admitted it was a misguided attempt to win him over. Once Cisco got his hands on it, it was as helpful as any of the rest of their abilities. Though she was still a little ticked that he hadn't made her a transportation device of some sort.

"You can teleport!" She could hear Caitlin saying it already.

"I'm already getting bored of this," Mark said. He turned his left hand back towards the opening of the store. "Let me show you my new trick!" Lightning pealed down from the sky, landing in his palm. He closed his fingers around it, the other hand continuing to whip wind around the store. That certainly was a new trick, the last time they had come across each other he could hardly do two attacks at once.

Cadence lifted her head and smirked at Mark. "I learned a new trick, too," she said. She'd bene waiting a long time to show it off as well. It was only a matter of time she would stop being beaten down by Barry's tactic against her. No matter how many times they sparred the same scenario he would reduce her flames to nothing more than a second of light just by creating a vacuum from the wind.

But now she knew what to do.

Cadence's eyes turned a bright orange, anger surging through her. It was enough that Vandal Savage was something they had to worry about, but to have to deal with a petty revenge plan was even worse. Especially when some of her friends were caught in the crossfire once again. Just everyone in her life had been. Just like her father had been. If she hadn't been so caught up in her anger all the time, if she had forgiven him sooner, if, if, if…

A scream of rage erupted from Cadence's mouth. _Fwoom!_ The flames that flickered around her immediately erupted into a dazzling fireball that took up the space of the store. Mark cried out in surprise, throwing the lightning bolt towards her. If the wind tunnel that he had been created before aided in her abilities to grow, the lightning bolt helped even further. The intense heat of her flame absorbed the electricity and shot it back towards him.

Mark cried our as he was struck directly in the chest with a fireball. He rocketed through the open window. Glass from the blown-out window crunched under his back. He'd landed hard amongst it. Mark scrambled to his feet. Cadence followed him out the window. A jet propulsion of fire sending her forward. The two looked at each other for a long moment before becoming engaged in battle again.

It was a tough fight. Each hit was blocked by another and it _hurt_. Even the burst of their powers drained little bits of energy as they fought. Tired them even further. Up and down the street they moved, Cadence teleporting and Mark flying to catch each other. Mark flew, growling when Cadence would appear in front of him every few seconds. She teleported faster than he thought she could, coming back like a paddle ball striking against the paddle. And with a primal fervor each time.

At one point, she singed the side of his face with a flaming punch. He screamed, eye immediately swelling shut. Clumps of his burnt hair fell to the ground. His skin turned bright red and started to blister. Mark turned the flat of his palm and pulled back. Cadence gasped as the breath was ripped from her. While she was distracted, he punched forward. A shot of air struck her in the chest and she flew back against the ground.

"Fuck," Cadence cursed. "He's stronger than I thought."

Sweat poured down her forehead, running along the rims of her goggles like rain drops. The street around them started to stink with their effort, with destruction. It was going to be a lot for her and Barry to clean up later. She looked towards the sky as more explosions went off. _I hope he's okay._

Cadence got to her feet and charged towards Mark once more. He stood stock till, watching as she came closer and closer. _What is he doing?_ The thought came to mind seconds before an explosion went off in front of her face.

She only had a few seconds to react. But she was a few seconds too slow. Slow enough to bring her hands up in front of her face and turn her body to the side. Anything that would give her the opportunity for some semblance of protection.

The explosion felt nothing more than a wave of hot air. A hard slap in the face of energy that sent her reeling back toward the ground. Almost as if God himself had smacked her across the face. Then she heard the sound of the explosion before a ringing came to her ears. A harsh ringing that caused her to curl up in pain. A ringing mixed with a dull hum, as if she had been standing in the very front row of a rock concert, allowing her body and eardrums to be buffeted by the harsh guitar and drumbeats.

Then came the _real_ pain.

It wasn't coming from her body. No, that was relatively unscathed. It came from her hands. Cadence tried to push herself back up but found herself falling back into the pool of blood beneath her. She brought one hand up to push back her forehead but felt nothing but blood run down her forehead and a wave of pain so excruciating she blacked out for a few seconds. Coming to, she lowered her hand from her forehead and her eyes widened with surprise, then fear.

Then absolute terror.

Her jaw dropped and a strangled scream ripped from her throat. She screamed and kept screaming as the terror finally hit her, her brain finally letting her know what she was seeing. What she was feeling. The horrific pain, the blood…all stemming from the fingers that had been blown off her hands. All that was left were black and bloody stumps, bone fragments sticking from her skin where her fingers had just been.

Startling white against her black hands.

And she continued to scream and scream.

Eventually she couldn't hear herself yelling anymore, she wasn't sure if she was still screaming. Everything had gone silent. And yet she continued to stare at her hands, shocked. Her pinkie finger still held the ring she always wore, held on by a small lump of flesh. Her screams died away as the pain suddenly stopped.

"What?" Cadence managed a shaky whisper.

Her hands hadn't gone numb, she could still feel. And as the moments continued to pass she understood why. The blood stopped dripping down her arm, drying into an itchy crust smeared under the fragments of her gloves, staining the ends of her jacket sleeves.

Her eyes widened, stinging from the smoke around her. Tears tracked down her cheeks as they stung. And she continued to watch as, amazingly, her fingers slowly started to heal. It took a few minutes totally, for her fingers to re-grow completely. She flexed her fingers, wiggled them around. No pain. Nothing. They had completely grown back as if nothing had happened to them.

She'd healed herself about instantly.

Cadence lowered her hands to her stomach and pressed against her skin. Then did the same to her legs and the ground. No nerve damage, she could feel absolutely everything. Cadence curled her fingers into her palm then opened them again, focusing on her power. Flames erupted around her hands, equally warm and cool to her.

A wind blew around her and the flame around her hands increased in size. A bolt of lightning jolted near her. Not close enough that she could feel the heat from it, but loud enough that it should've made her jump. But she stood stock still. If the lightning was that close, then that meant Mardon was nearby.

And she wasn't going to let him get away with it this time.

Getting to her feet, Cadence took stock of the rest of her body. If she'd been injured anywhere else it'd already healed. With a flick of her wrist, flames erupted around her hands. She shoved her hand forward and fire twisted and turned down the street. Cadence leapt atop it and surfed her way down the street, towards the lightning bolt.

* * *

"What about now? Can you reach it?"

Harry shuffled to the side, stretching his leg out as far as it could do. He strained, only stopping when he felt the indescribably pain fill his wrists. "No, I can't." He let out a groan, mixing in with Caitlin's, when a painful jolt shot through their wrists. If only she could use her ice powers, but they had thought ahead.

Harry lifted his chin, looking around the darkened room. They were in an abandoned warehouse. Trickster was somewhere nearby. That much he knew. He could hear Trickster's low hums, and sinister tellings of classic Christmas songs. He didn't know how many times he could sing the song about The Flash being blown up in the end. Or hear him cutting out snowflakes—if they were snowflakes—from pieces of paper. Caitlin, who was tied to him, had been quiet for a long while.

She tried to use her powers on the bindings at first but found the two of them shocked as soon as they did so. Harry wasn't quite sure if Trickster had managed to fashion together a meta-dampening cuff or if he had fashion together some shock collars. As far as Harry knew, there could've been bombs attached to them as well. Nevertheless, Trickster didn't seem to be too bothered with their attempts to escape. Wherever he was in the shadows, he continued to watch quietly.

"They'll find us," Caitlin said once Harry gave up his attempt to reach the jagged metal across from them. As the moon continued to shift positions in the sky, it brightened more and more of the room. He was starting to see an old factory. "Cisco wouldn't' give up on us once he found out we're gone."

"I don't doubt it," Harry agreed. "I haven't been around long but nothing seems to get him down."

Caitlin lifted her head, letting out a quiet sigh. "I think that's the first nice thing you've said about him."

"Yeah, well, he can be pretty annoying. Most of the time."

Now Caitlin gently shook her head. She shifted her shoulders, trying to remove the pain that had started in her back since being captured by Trickster, Joker, and Mark Mardon. She must've hit the ground hard. Joker, with his gun pointed at them, made sure they didn't try to get free when Trickster tied them up. He hadn't explicitly said there was a bomb on them, but the threat was there. Especially since every time she tried to use her powers, a slight shock would move them. But for Trickster's added glee, if they moved too much they'd be shocked even more.

Said shocks started out as little jolts that resembled hands going numb. Pins and needles. But they continued to get stronger and stronger. Then there were the explosions going on around the city. While they were being transported, they heard Joker making comments about how he had blown up city hall. Caitlin's heart hurt at the mention. Not just because of those that could've been injured, but because their work to make Central City safer for metahumans was slipping further and further away.

"It's only a matter of time," Trickster's voice swirled form nearby. He continued to stay hidden by the darkness, like a boogeyman waiting to attack. "Soon Flash will be here and it's bye bye, kiddies." More explosions went off. Trickster waved his hand. "And that Joker fellow must be getting his jollies off." He then started to sing. " _Deck the halls with Joker's balls, fa la la la la, la la la la."_

Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut. She could take anything but his grating singing.

"Once we get free we can take him out," Harry whispered to her. He must've sensed her despair. "If Joker _and_ Mark Mardon are around then Barry and Cadence will be busy for a while. We'll have to work ourselves. But I'll need your help."

"What if there really is a bomb?" Caitlin asked.

"Then we'll have to deal with it. But right now, we need to get out of here." Harry nodded down towards his leg. "I've got a weapon, I just need to get out of this. I can't do it without your help."

Caitlin nodded. "What do you need me to do?"

Harry turned his head towards her, she couldn't make out his face very well but could see the grim expression on his face. It was going to be something difficult. "It's going to hurt, but I need you to short circuit whatever has our hands together. After that, we can keep going to that slab of metal to break the rest free."

"What if I…?" Caitlin cut off the rest of her sentence. But Harry knew what she was going to ask. What if she couldn't do it? She hadn't had her powers for log and wasn't taking the time to learn how to use them rather than hide from them.

"You can do it," Harry said. "If you can believe in Barry, Cadence, and Brady, then you need to believe in yourself as well. There's a reason you have your powers. There's a reason you were picked to join STAR Labs."

Caitlin closed her eyes. She knew she this wasn't the same Dr. Wells she had grown to known as her colleague and mentor throughout her career. The mannerisms were different. The voices were the same. The way he looked was different. The way he acted was different. There were enough differences that they shouldn't make her respond he way she did. That was all Eobard Thawne. And yet knowing how easily manipulated and tricked she was, she hadn't realized how much it hurt. How Barry felt until she was in the same position.

It was hard to move on when the person you knew, essentially, was dead.

"You can do this, Caitlin," Harry continued. "Focus. Focus on the wires." He moved his hands, shocking her out of her stupor. His hands brushed against hers and she moved hers back. Her fingers twitched over his. Caitlin lowered her chin. Closed her eyes. Concentrated.

Harry felt her hands turned cold almost instantly. It seeped into his skin. He started to shiver, the cold increasing through his hands and up his arms. So cold it started to burn. A painful groan escaped his lips.

"Sorry. I'm sorry." Caitlin immediately stopped.

"No, no, it's fine," Harry said. He let out a low chuckle. "I've been through worse than this."

Caitlin nodded. She started to focus on her powers once more. The pain came back through Harry's hands and up his arms. His entire body started to shiver as his body temperature lowered. Hard shakes shot through him. His breath started to condense in front of his face. Finally, his hands went numb.

"O-once you g-get it," Harry started to stutter. "Y-you n-need to h-hit it as hard as you can. To b-break the cuffs."

Caitlin took a deep breath and continued to freeze the cuffs as he much as she could. Finally, she heard a cracking sound. The pressure of the cuffs increased around her wrists. Then she did as she was told. She grabbed Harry's hands and, with as much wiggle room as she did, she lifted their hands and brought it back down against the back of her chair. There was a splintering sound and Caitlin did it again.

Finally, her hands broke free and she bought them out in front of her. Rubbing her wrists. However, her shoulders and legs were still tied together, keeping her down. Caitlin tried to conjure up more of her ice powers but found herself becoming dizzy as she tried. She had used up too much energy. Harry slumped forward in his seat, still shivering.

"We n-need to g-get over there," Harry said.

"But he's watching us," Caitlin said. Actually, she wasn't too sure about it. Trickster seemed a little too preoccupied with whatever he was tinkering with in the warehouse. As far as she could tell, it was a bobby trap for Flash. They really had to be only used for collateral. Hopefully that didn't mean they were going to be considered disposable as well.

 _If there really was a bomb, it would've gone off by now,_ Caitlin reminded herself. Or else the ice would've short-circuited the mechanics of it. _Where's Cisco when you need him?_ "Harry, are you okay?"

"I'm f-fine," Harry mumbled. His shivering had subsided in violence but he continued to shake. "We need to get move or else we won't get free."

"Okay."

But neither of them moved. Harry continued to shake and if Caitlin tried to get them over to the piece of metal, she'd use even more energy. Pushing back against him, to move him closer to the metal would be difficult; he was heavier than she was. If she tried to move so that _she_ was facing the metal, she'd have a long way to go, moving around in a circle before getting in the right direction. Plus, she wasn't sure how noisy it would be, the sound would echo around the warehouse and if Trickster stopped singing…

Caitlin paused, her blood ran cold.

He'd stopped singing.

As a matter of fact, she couldn't hear anything.

It was eerily quiet.

Caitlin's breath started to become labored, her fear slowly starting to get to her. There was enough around the warehouse that he could hide behind, watching them at every turn. Then she heard the low sound of him chuckling, coming from somewhere to her right. It got louder and louder. Then, out of the shadows, a hand reached out and grabbed the side of her face.

Caitlin's head was forcibly turned to the side and Trickster put his face near hers. "Well, well, well, looks like someone's managed to make their way out of my cuffs." He lifted an eyebrow. "They were play cuffs as it was, you had fun with them, right?"

"Let go of me," Caitlin growled.

"Ahh, you've got more spunk than I gave you credit for. It's no wonder the Flash likes to keep you around."

"Do whatever you want with me, but leave him alone," Caitlin growled. "He's going to stop you. No matter what. They both will."

"Well, I hope they get here soon," Trickster remarked. He let go of Caitlin's face. "There's so many goodies I want to share with them." He flittered his fingers. "They may be a little bloody, but that's okay." His eyes shifted towards Harry and he shook his head. "What's one casualty amongst others? I bet this would bring a pretty penny in newspaper sales."

"Leave _him_ alone," Caitlin snarled. "He has nothing to do with this."

"But he was in the Cortex and stood between me and The Flash, that's all I need to know," Trickster said. He started to sing again. " _Ho ho ho, who wouldn't know? Ho ho ho, The Flash is gonna blow._ " There was a sudden sound of an engine revving that caught his attention. "I thought Trick-or-Treaters was only for Halloween."

There was a crashing sound and metal scraping against metal seconds before Brady blasted through the back wall of the warehouse. He turned the ATV to the side, skidding to a stop. "Whoa," he gasped, sitting up straight.

"Bra—"Caitlin stopped her cry of surprise. "Shadowhunter!"

"Hmm, I don't remember this one being around," Trickster remarked, bringing his finger to his chin.

"I've found them, Cisco," Brady said, bringing his finger up to his ear.

"Let me talk to Caitlin," Cisco said.

"Shouldn't all little boys and girls be in bed waiting for Santa Clause to determine whether their naughty or nice?" Trickster asked.

Brady's face screwed up. In response, he pulled out his slingshot and shot a piece of ammo towards Trickster. It stuck to the front of his shirt and the immediately area was illuminated by the brightest light Caitlin had ever seen. She closed her eyes, turning away from Trickster as he screamed, bringing his hands up to cover his eyes.

 _Cisco's really upped the phosphorus element in those pieces of ammo,_ Caitlin thought. Even with her eyes closed it was like looking into the sun. Trickster fell to the ground, holding his hands over his eyes as he continued to scream.

Brady hurried over to Caitlin and Harry and untied them from their bindings. Harry fell to the ground, feebly bringing his hands up to cover his arms. "Harry." Caitlin knelt by his side, lifting him up. In the light she could see his skin had turned pale. "Oh no, what'd I do?"

Harry tried to respond, his lips continuing to open and close but nothing came out.

"Don't worry, Caitlin, he'll be okay," Brady said. He turned back to Trickster and pulled out his yo-yo. "Now that we've got Trickster, everything should be okay." He turned, hearing Trickster start to laugh once more.

"You think there wasn't going to be some sort of a big finale to all of this?" Trickster asked. He slowly made his way back to his knees. "This place is rigged to explode the moment I press this button." He motioned to the button at the front of his shirt. "And we all know it's not long until the Flash gets here and we see how this plan unfolds." He brought his hand up and started to wiggle it towards the button of the front his shirt.

Brady pressed the side of the yo-yo and spikes slid out. He threw it as hard as he could and it wrapped around him. His arms pinned to his sides, and yet Trickster didn't appear to be upset at all. As a matter of fact, he continued to laugh. "Well, why don't you try this?"

There was a clicking sound and Brady looked up in time to find something falling down towards him. But he didn't move fast enough to stop it from falling atop him. Brady let out cries of pain when he realized he was stuck in barbed wire. However, like what had kept Caitlin and Harry stuck together, the barbed wire electrocuted him.

Shrieks of pain escaped his lips, causing him to convulse back and forth. He struggled enough so that he couldn't focus enough to phase through it.

And Caitlin could only watch helplessly.

* * *

Barry had run as fast as he could, gathering up as many of the explosives that were dropped when the helicopter went overhead. He got most of them, but knew he hadn't gotten them all. As it was, little explosions continued to move around the city. Not so far away, but close. They were accompanied by blasts of lightning and Barry knew Cadence had found and was fighting off Mark Mardon.

That meant Trickster was still out there somewhere.

And now that Joker was in their custody, there was a good chance they'd be able to find him soon. As it was, Joker didn't seem to be completely connected to Trickster and Mark. He hadn't said anything about wanting to take down Flash.

Once Barry had gathered all of the explosives together, he tossed them into the lake. The depth of the water softened the explosion, sending geysers up into the air. Then he raced back to Batman and Joker, just as a bright blue portal opened and Cisco came flame through.

"Cisco," Barry said, stopping short of crashing into him. "What are you doing here?"

"You expect me to sit back and watch while you got to fight along with Batman?" Cisco asked. "I'm not selfish about a lot of things, but this isn't something I wasn't going to pass up." He thought for a moment. "Oh, and Brady found Caitlin and Harry."

Barry glared at him and turned back to Joker, who was still being held by Batman. "Where's Trickster?" he demanded.

"Trickster?" Joker repeated. "Why would I know where he is? I work alone."

"You worked to take him them into their base of operations," Batman growled. He still had Joker in his grasp, arms tied up to his sides. "Why would you do that if you weren't working with them?"

"Kicks," Joker replied. "Don't you get it by now, Batman. Other people's pain and suffering is entertainment for me. No matter what I go. I mean, all of these heroics, it's highly overrated anyway." He rolled his eyes. "What's next? A Blue Bunny?"

"You tell us where they are," Batman growled.

Joker twisted his mouth to the side. Then he let out a long sigh. "Well, I guess there's not much for me to do is there? I'll just lead you right where he wants to go and everything will be sorted. I guess I should've expected Central City to be harder to take down. They've got this Flash guy here." He tilted his head, eyeing Barry. "You know, when I heard the name I thought you leapt out of darkened alleys with a trench coat. I was _sorely_ disappointed to know it wasn't the case."

"That's okay, we know where they are," Cisco said. He lifted his chin when Batman turned his way. "I've got a lock on them."

"Then we've got a hostage," Batman said.

Barry took a step forward then watched as a lightning bolt streaked across the sky, followed by a figure flying through the air. "Mardon," he whispered. Barry looked at Cisco. "Get them to the coordinates, I'll get Mardon. Open a portal if you have to."

Barry didn't wait for a reply, he raced after Mark as fast as he could. Barry ran up the front of a nearby building and followed Mark. Mark looked at Barry following over his shoulder and flew faster. Barry gritted his teeth and put on an extra burst of speed. _Since when can he fly?_ He asked himself. Still, he followed him, running around and over building that came his way.

It took a few moments for Barry to realize the helicopter was following them. Must've bene trigged by Trickster. At one point it came in front of Barry, as if to block him off. He raced up a taller building, started faces whizzing past the windows. Once he reached the roof, Barry was level with the rotating blades of the helicopter.

He ran across the blades when it aligned in a straight line. Landing on the building across from him, Barry sent a bolt of electricity to the helicopter. It wiggled back and forth for a moment before turning and flying away. He had successfully disabled the mechanics controlling it. Then Barry continued to give chase until Mark stopped.

Mark whipped around and sent a large ball of hail into Barry's chest. It struck him hard and at the right time. Like running into a wall. The air whipped around Barry like a hurricane as he fell. He had been struck out of the air and was now falling. No, floating. Mark lifted his other hand and now had control over Barry's decent. With his other hand, he sent a lightning bolt form the sky and sent him through the ceiling of a warehouse and straight to the ground.

"Barry!"

He could hear Caitlin's voice.

"Barry!"

Then Brady's.

Stunned, Barry turned and took stock of everything. Trickster standing nearby, Caitlin cradling Harry's body, and Brady continuing to wiggle around the electrical barbed wire that fell around him. A groan escaped Barry's lips. He started back to his feet. But a fire-like jolt went through his chest. Mark had sent an incredible blast of electricity straight to the chest of Barry's suit.

It shot through his entire body, making his arms and legs convulse. "And I thought it was going to be easier than this," Mark commented, lowering himself to the ground. "Oh, but it was fun." He turned and nodded to Trickster. "Go ahead."

Trickster grinned, licked his lips like a snake. He sauntered to Barry, holding a dagger in his hand. Trickster grabbed the front of Barry's suit and lifted him up. Barry grimaced and turned away. Even up-close Trickster was ugly. Hard lines etched into his face. Gray hair festooned his head like a bad transplant. Breath as stale and smelly as the air in a cemetery. The cold metal of Trickster's dagger made Barry shiver when it pressed against his cheek.

"The big bad Flash taken down by one without super powers," Trickster snarled. "Merry Christmas to me." He brought back the dagger and started to push it down towards Barry's face, but stopped at the last second. His eyes bugged out of his head. "But maybe I should have some fun, first." He giggled. "Hee hee hee hee." Trickster grabbed Barry's arm and leg, lifting him up to his side. With a few kicks of his feet, he forced Barry's leg out.

"No," Barry gasped. He struggled to move. Every nerve screamed with the effort to move but nothing happened. _Come on, move! MOVE!_ Internally, Barry screamed.

"Why don't we see what makes The Flash tick shall we?" Trickster lifted his foot and stomped on Barry's knee with a loud crack. A horrific scream ripped from Barry's throat as he buckled to the ground, leg broken. "Woops. I guess I meant what makes The Flash crack." Barry's first scream was followed by another scream when Trickster did the same to his other leg.

He lay prone on the ground, only able to sit up at the waist. Bracing his arms against the ground, Barry tried to pull himself up but stopped, pain jolted through his leg as the bone fragments rubbed against each other. He wasn't going anyway. A sweaty sheen filled the inside of his suit as he sat on the edge of blacking out. Blood pounded in his ears, his heart hammered.

"Poor, poor Flash, going to be squashed like the bug he is." Trickster lifted a remote and worked a button from the front of his coat. He fastened it into the empty space above a blue button. Then he lowered his thumb and pressed the blue button There was an explosion of the wall just beside them and Barry watched in despair. A fireball rocked the room and chunks of the ceiling rained down around him.

A groan echoed through the building as the wall above him started to fall. Barry closed his eyes and turned his head to the side. Even if he managed to survive being hit by the wall, it would take a _long_ time to heal from it. If he ever did.

There was a cracking sound that immediately replaced the groaning and Barry looked up to find Cadence kneeling over him, holding the wall above her head. Her arms shook with effort to hold it up. Her knees quaked, threatening to drop her to the ground.

Still, she managed a smile and said, "Hey."

"Hey," Barry replied.

There was another crashing sound and a window from above shattered into pieces. The tiny shards glittered to the ground with shadow figures following. Joker landed hard on the ground with Batman standing above him, one hand holding onto a grappling line. Cisco clung to his back as he was lowered to the ground.

"Oh, that was so cool," Cisco declared. Then he noticed Caitlin and Harry. "Oh, man. Cait." He raced over to Caitlin's side and grabbed her in a tight hug, which she eagerly returned, still holding Harry to his lap. "Are you okay?

"I'm okay, Cisco," Caitlin replied. "But we have to help Harry and Brady."

At that, Cadence's eyes shifted from Barry to her son and Barry could see the despair immediately come to her eyes. His movements had begun to slow no matter how hard he fought. If she let go of the wall to help Brady, then Barry would be wounded. If she continued to help Barry, then something even worse could happen to Brady. She gritted her teeth and he could see tears well up in her eyes as the seconds passed. Her whole body continued to shake, her knees lowering to the ground.

"Cade," Barry started. "I need to tell you something."

"So do I," Cadence replied. Her words sounded choked. "But, I'd rather say it when we get out of here." She turned her head, hearing Brady screech again. A sob escaped her lips and she turned back to Barry, slowly lowering a hand from the structure above her. A ball of fire rolled over the top. Barry shielded his face with his arms. "Give me your hand."

"No." Barry sucked in a breath between his teeth. "I need to say this. Then you're going to drop the wall and help Brady."

"Barry." Cadence continued to slowly stretched towards him. Her other hand slipped and she cried out, quickly bringing back her other hand to support it. Her earlier fight with Mark had taken more out of her than she thought.

"I love you, Cade," Barry continued. "I've loved you for a long time. And I've wanted to tell you. But every time I've tried to tell you, something got in the way. I don't want anything else to get in the way. You're my best friend. And the thing is, I can't imagine a life without you and Brady. I think about you when I wake up, when I go to sleep. I look forward to getting lunch together every day even though it's usually nothing more than Big Belly Burger or just sitting in the park. I like knowing that when I'm in battle you're right there at my side. That I don't have to look to know that we're thinking the same thing and that we're going to win." He stifled a groan when another wave of pain shot through him.

Every time he started to move, even an inch, his legs blazed with fire. Otherwise, he felt cold all over. He could barely keep himself up with his arms. Shock was starting to set in. "I mean it. I love you and I love Brady." Tears started to fill up Cadence's goggles. Her lips moved to say something, but she couldn't get the words out. "I know you love me, too. You don't have to say it." Barry swallowed hard. "Let go."

There was only a moment of hesitation. Cadence did as she was told. She let go of the wall and leapt towards Barry. All in a few seconds, she grasped Barry's shoulder and teleported the two away. The wall crashed to the ground, echoing throughout the warehouse. Once they came to a stop, Barry screamed again as his legs hit the ground. He leaned up to try to touch them then fell back again. From the short amount of time he was up, he could see his legs twisted at a grotesque angle.

At the same time, Brady went silent. He closed his eyes and phased through the floor.

Joker lifted an eyebrow, tilting his head towards he boy. "You don't see that every day."

"Brady!" Caitlin shouted after him. She let out a sigh of relief when Brady reappeared beside them. He had a few marks of soot on his face, but otherwise his cloak had covered him just fine.

Cadence turned to see if he was okay and he nodded back to her. Her shoulder slumped in relief. There was enough time to dote on him later, they both knew that. As it was, Barry needed to heal and fast.

"We've got you cornered," Batman growled. "Now's the time to give up."

"Well, from where I stand, there's not much truth to that statement," Trickster stated. "Don't forget I still have this entire place rigged with explosives. One itch from my finger and we all go sky-high."

"You have what you want," Cisco said. "You have The Flash. What do you need the rest of us for?"

"Hmm, I guess the collateral damage excuse won't work anymore," Trickster murmured.

"Let's just say, we're willing to have our names go down in infamy," Mark said. "He's held up his end of the deal and now it's my turn to hold up mine. See you never." He smirked and turned, propelling himself out of the warehouse with a jet propulsion of his powers.

"Oops, looks like I've slipped out of my restraints," Joker said. He pulled out a pistol from his lapel and fired towards Batman, then produced a dagger as well. Flipping it into his hand, he raced towards Batman, slashing the dagger back and forth around him.

Trickster, on the other hand, walked over to Barry as he was distracted. "Let's get this finished, then."

Barry opened his eyes, lightning shooting through them. His legs weren't completely healed yet. But that didn't mean there weren't things he couldn't still do. Trickster sent his fist down towards Barry's face. Barry focused as hard as he could on his powers and phased out of the way. Trickster's fist slammed into the ground beneath Barry and a loud cracking sound was heard.

With a scream, Trickster backed away, grabbing his wrist.

Brady phased through the ground in front of him and started to punch Trickster in as many open spaces he had. On the other side of the room, Batman started to fight off Joker, who slashed at him with his dagger when he had an opening. Batman fought back with well-timed blocks and punches to Joker's chest and stomach.

"Cisco, c'mon," Caitlin said to him. She ducked her head under Harry's arm. "We have to get Harry out of here."

Though doing as he was told, ducking his head under Harry's other arm, Cisco asked. "What happened to him?"

"I hurt him. I was trying to get us out but I hurt him."

"Cait, it wasn't your fault."

Caitlin nodded. "Let's go." The two slowly made their way to the door.

Quickly figuring out the up-close use of the dagger wasn't going to help him, Joker went back to using the pistol. Bullets rained out towards him, all the while Batman leapt away from the straight attacks. He punched Joker along the face then grabbed him by the lapels, throwing him across the warehouse, into a stack of wooden boxes. He moved closer and Joker brought up his arm, striking Batman across the stomach, making him cry in pain.

"Not quite how I imagined it," Joker said. "But we can still end on a high note." Joker started to laugh maniacally, continuing to stab Batman in the stomach.

Blood flowed form each puncture wound, making him stumble backwards, grabbing his stomach. Batman struggled to his feet, trying to block out Joker's laughter. Joker got to his feet, holding Batman off with the bloody tip of his dagger. Instead, Batman reached for his utility belt to produce a bomb. But before he could, one blew up in front of him, sending smoke into Joker's face.

Cadence then teleported in front of him, doing a back-tuck. She let go at the end, striking Joker in the face. Joker flew back across the warehouse but Cadence teleported in front of him again. She did a quick coffee grinder move to sweep Joker's legs out from beneath him, then flipped over into a freeze, balancing on her right side to hold her legs out of the way when Joker slashed at him. The two moved back to their feet. Cadence jumped and did a split to counter his stab towards her stomach. Then she leap-frogged over him when he tried again, striking him in the back when she lashed out her foot.

Joker stumbled forward into Batman's punch and was knocked over once more.

Brady backed away from the swipes of the dagger Trickster tried to hit him with, stumbling over the barbed wire that had held him before. His hand shook with the electrical current that still ran through it. A lightbulb went off in Brady's head and he quickly tossed it towards Barry with a warning of, "This is going to hurt."

The wire landed on Barry and the electricity immediately made his body jerk back and forth. He shifted his legs again, this time screaming so hard his head exploded with a headache. Then it started to fade. Electricity continued to swarm through him, he could feel strength coming from it. His legs didn't hurt as much as it had before. He was starting to heal. With the added presence of electricity his powers were getting a jumpstart.

In a matter of minutes, Barry was slowly getting back to his feet, Trickster staring at him with wide eyes. Barry started to run around the warehouse in a large circle. Gathering speed, he started to crackle with electricity. Once reaching his top speed Barry ran up a wall and leapt off it. Pulling back his arm, Barry gathered the ball of lightning in his hand. It continued to grow brighter and bigger as the seconds passed. Finally, when it was big enough, he threw it towards the ground.

Trickster started to run but Brady leaned forward and grabbed Trickster's waist, phasing him into the ground before coming back up. Then he phased at the right time for the electrical ball to move through him and hit Trickster. Trickster's scream ended just as it started. The force of the electricity ball cracked him out of the ground and into the wall behind him.

Then there was a low humming sound, as if all electricity in the warehouse went out. It took a few moments before Joker started to giggle, then erupt into full blown laughter. "Oh, how priceless. You tried your hardest to take down these bombs. And now they're going to take _you_ down. How quaint."

In slow motion, Barry watched the first explosive go off. In the light of the fireball he could see the others lined around the rooms. Then, he turned on his heel and started to run. Cisco, Caitlin and Harry were the closet to the door, moving faster once they heard the first explosion. Batman grabbed onto Joker and used another grappling device he removed from his utility belt, and pulled the two out through the roof. Cadence grabbed Brady and teleported and Barry grabbed Trickster, running out of the building as the last of the explosions went off.

By the time the CCPD and the CCFD arrived, Batman and the Joker were gone. The Trickster was bound and gagged for the CCPD to find, and Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Cadence, and Brady got Harry back to the Cortex.

"Are you sure he's going to be okay?" Brady asked, leaning over Harry.

"He'll be fine," Cadence pointed out, looking over his vitals. "There's no sign of frostbite on his skin. And his vitals show that his body temperature is holding out. If anything, his body reacted with shock when he was exposed to that extreme change of temperature so quickly. He'll be okay." She turned back to Caitlin, who sat by his medical bed, looking down at her hands. "It's not your fault, Cait. You did the right thing."

"I know," Caitlin said. She managed a brief smile. "If I didn't do it, we might not have been able to get out." But she continued to look at her hands. "I'm going to stick around until he wakes up, okay? Just in case he has any questions on what happened."

"We know what happened," Cisco said. "Trickster got arrested, again. Joker was taken down. And I didn't get a chance to get an autograph from Batman."

"Do you plan on getting autographs from every superhero?" Barry asked.

"Just the cool ones," Cisco said.

Cadence smiled, putting her arm around his shoulders and resting her head against his. "If it helps you at all, he didn't say anything. He only had eyes for Joker. If the guy's _that_ crazy here in Central City then I can't imagine what he does in Gotham."

"He did say he was only doing this for fun," Caitlin reminded them.

"Some fun," Barry agreed. "First we lose Vandal Savage and now we've got another one of these guys to handle." He reached out a hand and ran it through his hair. "Great job today, guys. It was a tough one to handle but…you all did great. You deserve some rest."

"What about you?" Caitlin asked. "Your legs?"

"They're holding up fine," Barry said. It wasn't _completely_ true, he still felt a twinge of pain. And every now and then his knees would buckle, as if he was about to fall over again. But he was holding up fine. As it was, there was a lot of work ahead of him. "As long as I can get most of the damage cleaned up I can get the rest done tomorrow."

"I'll just take Brady back and come back to help you out, Tholly," Cadence said. She looked at her watch and her eyes widened at the time. "I didn't realize how late it was."

"Wow," Caitlin looked at her phone. "You're right."

Brady leaned over and looked at her phone. "Hey!" He turned back to the others with a smile. "Merry Christmas Eve!"

* * *

Cadence was surprised to find the lights in her apartment on when she arrived. Warily, she tossed her keys to the counter by the door and looked around. She paused in surprise. The walls of apartment were festooned with Christmas decorations. Red and green hung from nearly every corner of every room. She could see a Christmas tree set up with twinkling lights that slowly phased in and out as the seconds passed, gifts already stacked under the tree. In short, her apartment looked like the Plaza from Eloise at Christmastime. (Which was one of her favorite movies as a kid).

"Mom?" She called.

Maya poked her head from the kitchen and smiled at her daughter. "There you are," she greeted. "I thought you'd be back soon. When you asked if I could stick around and watch over your apartment I didn't think you'd want me to be here this long."

"Yeah…I didn't expect things to be so hectic," Cadence apologized. It was then she recognized the sweet smell wafting from the kitchen. Her eyes widened in surprise. Mostly surprise that her mother was still surprising her. "You made another cake?"

"Yes! I told you, you have to celebrate your wins." Maya smiled and gestured around the living room. "I got all of your mail and newspapers stacked up and organized by importance and date. And I've finished doing your laundry a couple of days ago. I know you hate to do it but you had quite a stack going."

"I've got enough clothes to last a lifetime, Brady needs his cleaned more than I do," Cadence said.

"Where is Brady?"

"Ah." Cadence rubbed her forehead. The day had been so long, it was so hard to remember. "It's past midnight, it's Christmas Eve. In our custody agreement, it says he gets Brady on Christmas Eve and I get him on Christmas Day."

"That's good. I'm glad Ryder's working hard to be a good father."

Cadence walked over to the couch and sat down, letting out a long sigh. No matter how quickly she could heal now, her shoulders burned with effort they exerted that night. She could feel a pulled muscle somewhere between her shoulder blades. Every time she breathed it constricted, making her wince and curl in on herself. There was a lot be done and while the news reporters had quickly arrived on scene, she knew there were going to be people who thought they caused too much trouble. But there were enough people out there who would see the work they did to rebuild and move on and be thankful.

They worked for those people.

Central City had rallied around each other before, they could do it again and would.

She hoped the holiday would make it easier. Thankfully, during their work to clean up, they found out there were no casualties or injuries. If there were such a thing as Christmas Miracles, it was one of them.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Maya reached over and started to rub Cadence's back. She leaned over into her mother's lap and allowed her to continue rubbing her, muscles slowly relaxing. She hadn't done that since she was a little girl. "I know things were tough tonight but—"

"Mom, daddy's gone," Cadence murmured.

Maya paused for a long moment. Then she let out a low chuckle. "I know that, sweetie."

"How does it not hurt you?"

"It hurts me every day. I lost the love of my life and my best friend. But I told you, your father and I grieved a long time ago. We made sure to focus the rest of the time he had on things that would make him happy. His family made him happy. I spent as much time with him as I could. We went on trips. We went to the movies. We went to the beach. And I hadn't been to the beach in a long time, let alone been in a bathing suit."

Cadence managed a small smile.

"I didn't think of what was coming but what was happening in the moment. Meeting your friends, being able to reconnect with Harrison and Tess, that was all your father had wanted. And he could do that. He died with a smile on his face. Don't be sad about what happened. Be happy you had the opportunity to do it all. Now, I know I wasn't the easiest to handle, I always had to have everything just so. I guess it's the way I was raised. But instead of holding that in contempt, your father loved that about me and I was able to do the same with him. It's going to be really hard to continue life without him, but he made sure that we have the skills to move on. He wouldn't want you to be sad."

For the first time since her father's death, Cadence grieved for him. She cried long and hard while her mother continued to rub her back, remind her she was there for her. Being the mother she had wanted for as long as she could remember. It had taken many years to get there but she was there now. Maya continued to rock her daughter, gently hugging her, kissing the side of her head.

Then she started to move.

Cadence leaned back, watching as her mother stretched her arms and went to the kitchen to retrieve the cake. Once that was finished, she walked out of the kitchen, glancing at her daughter. "You're leaving aren't you?" Cadence asked.

"Yes, honey I…I'm going to visit my mom and dad," Maya said.

Cadence's eyebrows furrowed together. "You haven't seen them in years."

"I know," Maya agreed. She spun her wedding ring around her finger. "And if there's anything what happened with your father taught me, it's that's life really is too short."

"How come you stopped talking to them?"

A wry smile came to Maya's face. "They didn't like your father. They didn't think he was good enough for me. He had quit his job to start an advertising business and from the beginning it looked like he wasn't going to do much with his life. But I loved him anyway. And I wasn't going to pass up on the love my life." She reached out and grasped Cadence's face. "If you want me to stay—"

"No, mom, I'll be fine," Cadence said.

"I know you will be." Maya kissed her daughter's forehead. "I've got your Christmas gifts for you and brady up under the tree. And you can always reach me at my phone. Or send an email. You know I always need internet on those long flights." She laughed her tinkling laugh and gathered her things that Cadence suddenly realized was sitting in a pile by the front door. She opened the door and started to drag her bag out.

"Hey mom," Cadence said. Maya turned to face her. "I know I've never said this to you but…you're my hero."

Maya smiled and reached out, caressing her daughter's cheek. "And you're mine. I'll call you when I land. That may be too late, I can just call later."

"Call me whenever you want, mom. I'll always answer." Cadence waved and closed the door behind her mother. She walked back into the living room and sat down on the floor, gazing up at the Christmas tree. The lights continued to twinkle in their slow, rhythmic pattern as Cadence looked around the ornaments that festooned it. Ornaments Brady had made throughout his years in school and others she had collected over the years. She could see some that were new, that had come from the house in Metropolis. She hadn't seen them in years.

She picked one off the tree and held it in her hand. A miniature horse with a golden saddle. She had gotten that one for Christmas when she was five. Her favorite one. Cadence smiled and returned it to the tree.

She picked up her phone and quickly composed a text message.

 **Cade: Can we talk?**

She went to her room and sat down on the windowsill, crossing her legs at the knee. It took exactly thirty seconds for the familiar gust of wind to tug at her hair and Barry arrived on her fire escape, carefully climbing inside.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey," Cadence replied. "How're your legs?"

Barry gave her a funny look. He dusted off his hands, a cloud of dust hanging in the air. "You called me away from a construction site to run here to ask how my legs are?" He chuckled. "If my knees buckled I'd stick you with the hospital bill."

"Like you could even go to a regular hospital," Cadence replied.

"Then I'd make Caitlin give you a bill. Which, admittedly would probably just be for three boxes of pizza pockets but still." Barry's stomach growled. "I could go for some right now."

"Mom made a cake," Cadence said. "You're welcome to have any of that."

Barry gave her a funny look. "You know, for someone who's supposed to be a terrible person, she's really nice," he said gently.

Cadence snorted. "I never said she was a terrible person," she corrected. "I said she was crazy. Which she is." A light breeze blew through the window, making Cadence shiver. She reached up and rubbed her arms, then lowered her hands, glancing at her palms. She still remembered how much it hurt, what happened to her fingers, how her palms had ripped open and how they had healed so fast. She was getting stronger.

In all areas of her life.

"Cade, is everything okay?" Barry asked.

"Yeah," Cadence replied. She took a deep breath, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I forgot to tell you something earlier today." She smiled teasingly. "Though I don't know if I should, because you told me not to."

Barry smiled back, his eyes lighting up. "I didn't think I had much time left."

"So?"

"So, I wouldn't want you to say something that you felt you only had to say back to me because I was on the brink of death."

Cadence licked her lips. "Well, I _did_ tell you to tell me later."

"Okay. I'll tell you now." Barry leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers. "I love you, Cadence Nash."

"I love you, too, Barry Allen," Cadence replied.

Cadence's heart swelled with happiness and suddenly, she felt that she couldn't breathe. There was a smile on her face, the biggest smile she had ever managed. She knew because Barry's had to be matching hers. Their exchanged breathing caressed each other's faces, almost like tender kisses.

Then they were kissing. A soft, happy kiss that quickly morphed with passion.

Cadence wrapped her arms around Barry, gently running her fingers through his hair. They continued their embrace, where he started to vibrate in her hands. This time, though, she didn't laugh. She continued to kiss him, holding his face close to hers. She needed him to stay close. She couldn't lose him, not after what happened earlier that night. Not when the thought of 'what if', 'what if she hadn't been fast enough' filled her head.

Barry stood up and, without removing from her grasp, backed towards her bed. He sank onto the end of the bed and leaned back, allowing Cadence to straddle his waist. Barry brought up his hands to run his fingers through Cadence's now short hair. Cadence chuckled to herself, tilting her head to deepend their kiss. She brought her hands down to his shoulders, grasping them tightly. Barry let out a sound of discomfort and Cadence quickly released her grasp.

"Sorry," She quickly apologized, voice low.

"No, it's okay," Barry replied. "You've hit me worse than that."

"Ha ha."

And they continued their embrace, this time with Barry leaning on his back on the bed. Like flicking a switch, their kisses became more frantic. Sweat popped up on Barry's forehead. He opened his eyes to see Cadence's eyes glowing orange. Briefly, she closed her eyes and turned her head away, the temperature around them noticeably falling. Reaching up, Barry wrapped his arm around Cadence, the other hand digging into her hair.

Then Cadence leaned back and grasped the bottom of Barry's shirt, pulling it over his head in a few quick tugs. Barry stopped her then, grasping her face in his hands. He looked at her, an unspoken question in his eyes.

Cadence responded by kissing him again, and pushed on his shoulder until he lay on his back. They moved as one after that. Lips blending together, creating burning paths along each other's skin. Hands roaming over, holding each other tightly. Quiet moans and whispered encouragements as they released their pent up passion for each other.

* * *

 **A/N:** If anyone is confused, the rest of the fight with Vandal Savage happens after Christmas. I did it this way on purpose (As I tend to change things within the show anyway), mostly as I felt that they all needed a break. But also because I made a little change with Vandal as well. So, you'll just have to wait to see that.

If you'd like to see the full/explicit end scene of this chapter, either go to _Buried Decadenec_ on AO3 or search for DarkElements10 on there and you'll find it.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** I hope it ended up working out so well. There is still a little bit more to come with Batman and Joker.

 **Ethan:** Someone asked if Wonder Woman would ever show up in this series and she may or may not. Little nods to the Justice League (of which I don't know a lot about) has been fun so Batman and Superman were definitely going to show up at some point. Well, unfortunately Cisco doesn't get Batman's autograph like he did with Superman.

 **Josephguy217:** Hopefully I won't. Thanks again!

 **Guest:** Hope you enjoyed this one as well!

 **WinterRain36:** Well, they have now, hope it was alright for you! :)

 **Yummers:** Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoy them so much. It's really fun for me to write and even more rewarding to see how people react to them. More with Vandal Savage coming soon.


	33. Merry Christmas (2)

**.:33:.**

 _Merry Christmas_

* * *

Waking up, Cadence stretched her arms over her head. Then she rolled over and let out a long sigh, rubbing her eyes. Her eyelids continued to stay heavy no matter how hard she worked to keep them open. A light laugh came to her lips, imagining what she looked like, her eyelids fluttering as she tried to wake up. Finally, she sat up and pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes.

Then she stretched again, finally waking up. Leaning over, she picked up her glasses and slid them on then reached under her bed to pick up a book she had shoved there. Flipping through the pages, she turned to where she had left off last. Her upper lip curled as soon as she started to skim the page. No wonder it was taking her so long to get through the whole thing. It bored her to death.

But it was important and as long as she got it done before getting to her shift at work—which was one of the few advantages of Ryder having Brady for the day—and the last-minute Christmas shopping she needed to do.

A knock on her bedroom door caught her attention, nearly making her jump out of her skin. She lifted a flaming fist over her head as the door opened and Barry poked his head inside. "Oh, you're awake," he said. "I was just about to come get you."

Cadence blinked in surprise, then her eyebrows lowered. "You stayed?" She blurted out the words before being able to stop herself. She was _that_ confused about it. Well, not confused, more like curious. Most of the others would've been long gone by that point.

Barry's face mimicked hers as he walked into her room and sat down next to her. "Of course I stayed," he said. His expression was sincere, if not a little offended. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I could think of a million reasons, Barry, believe me," Cadence said flatly.

"Are…you having second thoughts about this?"

"No," Cadence said honestly. She didn't have to think about it. It was the truth. She wasn't having any second thoughts about what they did or what she had said to him. She felt it in her gut. She did love him. "Well, I'm just a bit hesitant," Cadence said honestly. "For a lot of reasons, all of them having to do with me. I haven't felt this way about anyone in a long time and…it's kind of scary."

"I know the feeling," Barry agreed. "When I liked Iris, I didn't think it was possible to feel anything bigger than that."

Cadence nodded. "Exactly." She rested her arms in her lap, strategically covering up the book that rested against her and grabbed her feet. She rocked back and forth with a bashful smile. "But, I'm willing to see where this goes."

Barry laughed. Cadence glared at him. "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. It's just…I don't think I've ever seen you this shy before."

"I don't really like to talk about my feelings, Barry, so sue me," Cadence said. She could feel her cheeks starting to turn red, as if her face exploded in face. It was so strange, really. She didn't get embarrassed by things that people typically got embarrassed from, but being that vulnerable made her stomach squirm. And not in the good way. "So, does that mean you're my…my, uh…" It was so silly how hard it was for her to say it out loud. Now that they were making it official. Or maybe that was the point, it was all coming to fruition now, being able to finally say what they wanted to say. The emotions hadn't quite worn off yet.

"Boyfriend?" Barry supplied.

"Yeah."

"If that's what you want." He tried and failed to sound blasé about the situation. "If that means you're my girlfriend."

"See, I always thought Cisco took that role." Cadence laughed at the sour expression that came to Barry's face. They were bros and consistently reminded each other that they were. But sometimes they could get a little _too_ into being each other's best friend. As far as what she and Caitlin teased them about, anyway. "Yeah. I mean, yes. I'll be your girlfriend. Officially."

Barry's smile widened and he kissed her. Cadence felt nothing but complete joy when she kissed him back, then tightened her grasp on her book when Barry tried to pull it away from her. "Nice try," She said, leaning back away from him.

"Oh, come on. You're acting like a freak every time someone comes around you when you're reading this thing. You nearly slammed a drawer on my fingers the last time I caught you."

Cadence pressed her lips together. "Okay, fine," She said. "But you can't laugh, okay?"

Barry nodded and she handed over the book. He turned it around and looked at the cover, his eyebrows rising. "Engineering for Dummies?" He looked at her in confusion then opened the book, flipping through it. "What do you need this for?"

Sighing, Cadence said, "I know I was complaining a lot about not understanding the science stuff you guys were talking about. And I was starting to annoy myself with it, so I figured why not try to figure out what it was you guys were talking about? So, I got this engineering book. I have one for Biology and Physics, too."

"You didn't have to do that," Barry said. "We would've explained it to you."

"I guess I just didn't want to feel like a burden, I wanted to figure some things out for myself." Scratching her shoulder beneath her tank top strap, Cadence's eyebrows rose. "And let's just say, there's a reason I didn't go into a career in engineering. Mechanical or otherwise." She closed the book and tossed it aside.

"Well, I think your trying to figure everything out is a success in itself," Barry said.

"You're just saying that because you're a genius Mr. I-double-majored-in-college."

"Mm. Maybe a little. Come on. I want to show you something." Barry stood up and grasped Cadence's hand. He pulled her out of bed and walked her into the kitchen. Cadence stood in the doorway and stared as Barry flung his arms wide in a ta-da gesture.

Cadence's eyes roved over the many plates filled with food that lined the table. Bacon, eggs, biscuits, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes, waffles, and bowls of fruit salad stared back at her. Then her eyes moved to the stacks and stacks of flowers that sat around the counters. She stared and stared, unable to find the words that would adequately express how she felt.

"Is it a little much?" Barry asked, noticing her stunned expression. He lowered his arms. "It's a little much, isn't it? I wasn't sure if your appetite was as big as mine but I didn't want to make too little. Not that it would take too long to make more food if I needed to. Oh, I didn't use your food, not all of it, I went out and got some more. I didn't want to impose. That's why I wasn't here when you got up, I guess that's also why you wondered if I had left." Mutely, Cadence motioned to the flowers. "Yeah, I might've gone a little bit overboard with the flowers. But don't worry, they're all plastic. I remembered you said you were allergic."

That was so sweet.

He clearly had gone through a lot of trouble and work to make sure everything was set up for her. One of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her, actually.

Finally, Cadence started to laugh. She ran a hand through her hair. "Everything's fine," she said honestly. "Thank you so much."

Barry beamed like a child receiving praise. "You're welcome."

"But considering all of this, it just makes me think it should be a crime to have to work on Christmas Eve." She sat down in her seat and picked up a plate of waffles. She picked up a bottle of syrup and turned it up and down to pour over her plate. "Because I'd hate to not finish this before I go in. I was planning on seeing Patty at the hospital before I went."

"I wish I could, but Captain Singh says I really need to get started before my shift starts," Barry said. Cadence's eyebrows came together in confusion and he explained. "Oh right, you haven't worked there that long. Captain Singh always tries to have it where the CCPD is shut down on Christmas, but keeps us on call." Barry picked up a sausage and bite into it. "And rumor has it that he's going to propose to his boyfriend."

Cadence nearly choked on her waffles. "Really?" She asked. "He's going to propose?"

"That what Joe says," Barry said. He flushed then, as if he had said something he shouldn't have. "I, uh, checked in with Joe to say I wasn't going to be home last night and not to worry."

Cadence smirked. "I bet that was a fun phone call to make."

Barry rolled his eyes. "I didn't say anything other than to not wait up for me. As far as he knows, we were still trying to clean up the city. I left some stuff so Ryder can have more projects to work on."

"Believe me, Ryder has enough projects to work on whether we create more of a mess of the city," Cadence said. "He's not going to have any issues finding stuff to work on even without metas attacking. Soon he'll be able to turn down jobs and really set his own hours. It'd be good for him and Brady, to get to spend more time together than just the weekend. But we're working things out."

"Are you coming over for the Christmas party tomorrow?" Barry asked.

Cadence tapped her chin. "Uh…." She stalled.

"I'll understand if you don't want to. I mean, considering what happened with…" he cut himself off, grimacing. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up. I know it can't—"

"—No, no, Barry, I'm fine."

And it was the truth.

She didn't feel angry anymore. Didn't feel sad. Everything with Batman and Joker and Vandal Savage had taken her mind off it long enough. Then speaking to her mother, getting things out in the open took the weight of the world off her shoulders. She'd tried so hard to be strong about everything that happened because she'd been so used to being strong for Brady and taking care of things. Since it was something that affected her mother more than her, she could put things in perspective and allow someone else to be strong for _her_ instead.

It made it easier to allow herself to admit her true feelings for Barry in the same vein.

"Well, I'm just saying if there's anyone who knows what it's like to lose a parent," he said quietly. "I'm always here to talk."

"And if there's anyone who knows what it's like to have two fathers, let alone two sets of parents," she replied with a light smile. "Must be exciting to have your dad back for Christmas."

Barry's eyes lit up. Cadence blinked in surprise, noticing he'd already went through two plates of food and was starting on a third while she had only gone through one and a half. "Yeah. I can't wait to give him his gift and everything. I can actually give it to him in person this time. Instead of sitting in a room with a cop standing over my shoulder, making sure it's not anything that has a weapon buried inside." He gave a wistful sigh. "And all of the others that had been destroyed."

"Destroyed?" Cadence was taken aback. "They destroyed presents?'

"Like I said, they had to go through them to make sure I didn't have any weapons or other contraband hidden in them," Barry explained. "Which was ridiculous because where would a kid get anything that would break someone out of jail?"

"I don't know. I think I remember reading in a newspaper somewhere that you won a science fair with a new kind of explosive one time," Cadence said. She tapped her fork against her plate as she thought. There were so many different newspapers she had gone through while getting caught up on older crimes the CCPD had investigated.

Barry held his hands up defensively. "It wasn't an explosive. At least, I didn't set out to make an explosive, it just ended up becoming one. And I never sent it off other than to set a set of fireworks up into the air." Then he shrugged. "I couldn't re-create it even if I tried. The reports I wrote for it were confiscated by my principal."

"You made an explosive Barry, I'm surprised you're not on some sort of Wanted list." Cadence laughed at her own joke. "But it's great that you're going to be able to see him. I bet you're really excited."

"It's too bad your mom couldn't stick around," Barry said. "I didn't see her earlier this morning."

"Honestly, I think that's a good thing. Otherwise she'd be preparing our wedding by this point." At Barry's confused expression Cadence explained with, "My mom's a bit old-fashioned, though in other areas you wouldn't know it. She went to go see her parents. She hadn't seen them in years, apparently they didn't think my dad was good enough for her to date but she went out with him anyway and the rest is history."

"Was she kicked out of the family or something?"

"No, but they didn't ever really talk to each other."

"Oh kind of like—"He cut himself off.

"It's okay, I thought the same thing. Kind of like me and my parents. But as long as she's working on it now it's fine. Better late than never." Cadence motioned around the decorations that had been put up around the apartment. "She was the one who decorated, by the way. I had no time considering all of the metahuman stuff we've been working on. She even got the chance to warp the Christmas gifts. Which is good in itself because I suck at it."

Barry's eyes lit up. "Speaking of gifts." He super speeded from his seat, coming back a moment later with a rolled-up sheet of paper in his hand. "We missed yours and Brady's birthdays while you were gone. I was going to give this to you along with your Christmas gift, but…" he handed it over to her then sat on his hands. "Don't laugh, okay? It's not kind of bad."

"What is it?" Cadence eagerly took it and started to pull it open.

"Open it and see."

Cadence unraveled the paper and her eyes widened in surprise. She stared at the drawing that Barry had done of her and Brady, of one of her favorite pictures of the two of them. It was like looking at the actual photograph in black and white, it was so detailed. Looking closer she could see that a lot of time had been put into it, and that it wasn't something that he'd used his super-speed to finish in a few seconds. She could see where he had erased and started over again throughout multiple points on the page.

"Is it that bad?" Barry asked.

"No, this is amazing," Cadence said. She lowered the drawing, though still looked it over. Each time she came to a different part on the drawing she noticed something different about it. "This is the first time I don't know what to say." Finally, she looked up at Barry and grinned. "This is the best gift I've ever gotten."

Barry muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "That's what you think," before clearing his throat. "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it! I'm going to frame it." Cadence carefully set it aside and got up from her seat. She went over to Barry and gave him a kiss before dropping into his lap, looping her arm around his neck. "Now, you wouldn't happen to be good at painting, are you? I was thinking of re-decorating and could use some more artwork. And I'd rather get it from someone I trust. I can pay you."

Barry laughed. "You don't have to pay me. But I'm glad you like it."

"Love it," Cadence repeated. She gave him a peck on the cheek. "Now if only we didn't have to work so I could figure out where to put the thing. It needs to be perfect."

"I could come back later to help you out," Barry suggested. "I mean, if you want."

"It wouldn't make much of a difference, you're here so often it's almost like you live here." Cadence reached out and picked up another piece of bacon. She crunched into it then stood up from his lap. "Are you done?" At his nod, she started to pick up the plates and dishes of leftover food and put them away in the refrigerator. It took only a few moments for her to realize that Barry had fallen quiet. "Barry, I was kidding."

"I know," Barry said. He drummed his fingers on the table top. "I was just thinking."

Cadence raised her eyebrows. "And I thought the stereotype was that lesbians were the ones who were quick to move in with each other."

"It's like you said, I'm here almost all the time. And I do have some of my stuff here."

"That's just some of the things I agreed to wash for you."

"So, you don't think it's a good idea?"

"I didn't say that," Cadence said quickly. She ran a hand through her hair. "It's just that I don't usually have it where anyone I'm seeing stays over often. Especially where Brady could be so confused about the guy being around so much then suddenly disappearing. Not to mention, if this were the other way around and I moved in with you, neither of us live alone."

"So?"

"So, not many people are excited about the idea of moving in with a little kid." She waved a hand. "But then again, you're not most people." Both of their phones then started to ring. Cadence's buzzed on the counter next to her head, the sound so loud that it made her jump. She leaned over and turned it her way, noticing it was a message from Captain Singh. "Ugh, have to get to work."

"Same here," Barry agreed. He put his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. "Look, we can talk about this later. I have to get back and get changed before going in." He went over to Cadence and cupped her face in his hands. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Cadence replied. "I'll see you later."

This time when they kissed, Cadence held onto Barry until he whisked away, leaving her clutching thing air. Cadence opened her eyes and dropped her hands. "I hate it when he does that."

* * *

"Hey dad, I'm here!" Iris called, walking through the front door of the West house. Seconds before she closed the door there was a gust of wind that blew it open and shut again within the next few seconds. Startled, Iris pulled her hair back from her ears, sliding her coat from her shoulders as she did so. "Was that Barry?" She asked, draping her jacket over the back of the couch.

Joe, who was sitting quietly on the couch with a mug halfway to his lips looked at her in surprise. "I think so. Either that or else the house is haunted."

"It might be," Iris agreed. She walked over and flopped down next to her father, bringing her legs up beneath her. "Remember when Barry and I went ghost hunting that one Halloween?"

Joe thought for a moment. "You mean, when you went up to the attic armed with flashlights and homemade ecto-plasma suits?" He started to laugh. "Which were really just pillows tied to your backs with jump ropes?"

Iris swatted him on the arm. "It was real to us. And we the house _is_ haunted. There were creepy noises and ghostly wails and things moving around up there." Joe continued to laugh, making Iris fold her arms. "Okay, what's so funny? It's not like you were the ghost or something."

Joe finally calmed down. "I was," he admitted.

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Then how'd you do it? We didn't see _anything_ in there that would've made the shudders move, or the boxes topple over, or anything like that?"

Joe wiped tears away from his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath and leaned forward to place his coffee on the table in front of him. "You can do a lot of things with fishing line," he explained. "It's near invisible when you're not looking for it. As for the sounds, I made a tape of recorded sounds from some movie on SyFy." He started to giggle all over again. "You should've seen how fast you guys ran. If you think Barry's fast now, then you haven't seen anything."

Iris laughed along with him. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Speaking of Barry, where was he? I called the house last night and he never called back."

"Oh, they were all busy cleaning up the mess that Batman and the Joker created," Joe explained. "They're so lucky that no one was hurt." Joe shook his head. "I thought the Arrow was a mad man but Joker is completely inane. He's managed to break out of Gotham City Prison so many times but no one ever expected him to show up in Central City."

"Yeah, and working along with Mark Mardon and Trickster? That was crazy." Iris shook her head. "I'm just glad no one was hurt. It's Christmas, everyone should be celebrating the day, not blowing up city hall."

"I hate to break it to you, baby, but chances are it was a ploy to make things harder for metahumans here in the city," Joe said. The smile on his face slowly waned. "There're those out there that feel that if they're going to be demonized, they may as well be demons." He ran a hand over his hair, rubbed at his eyes. "That's what we'd been working on all night, too. Captain Singh and I went to Iron Heights to question the metahumans that are housed there to figure out what it was they felt about the Metahuman Registration Act as well as to ensure the safety of other prisoners who were starting to feel jumpy."

"That doesn't sound good," Iris said.

"Well, hopefully with the holidays and the new year coming around, things will slow down a bit and people will be more empathetic." Joe stretched out his arm to ret against the back of the couch. "As it is, we need to figure out what's going on with our holiday party. We've got the decorations set up, I've got all the food. I've got the gifts—"

"Oh, speaking of gifts." Iris leaned down to her purse and started to root around inside it. Joe watched as she did so, laughing to himself when she pulled out a white box, turning it around to reveal a Flash action figure was set inside. "Check it out!"

"Oh my God." Barry took the box and looked over it himself. He turned it this way and that, studying the box. _The Flash_ was written across the top in bright red and yellow letters. Along the rest of the box was a description of The Flash and his abilities as well as the rest of the normal warnings for little kids. "I think Barry will love this."

"He better," Iris said, taking the box back with a quick jerk of her arm. She eyed the package as if it caused her personal grief. "I had to fight off an old lady for this."

"That explains that bruising," Joe teased.

"They didn't have any Green Arrow ones, though."

"That's good, 'cause no one wants an action figure of that crazy man. But it looks like you're going to have to put my name on that action figure. I _still_ have no idea what to give Barry." Iris gave him a look and Joe rubbed at his eyes. "I know, I know. I've had a lot of time to do it. But with this whole thing with the MRA and these metas and the Joker, and…" he cleared his throat. "Francine and Wally, I haven't had a lot of time to think about it. I want to get him something really special considering how…weird this last year has been."

Iris nodded, a faraway look coming to her eyes.

Joe's eyebrows came together. Her mood had changed so fast. What was…? Oh! Oh. Joe's heart dropped, watching his daughter turn her head away, wiping at her eyes. "I'm sorry, baby. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I know, daddy, it's okay," Iris said.

"I miss Eddie, too," Joe said gently.

Iris smiled and nodded. It was hard to believe how much had changed within the last year. The last _two_ years. First, Barry nearly died after getting struck by lightning from a freak accident, then he turned into The Flash from said accident, metahumans popped up all over the city, and because of it all and a time-traveling maniac from the future, Eddie had died while working along with Barry to protect the city.

Now there was the revelation that not only did their marriage fall apart, but he had a son he hadn't known about. Joe cried the night he had found out that Wally was, indeed, his son. How could he have gone so long and not known about him? There was a part of him that felt it, in his heart there was something he was missing. And it wasn't until meeting Wally that the feeling had gone away. And still he cried, cried for the boy he missed out on getting to know.

"Yeah…but without you, I wouldn't have made it through all of this." Iris reached over and rubbed Joe's arm, her dark lips pulling back into a warm smile. Then she turned Joe's wrist over, looking at the watch he always wore. "Why don't you give him a watch? Like the one Grandpa Ben gave you?"

"That's not a bad idea, actually," Joe agreed. "You know he only gave me this watch because I was always late."

"Worse than Barry or…?" Iris teased, making Joe laughed.

When he sobered up he continued with, "He always gave a gift with a not so hidden message like this watch or a set of free weights because he said I was too skinny." He took in a long breath, thinking of his father who had passed away years before. It was still hard to think about, however fond memories were left now, not the pain of having lost him. He still remembered the year he had been given the watch. It made him laugh at first, because he truly was always late. But he put a lot of time and care into the upkeep of the gift. "You know, I always told him that when I had a son I was only going to give him fun presents."

He tapped his finger against the face of the watch, the minute hand shifting back and forth as he did so. "This thing barely works as it is. I don't know why I still have it."

"Because, daddy, it's from family," Iris said. She rested her hand on her upraised fist. "Speaking of family…" She trailed off, picking at a loose thread on the couch. "I was thinking…maybe we should invite Francine and Wally to our party."

Joe closed his eyes. The pang in his chest was back.

"I know you were protecting me from her," Iris said slowly. "Protecting me from knowing that you guy just fell out of love, that you didn't work out anymore. That you couldn't…" she took in a deep breath. Joe could see tears coming to his eyes. "I know it was hard, dad. I know you were trying to keep me from that pain. If I ever found out about it before, how would I have known that she even wanted to see me?"

"I don't…" Joe shook his head.

He didn't know. As soon as their marriage imploded they had gone their separate ways and didn't talk. But how was he supposed to say that drugs and a drug addiction was the straw that broke the camel's back? Addiction didn't run in either of their families, it had started after she had a foot surgery and she became addicted to her painkillers. As time went on she took more and more even when she was no longer in pain. He couldn't ruin her reputation like that, she needed help.

It was hard for them. Ultimatums were thrown left and right until, eventually, they both knew they couldn't do it anymore. And she had left. A part of him still loved Francine, he always would, but it was too hard not to know if she would continue to relapse and create pain for him and their family.

"But that's the past, dad, and she's here now," Iris said. "Wally is, too. I've gotten to know Wally through Lind and…he's just like you, dad. He's funny, he's nice, he has a bit of an ego."

"I don't have an ego," Joe interrupted.

Iris gave him a look. "Dad, I've known you for a long time. You can have an ego." She shifted closer to her dad. "Just…just think about it, dad. I'd like to be able to talk to Francien some more. I mean, the last time we saw each other, I was staring open-mouthed at her when finding out that Wally is actually my brother." She laughed. "It's so weird to think about, I have a brother. But all the same, it made sense. I haven't known Wally long but when we talked, it was like I knew him forever. We even bickered like siblings before we knew it.

"I believe everything happens for a reason. There's a reason Francine and Wally came back into our lives and I'd like to see where that goes. If you're willing to, too."

Tears had collected in Joe's eyes as he listened to what his daughter, his strong daughter had to say. She had grown up to be so much more than the little girl he remembered. She was as much of his rock more than anyone else ever could be. "He never had a father, Iris. He never had someone who read to him, to show him how to throw a football, to make him feel safe and loved. I can't…I never got the chance to…" He wiped at his eyes. "What have I done?"

"You took in a boy who lost his father. And you taught him how to be the best man that he could be today. And you taught me how to be an even better woman." Iris reached out and grasped her father's face. "And I'm proud of you, dad. There's no one else I could be prouder of. And Wally, when he gets the chance, he'll be proud of you, too."

Joe nodded, the tears finally, silently falling down his cheeks. He gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead and wrapped her up in his arms in a tight hug, rocking her back and forth. Iris rested her head on his chest, hugging him, too.

She was wrong.

If it weren't for her, he wouldn't have been the man he was.

He owed it all to her.

* * *

"Come on, Caitlin," Cisco moaned. He tilted his head back, resting against the headrest of his chair, spinning in a circle. "We still have to do some last-minute shopping and you know how crazy things get at the mall at this time."

"You should've thought of that before you decided to leave Dante's gift for last," Caitlin remarked, standing at her computer, looking over a computer simulation.

"Please, Cait, even you know that I can't win when I'm trying to get Dante a gift. He trades them in for cash or something better each time." Cisco rolled his eye. Or, at least tried to, considering how fast the ceiling was whizzing by. He came to a stop, eyes rolling around in his head. "Maybe I should just get him a bag of vomit."

"Even you wouldn't be that cruel, Cisco," Caitlin said. Finally, she took a step back and chewed her lower lip for a moment. "Harry," she called. "I think I did it."

"Did what?" Harry, who had been standing at another computer looked over at her.

"I think I created Velocity 6." Caitlin waved her arm at the computer and took a step back.

Cisco got up from his chair and walked over to Caitlin, wobbling as he did so. Who knew that it would take that long for dizziness to go away? Then again, the last time he had spun in a chair like that had been when he and Ronnie were having a gauntlet of sorts, to figure out who could hold their beer better.

It was fun, but messy when all was said and done.

Pressing a hand to his forehead, Cisco stopped the world from spinning and looked over to see what they were talking about. Her computer screen read _Velocity 6_ in the corner, hovering above a simulation of a complicated looking atom.

"Well, Snow…" Harry pushed his glasses up his nose. A small smile started to tug at his lips. And Cisco could've sworn he'd seen a glint come to his eye when he turned to look at her. "I think you _did_ do it."

"Do what?" Jay asked, walking into the room.

Cisco smiled to himself when he noticed Caitlin jump a little. Jay _did_ have the tendency to show up at some of the weirdest times and disappear at others. Cisco was pretty sure he was a ninja of some sort, considering how he could get around so fast and with little sound. Caitlin took a step back for him to join their circle and motioned to the screen. "Velocity 6."

As the words left her mouth, Jay's eyes widened in surprise. Then they narrowed into a glare laser-focused on Harry. "You want to make another speed drug?"

"I _made_ another speed drug," Harry corrected him. He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans and tilted his head towards Caitlin in a mocking fashion. "Well, actually, she did."

Jay then turned his glare to Caitlin, who took another step back. "You knew about this?" Caitlin opened her mouth to respond but was cut off when Ja asked, "Are you out of your minds?"

"It's been heavily debated," Harry said. "Many times. Yes, this is Velocity 6. In theory, this should help Barry get faster. Of course we won't know for sure until we do a few test trials. But I'm sure Barry will appreciate our work to make him faster." He leveled his gaze to Jay. "You _do_ want him to get faster, right?"

"Drugs won't do it," Jay growled. His chest heaved with effort of pushing his words out. "The Speed Force doesn't work like that. It's not something you create in a lab."

"Technically,"—Cisco lifted a finger. "It does. I mean, with how Barry became The Flash and everything…" He clamped his lips shut when all three turned his way. "But, this conversation is clearly not about me, so I'm just going to shut up." He clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on his heels.

"My point exactly," Harry said. "And besides, just because we got this to work doesn't necessarily mean that it will be completely successful. That's what trials are for." He looked at his watch. "As it is, I have other things I need to do. I hope your judgements don't ruin your holidays." He placed his hand on Caitlin's shoulder. "You're brilliant, Snow. Don't let him tell you otherwise."

"Funny, I think I said the same about you getting some rest today," Caitlin shot back. "You were only knocked out last night, er, early this morning. And yet, like all my male patients, you're just as stubborn."

"I guess it's just something about you, Snow," Harry said and left the Cortex.

It wasn't so strange. He and Jay could hardly be in the same room with each other anymore. backed away from the computer and headed towards the door of the Cortex.

Caitlin lifted her hands to run through her hair, the small smile on Caitlin's face at Harry's complement disappeared when she turned a dismayed expression to Jay. "We're just trying to help Barry here," she said quietly. Cisco recognized it as the motherly tone she took when she was explaining something the first time. The second time was when her tone would start to harden like ice.

"Then help him run faster, get him out of his head, get him to stop worrying about everything so much!" Jay exclaimed. His green eyes flashed with emotion. "Drugs aren't going to do it. If a normal human's body weakens because of drugs, what do you think is going to happen to a speedster?"

"It'll go through his body that much faster?" Cisco guessed.

Caitlin glared at him again. Then she reached out and grabbed Jay's arm, holding the crook of his elbow firmly. She took a step closer to him. "We're just trying to help Barry," she said gently. "If there's any other way we can stop Zoom, it seems like this is it."

"You're messing with things you don't understand," Jay insisted.

"Story of our lives, man," Cisco said. This time no one looked at him. He rolled his eyes. What was he? Invisible?

"Do you have any suggestions then?" Caitlin asked.

Jay nodded. "Maybe if we injected the breaches with an unstable neutrino burst into them it might cause them to seal themselves."

"And stop zoom from traveling back and forth between our worlds." Caitlin's eyes lit up as she understood his thought process."

 _"And_ stop him from sending over any more metahumans for Barry and Cadence to fight."

Caitlin nodded, her smile widening. "It means a lot." Her eyes ballooned to the size of dinner plates and she dropped her hand form Jay's arm. Cisco's head tilted to the side. Interesting. That was a strange reaction to her admission. Even more interesting was how Cisco felt about it; strangely unsatisfied and annoyed.

"What does?" Jay asked.

"I, I, uh, it's just…uh, you looking after Barry. He's been through a lot you know. It's good for him to have someone he can look up to."

 _Smooth,_ Cisco thought.

"Well." Jay lowered his voice, looked Caitlin in the eye with a tender expression. "Barry's not the only person I want to keep safe."

A frown crossed Cisco's features as the threw his hands in the air. "Oh, _dios mio_ , just kiss already!" He rolled his eyes. It wasn't until there was a second of silence that he realized Caitlin and Jay were both looking at him. Well, Caitlin was glaring and if looks could kill he'd already have been dead. "Sorry, did I say that out loud?" He couldn't help the sarcastic tone that crept into his voice.

A huff so hard escaped Caitlin's lips that her fringe flew off her forehead. "What is it, Cisco? Don't you have anything to do?" Her teeth bared like a pit bull, Caitlin clenched her hands into fists.

"I would if there were any metahumans attacking anything." Cisco tried his hardest not to mimic the tone of her voice but found it hard not to. "You think they decided to take off for Christmas?"

"What's Christmas?" Jay asked. Now Caitlin and Cisco exchanged bewildered glances before looking at Jay. He was form another Earth, not another planet. How could anyone not know what Christmas was? It took a long moment of silence before they realized Jay wasn't joking.

"Oh!" Caitlin cleared her throat, twisted her fingers together. She started to ramble. "Well, it's when we cut down trees and sing songs to celebrate the birth of a baby two thousand years ago and then the Romans killed him so we give each other gifts."

Cisco's eyebrows rose. "Really? You want to go with killing babies as the way to get the rest of us in a festive mood?"

Jay smiled over at Cisco's question then leveled his gaze back to Caitlin. _Not like he's been looking anywhere else,_ Cisco thought, leaning to the side to rest his weight on the computer terminal beside him. "I know what Christmas is. I was just messing with you."

"Oh!" Roses bloomed on Caitlin's cheeks. She laughed to herself. The sound of a strange giggle. "Well, Joe and Barry and Iris are having people over Christmas Day and they said we could invite anyone we want."

Jay shrugged. "I'm busy."

"Oh." Caitlin lowered her gaze. "Well, I mean, it wasn't like I was going to—"

"—So you weren't going to ask me?"

"No, I was. I just—"

"Well, who do you want to go?"

Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut. Now her entire face was a flaming tomato. "You. I want to invite you, I mean."

Now Jay started to laugh. Actually, it was like the first time Cisco could remember him being so laid back since arriving on their Earth. "I know, Caitlin, I was just kidding."

"Oh god, this is so painful," Cisco murmured.

"Not as painful as your death is going to be," Caitlin muttered back, scratching behind her ear. "So, uh, we'll see you there. _Cisco_ and I,"—she reached over and dug her nails into Cisco's shoulder as she said his name, making him wince in pain—"Have some last minute Christmas shopping to do. If anything comes up, please just call and let us know."

"No problem. Have a good time."

Caitlin flashed a toothy smile, which looked more like a grimace, and dragged Cisco out of the Cortex and to the loading bay where they parked their cars and the STAR Labs vans. "I can't believe you just did that," she hissed.

"What'd I do?" Cisco asked. He widened his eyes innocently. "Back you up while you tried and failed to flirt with Jay? I hate to break it to you, Cait, but you didn't need my help with that."

"That sounds like something Brady would say," Caitlin said.

"Speaking of, he and Ryder disappeared as soon as they got here."

"They're putting in the finshing touches on 'the thing'. And don't change the subject, Cisco. You really embarrassed me." With a low moan, Caitlin brought up her hands and ran them over her face. "Oh God, I feel like an idiot."

Now Cisco felt bad. He was just teasing her a little bit, he didn't want her to have some sort of an existential crisis over it. "I was just kidding, Cait. Which…it seems like a lot of that was going on today. But, you have to admit it's kind of funny that the minute you invite him out you become tongue-tied. I've seen you say some of the longest syllable words in existence without a second of thought and _now_ you clam up?"

Caitlin crossed her arms.

The sound of her heels clacking along the concrete was the only sound between them.

He sighed. "I'm just saying…you must really like him."

"I don't know, Cisco," she finally muttered. "I haven't…allowed myself to feel like this since Ronnie. I'm trying not to think about the fact that he may still be alive. That's even harder to deal with than losing him. And I know he wouldn't want me to sit around and wait for him."

"It's just…you don't really know him," Cisco said.

Caitlin blinked at him. "I know a lot about him, Cisco. I spend a lot of time here at STAR Labs working with him on the breaches. We talk a lot. He's told me about his family and his friends. We've talked about literature and what we've studied in school. I know him just fine."

"And?" Cisco's heart sank with each word but he couldn't quite put his finger on word.

"And I like him. I think. And I'm leaving it at that." She reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Now, why don't we go and get that Christmas gift for Dante? I'll make sure it's something so good that he wouldn't even dream of exchanging it."

Cisco looped his arm around her waist and the two leaned into each other. "Thanks, Cait."

* * *

The next day was Christmas and the festivities were felt all over. Lights shined over the city, a dusting of snow fell to the ground, and cheerful pleasantries were exchanged by those going to each other's houses to exchange gifts and enjoy the day.

That's what most of those in Central City were doing.

For those on Team Flash, the day was celebrated a little differently. None of them could open their gifts until they got to the West house later that night. Even Brady, who usually agonized over waking up and not being able to open any of his gifts—even his birthday gifts this time—was patient for it. That morning he lay quietly in bed while Barry and Cadence shot through the city to do patrol for any metahumans and criminals who may be looking around.

Cadence stood atop the building of the Central City Picture News while Barry circled the street below. He then came to a stop next to her, placing his hands on his hips. "I'm not seeing anything," he reported.

"You sound disappointed," Cadence said.

"Maybe a little," Barry said.

"I don't know about you, but most people would be happy to know there's not much going on." Cadence mimicked his stance, placing her hands on her hips. "I could use an uneventful day after what yesterday was."

Barry nodded in agreement. Christmas Eve had been a bit of a whirlwind. Not only did he have to finish Christmas shopping—which truly only took a few minutes—but there were other things to celebrate. Patty was going to be okay. The two had stopped by the hospital before work to check on her and while she had a massive bruise on her chest from the Joker's bullet becoming embedded in her bullet proof vest, there wasn't much other damage to her from the fight. She was in good spirits when they came to visit.

"I'm so glad you're here," she said, sitting up in her bed. "I need someone else to tell me how crappy this hospital food is. I swear it can't just be me who thinks they're dying whenever they eat it." She pushed her tray away. "I'm so glad that I don't have to be here anymore." She looked over at her nurse and grimaced, noticing she was in earshot. "Not that I'm not happy for the work this staff has done for me. They were really good, I mean."

"Don't worry about it, I've worked in hospitals long enough to know it's a conspiracy that all food has to taste bad." Cadence stood by the head of her bed and smiled teasingly. "How else do you think they try to keep from getting repeat customers."

"Well, they're doing a pretty good job of it," Patty agreed. Her smile then dropped. "What happened? Did they catch the Joker? What about Mark Mardon?"

Barry and Cadence exchanged a glance. "Batman took care of the Joker and Flash and Flare got the Trickster in the CCPD's possession. But…we're not—"Cadence elbowed him in the side. "I mean the _city's_ not sure where Mardon went."

Patty's face then darkened. "It's okay, he'll be caught soon. Even if I have to be the one to take him in." She looked back and forth between Barry and Cadence and her face softened, almost melting into an expression of pure sadness. "I-I'm sorry, it' just…"

And she told them the story of what happened to her father. Barry listened quietly, but with a pain in his heart. If what Patty was saying was true, then that meant that what happened to her father was partially his fault. Cadence looked at him all the while she explained her story, as if able to read Barry's mind. When he caught her gaze, she shook her head and mouthed, "Not your fault".

Intuitively he knew it wasn't. He hadn't had even been The Flash by that point. What _was_ his fault was letting Mark Mardon go when they had him in their grasp along with Joker and Trickster. But he wasn't the one they needed to go after, at that moment the Joker and Trickster were the ones causing the most havoc and needed to be taken down.

Decisions like that were always hard to make and he made what he thought was the right one at the time. Still, the guilt of said decisions were difficult for him to handle. He was learning how to do it, but it was still hard.

Later they had arrived at the CCPD in time for Captain Singh to announce that he and his boyfriend, Rob, had gotten engaged. And that the reason for their attendance to the CCPD that day was for them to have an impromptu engagement party. Sure, there were still things that needed to be addressed, with officers from the CCPD going in and out as the day went on. Still, the holiday spirit must've been in the air, it was the happiest Barry and Cadence had ever seen the man.

He had even called them by their correct names, when he typically either called them by their last name, or called Cadence, Candace. It had been a great party, too. Some had even handed out small gifts and trinkets to each other throughout the day.

Now, it appeared that everything was slowing down for the day. If there was any day that Central City was relaxed, it would be Christmas.

"I just wanted to stretch my legs a little," Barry said. He stretched his arms in front of him. "But I guess you're right, it's good to know no one's having any problems."

"I don't know about that," Cadence said.

"Huh?"

Barry found himself driven to the roof of the building by a hard shove on the side. Cadence's eyes widened behind her goggles. She brought her hand to her mouth. "Okay, I didn't mean to hit you _that_ hard."

"You didn't." Quick as a flash, Barry was back on his feet. "You just caught me off guard." He shot forward to tag her on the arm but she teleported behind him.

"I think 'catch' is the operative word there," Cadence said. Then she teleported off the roof and into the street below. Barry pivoted on his heel and shot after her.

Back and forth across the street, then expanding down alleyways and across numerous landscapes, Barry and Cadence shot back and forth in a quick game of 'tag'. Not only was it a way to blow off some steam, but it also gave them the chance to explore the city to find any crime being committed. Not to mention a means to spar and learn each other's strengths and weaknesses even further.

Bolts of lightning and balls of fire rained down in their wake, the person who was 'it' routinely switching time and time again. At one point Cadence became so frustrated that she couldn't catch Barry that smoke literally came from her ears and nose, signaling Barry to run even faster while a fireball chased him down the streets. Finally, after a diversion with a zig-zag maneuver through the forest, where she nearly made Barry run face first into an Oak tree, Cadence managed to tag him back.

Finally, the two came to a stop in the middle of a clearing, sending snow everywhere—Barry—when not immediately melting it into slush—Cadence. Hands on his knees, Barry struggled to catch his breath. "Okay," he said. "I'll start next time."

Cadence smirked. "I knew it. You're losing zero to two." She flashed her fingers to represent the numbers, a flame appearing over her middle finger when she held up two fingers.

"Ha ha." Barry suddenly reached up his hand and pressed it to his ear, turning away from her. "Yeah, oaky. I'll be there." He turned back to her. "I've got to get going, but we'll meet up at STAR Labs to go to the party, okay?"

"Okay," Cadence replied. Then she tilted her head in confusion. "But why can't we just meet up at your house?"

"it's just easier to meet everyone there, okay? Yeah, I'll see ya." And he was gone before Cadence could protest. Instead, she shrugged and went back to her apartment, making the mental note to return her suit to STAR Labs when they met up there later. She found Brady sitting cross-legged by the tree, staring at the boxes beneath them.

"Hey mom," he greeted her as she appeared in the living room, pulling her goggles down around her neck.

"Hey bud," she replied with a warm smile.

"Look, I haven't opened any of the gifts." He pointed towards the tree. "I've been a very good boy."

"So, I'm not going to find tape in odd places after you peeked and tried to hide the evidence?"

Brady's face flushed. Clearly, he didn't think he would've been found out with this tactic the year before. It probably didn't help much that he still had some issues with his powers where he could phase through a wall but couldn't keep his phased form when going back. If he managed to get a gift out form a box and unable to put it back, it'd be harder.

"Alright, well, let me take a shower and get changed and we can head over to Harrison's and Tess's place," Cadence said.

Brady looked stricken. "I thought we were going to meet everyone at STAR Labs."

"We are," Cadence explained. "I just wanted to drop by there first."

"Oh." Brady let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Go take your shower, I'll just be right here." He turned back to the tree, resting his chin in his hands. "Oh yeah, and Mamaw called to say she made it and Merry Christmas."

"Okay, I'll call her back later."

Cadence changed out of her suit and took her clothes into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once finished, she carefully folded the suit and put it in a shopping bag to bring back to STAR Labs, then instructed Brady to get the gifts and took them to Harrison's place. She knocked on the front door and found Tess joining them on the doorsteps a few seconds later.

"Hi," Cadence greeted her. "Merry Christmas."

"Hey sweetie." Tess reached out and gathered her daughter and grandson in a tight hug. "Merry Christmas to you, too. Come on in." She took a step back and Cadence was immediately hit in the face with a blast of warm air. "You're here early."

"I know, but my friends and I were going to meet up at STAR Labs a little early and I wanted to drop your gifts by first," Cadence explained. Brady nodded and lifted the bag he tightly held in his hand. "Just so we weren't lugging them all around. You can open them now if you'd like."

"I'm sure it's something we can wait to open with the rest of our company," Harrison said, walking over from the kitchen. He gave them hugs as well.

"I don't know, Dad, I think you may want to get right into yours," Cadence said. She pulled it form the bag and handed it over, making a show of shaking it back and forth. Whatever was inside sloshed back and forth.

Tess let out a low groan, rolling her eyes. She pushed her blonde hair away from her blue-green eyes and explained, "If that's what I think it is, then you definitely gave him the right gift."

"If that's what _I_ think it is, you're right," Harrison agreed. He took the gift-wrapped box from Cadence and carefully opened it. "Ah! Scotch. Just as I thought!"

"Yeah, my dad told me that both of you used to have long talks over some scotch and I thought it'd be the best gift for you," Cadence said. "On the plus side, I was able to get it back from Metropolis without having to go through the TSA. I think people would wonder if I was an alcoholic if I had."

"Have you seen the wine cellar?" Tess asked. She jerked her head over towards Harrison. "Considering what's been going on lately, there've been more taken out than put in."

"Is it that Registration Act thing again?" Brady asked. He had moved over to the piano and carefully plucked at a few keys letting them ring out before pushing another one.

"Among other things, sweetie."

"Anything we should be concerned about?" Cadence asked.

"Only that Mayor Bellows has been having more meetings that no one outside of his cabinet have been able to get into," Harrison explained. He cleared his throat and held up his hands. "Again, nothing to be too worried about. Word on the street is that it's just going over the measures that are already in place for schools and other public areas."

"That doesn't sound good," Brady said.

"Everything's going to be alright, don't worry," Harrison said. He looked over the bottle of scotch in his hand, a wistful smile coming to his face. "I'm guessing your mother helped you figure this out. Kent had a very specific taste in his scotch drinks."

"No, it was one of the ones left over," Cadence explained. She swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. "We were going through his things and—"

"—We understand," Tess agreed. "But Harrison's right. I remember many times we went over to your place for dinner it was all these two ever talked about. That and talking a trip to Scotland just to get some of the pure stuff." She elbowed her husband in the side. "Not to mention how many times Maya and I talked about leaving them there."

Cadence laughed.

She looked at her phone as it rang with a text from Caitlin, telling her to get to STAR Labs. "Oh, I have to go, but we'll see you at the party, alright?"

"Alright, we'll see you there," Tess said.

Cadence held her hand out towards Brady, who suddenly appeared much more animated and teleported the two to STAR Labs. As soon as they arrived they were bombarded with cries of 'Merry Christmas' from Caitlin and Cisco. She smiled and gave them hugs.

"Merry Christmas," She replied. "Are you ready to go?"

"Not yet," Cisco said. "We're waiting for Barry and Ryder." As soon as the words left his mouth there was a huge gust of wind and Barry and Ryder appeared. As soon as they stopped, Ryder turned to the side, holding his stomach as he made retching sounds.

"Sorry," Barry apologized to him. "I thought you would've been used to that by now."

"So did I," Ryder managed between dry heaves.

"Can we show her now?" Brady asked. He squirmed, bouncing from foot to foot. "Please?"

"Okayyy." Now Cadence's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's going on?"

"You'll see," Barry said. He moved behind her and held his hands over her eyes. "Just trust us." With that, Caitlin and Cisco grabbed her arms and followed Ryder and Brady as they left the Cortex. Cadence wasn't quite sure where they were going, but it was a distance away from the Cortex. The temperature of the air changed, not so much that it made her cold but noticeable. They probably went down one floor by her estimation.

 _What's down here, though?_ Cadence thought. Most of the floors of STAR Labs were empty, not wanting to take over any of the offices of the former workers. As far as she could tell there wasn't anyone waiting to jump out at her that she could sense. All of a sudden, the left side of her body ran into something.

"Ow!" She yelped.

"Sorry," Ryder apologized. "Cisco got in my way."

"I'm all the way over here, how did _I_ get in your way?"

"Guys, quit it," Caitlin reprimanded them. "We're here."

"Can I open my eyes now or am I going to be thrown off a cliff?" Cadence asked, rubbing her knee.

"Okay, open your eyes."

Barry removed his hands from her eyes and stepped to the side to get a look at her expression. Cadence did as she was told and she was sure her heart stopped. Then tears filled her eyes seconds later and she was openly crying. There were so many emotions she'd gone through that day already and she was starting to annoy herself with it. But still, it was probably one of the most amazing things that had ever been given to her.

"This is for me?" She asked and waved her arms in the air in front of her. "All of this is for me?"

"I don't know anyone else who can use it," Caitlin said.

"Not without breaking their necks," Cisco agreed.

"Do you like it?" Brady asked. He studied his mother's face impatiently. "You're not saying anything."

Cadence wasn't sure what to say. Who knew what to say when they were gifted and entire gymnastics room complete with uneven bars, practice mats, a trampoline, a balance beam, rings, a boombox, speakers set up in the corners, a locker, and, surprisingly, she could see a set of pom-poms sitting on top of the balance beam.

"How'd you do this?" She finally asked, wiping at her eyes. "Ow. I can't see!" Mascara had run into them, stinging her eyes, which only made her laugh and cry harder. She fanned at her face. "I don't understand."

"It was Ryder's idea," Barry said.

Ryder shrugged. "I couldn't have done any of this without them. I got all the wood and metal and tools needed to build everything. But to know if it was structurally sound I went to Cisco and got his help. Then Barry handled the electrical components and Caitlin and Brady helped build it. It was my idea but it's a group gift from all of us."

"Oh, and that locker over there," Cisco pointed. "It's not a real locker. It's for us,"—he motioned between himself and Caitlin—"to monitor your heat levels and the increase in your powers. I call it the Heat Locker."

"Clever," Cadence remarked. She took in a dep breath and looked around the room once more. Then she squealed, practically running in place and threw her arms wide. "Aww, you guys are the best! Thank you!" She pulled Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin into a group hug then Ryder and Brady into their own hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She took a step back and her smile abruptly faded. "Great, now I don't think any of my gifts will compare to that."

"They will, don't worry," Brady said. His eyes widened and he clapped his hands over his mouth before turning up to look at her.

Cadence planted her hands on her hips. "You sneak, you snooped didn't you?"

He grimaced.

Then, all of a sudden, the lights went out and when they came back on again, the group screamed and jumped backwards when they found Batman standing in the room with them. "How are these people _doing_ this?" Cisco demanded.

"How did he even get in here?" Ryder asked.

Barry just stared as Batman turned his way. "That last time, taking down Joker," Batman said. "You did good."

Barry's eyes widened. "Wow. I, uh. Thank you. It's an honor to meet you, sir. Sir Batman. Batman, sir." He held out his hand towards Batman, taking a step towards him. Then he quickly backed away and moved the hand through his hair. "Glad we could help. Thank you for helping _us._ "

"I've been following your reference in Central City, Flash," Batman said with a nod. "You do tight, efficient work."

"I, uh, yeah, uh, thank you," Barry said again.

Batman nodded. He reached his hand out towards Barry. Barry thrust his out and shook it firmly, noticing Batman place something in his grasp.

The lights flashed once more and when they came back on he was gone.

A stunned silence filled the room.

"Best. Christmas. Ever!" Cisco all but squealed.

* * *

"Hey." Harry turned when he heard Barry talk to him. "We're having a Christmas party at our place. You want to come? No one should be alone on the holidays."

"That's a wonderful offer," Harry replied. He looked away for a moment then shook his head. "But I can't celebrate without my daughter." He lifted his chin in a friendly manner. "Merry Christmas, Barry."

"You too," Barry replied.

The thought still sat in the back of his head after leaving STAR Labs to go back to his place to finish getting ready for the party. After Cadence had gotten over the initial shock of her gymnastics room, and continued to refuse to show them anything she could do because she wasn't adequately dressed for it—of which Brady quickly reminded her that he'd seen her fight in lots of different outfits—Barry went up to the Cortex to get Jay and Harry so they could all leave. But Harry, like during Thanksgiving, decided to stay behind.

It didn't hit him, Harry's admission, until much later. He was too excited for his dad to show up at the party and when he did, he engulfed his father in the tightest hug the man had ever received. Henry laughed in surprise before reaching up to pat his son on the back.

"Geez, Barry, I know it's been a little while since you've seen me but it hasn't been that long," Henry said. His voice came out in a light wheeze. "Is strength part of your powers or…?"

"I'm sorry," Barry quickly apologized. He let go of his father and stepped back, patting him on the shoulder. "It's just…you know, it's our…"

"First Christmas since I've been released, I know," Henry agreed. "I'm excited, too. Just make sure you don't break me before I make it to my next birthday, Slugger. I intend to at least see that day, too." He wrapped his arms around him once more. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see you, too, dad," Barry said. He then led him through the living room where everyone had gathered. Iris, Cadence, and Brady were putting ornaments on the tree, Cisco and Joe were sampling some more of Grandma Esther's egg nog, Caitlin was putting up some more decorations that had been missed before, and Jay and Ryder were engrossed in a intense conversation. From the gestures of their arms it had to be about a sports team of some sort. "I was afraid you didn't want to come."

Henry glanced at him in confusion. "Why wouldn't I come?"

"I don't know I guess…I just thought you were still having some trouble adjusting." A laugh escaped Barry's lips. "You were already saying that the inventory for STAR Labs was making your head spin."

"Barry, I'm old. Things don't come to me as easily as they used to." Henry laughed. "Not to mention, some of the things you're using I couldn't even imagine. I think some of it is government issued, by the way."

"Yeah, we don't talk about that."

"I'll play along until FBI officials come in. Then I don't know any of you."

"That sounds about right."

The two laughed and Barry looked over at the gifts being stacked underneath the three. "Dp you want to open your gift now, or?"

"You didn't have to get me anything," Henry said. He gazed at his son with nothing but admiration in his eyes. "I've learned how to become a minimalist considering how long I've been in prison. Things are just that, things. It's the relationships you have with other people that matter. And you were a gift to me the day you were born. The best gift I've ever gotten."

Tears came to Barry's eyes and he reached over, giving his father another hug. Henry chuckled and wiped his eyes as he stood back. "I don't think I've cried this much since I found out your mother was pregnant."

"Oh, not that story again," Barry said. He'd heard it a million times before.

"No, not that story again," Henry agreed. "Not unless you have something you need to tell me."

"No!" Barry held up his hands. "Definitely not. Cade and I, we, uh, only just…she's uh…"

"Your girlfriend?" Henry pressed.

"Yep. Yeah." Barry smiled. "She's my girlfriend."

Henry smiled back. "It's about time."

"For real?" Barry couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Across the room, Caitlin jumped up and down, trying to press a sprig of mistletoe into the doorframe that led to the dining room. Iris watched her as she did so. "Cait, maybe you should take off your heels first," she suggested.

"Then she'd be too short to reach the ceiling," Brady pointed out.

"Or maybe she could jump higher," Cadence teased.

"And flash everyone? I don't think so," Caitlin said. Still, she continued to try and press the mistletoe to the ceiling. Jay then walked over and took the mistletoe from Caitlin's fingers. "Oh, thanks," she said. "I was just, uh, trying to put it right up there."

"What is it?" Jay twisted it back and forth between his fingers.

"Uh, it's, uh, mistletoe," Caitlin explained, then started to ramble. "It's a hemiparasitic plant from the genus Santalaceae family, in North America. I think?" She laughed nervously, twisting her fingers together.

Cadence lifted an eyebrow. "Geez, Cait, if you grimace anymore I think your face might fall off." She laughed with Iris when Caitlin shot her a glare.

"Relax, Caitlin, I know what mistletoe is." Extending his arm, Jay pressed the plant to the ceiling. "We have it on our Earth, too." He cleared his throat and took a step towards her. "Um, we, uh, also have the, uh, same tradition there. I think."

Caitlin's eyes widened. "Tradition?"

"W—with the mistletoe," Jay explained.

"Smooth," Iris murmured. Cadence snorted.

Caitlin smiled and leaned towards Jay, accepting the gentle kiss he pressed to her lips, holding her steady by the shoulders. Cadence and Iris golf clapped when they pulled apart, smiling at each other. "Finally," Brady muttered. Then he turned to show Iris an ornament he found of two snowmen shoveling their own balls of snow.

"Aww, I remember when we got this one," Iris cooed, looking it over. She waved it over to Barry. "Hey, do you remember this?"

Barry held it in his hand and laughed. "Oh yeah, I remember."

"So do I," Joe muttered. "I had to suffer standing in line to see Santa at the ski lodge for _hours_ for that stupid thing."

"You were the one who made it a tradition, dad," Iris pointed out.

Cadence smiled as she looked at it, remembering the ornaments her mother had added to her tree. She needed to call her back. There was a knock on the door and Harrison and Tess joined the party as well. For the next hour they all enjoyed each other's company, singing along to the music that was playing, eating cookies and other snacks Iris had prepared, and reminiscing of past Christmases with each other.

Then there was another knock at the door that grabbed his attention. "Do you want me to get that?" He asked Joe, leaning back to get a good look from his position on the floor.

"No, I got it," Joe said. "But are we expecting anyone else?"

Barry shrugged. "Maybe Harry changed his mind."

"Harry's coming?" Caitlin asked, whipping her head to face him.

Again, Barry shrugged. He looked up as Joe opened the door. Everything around him ceased at that moment. Or maybe he thought it had. Barry exchanged a glance with Iris, who had moved to stand at the door with her father, and got up from the floor to join them. He put his arm around Iris's shoulder, giving her a comforting hug when he saw Francine and Wally standing on the front porch. Francine nervously peered into the house. She shrank back when she saw everyone.

"I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" She asked.

"Iris, uh, she invited us over," Wally added.

Joe looked over his shoulder at Iris and she nodded encouragingly. Joe took in a deep breath and said, "No, come in. Of course, it's a good time. It's Christmas at all. It's good to see you again, Francine." She smiled and ushered Wally inside. "And, you two, Wally. I guess, I guess I'm your father."

"And I guess I'm your son," Wally replied. He gave a small, albeit nervous smile, glancing at his mother. Iris did the same with her father, smiling at Francine. Then she took a breath and shook her head, a charming smile came to her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm being rude," she apologized. "Let me take your coat. Would you like anything to drink? Something to eat, we have plenty of cookies."

"Well, if you're anything like Wally you know he can't resist a Christmas cookie," Francine said.

"Never could," Wally agreed.

He smiled at Iris, a similar one coming to her own face, Barry noticed, before he two went off to the table, chatting as they went. "Let me introduce you to everyone," Joe said, first taking Francine over to Henry.

Barry smiled at the group before turning around to look at all the friends and family he'd managed to acquire over the years. He never wanted anything to happen to them and even if they only had that day, then it was enough.

Barry cleared his throat and walked over to the couch. He sat down on the arm of the couch next to Cadence and Ryder. "Is it okay if I give Brady my Christmas gift?" He asked.

"Yeah, go ahead," Cadence replied. Her eyes were bright, already knowing what it was. Barry then looked at Ryder, who nodded in agreement. He knew what it was as well and was equally as supportive over it. "Hey bud?"

Brady turned from the Christmas tree, eyebrows raised.

"Come here for a second, buddy," Ryder called, waving his hand.

Brady dutifully walked over and stood in front of his parents, twisting his gaze to Barry when he started speaking. "I just wanted to say, uh, I love your mom."

Brady lifted an eyebrow. "Well, duh!"

Barry smiled. "The thing is, I love you, too. And I just wanted you to know that while your mom and I don't know where our relationship will go further than being boyfriend and girlfriend,"—he suddenly felt very silly at his voice of words—"I'm going to be there for you just as much as she is. As much as Ryder is. If there's anything you ever need or want I'll be there. No matter what." Barry licked his lips. "I'm not saying I'm going to be our dad or anything, or try to take Ryder's place in your life. But that I love you very much and if you'd have me, I'd love to be a big part of your life."

"Really?" Brady asked.

"Yes, really, I—"Barry was suddenly hit in the stomach with Brady's forceful hug around his midsection. Barry leaned over and wrapped his arms around Brady, gently rubbing his back as he did so. Then Brady stood back and, wiping at his face, leaned over and gave his mother a long hug.

"Welcome to the family, man," Ryder said, shaking Barry's hand. He smirked, flicking his gaze towards Cadence. "I'm just warning you now, she's nuts and a little spoiled and likes to get her way."

"Excuse you," Cadence shot back with attitude, turning her attention from Brady to her ex-boyfriend. "Compared to you, I'm incredibly sane."

"Ha!"

"Ha, nothing."

Barry laughed at their light bickering.

Brady finally stood back and wiped at his eyes again, sniffling. "Can I open my other gifts now?" Ryder laughed and nodded with Brady going to do as he was told. But not before tapping Barry on the arm and saying under his breath, "They're both crazy." Barry laughed again.

"You didn't have to do this you know," Cadence said to Barry, tilting her head to look him in the eye. "You didn't have to get Ryder's blessing or or…"

"Yes, I did," Barry insisted. "I wouldn't have felt right about it. He's my friend, too."

"No, I know, I'm just saying you didn't have to but you did. As The Flash people see a lot of things of how you're brave and always working to help people. But I see that in Barry Allen and I love that about him."

"Merry Christmas, Cade," Barry said.

"Merry Christmas, Barry," Cadence replied.

They came together in a kiss.

* * *

 **A/N:** Barry and Cadence aren't actually moving in together, btw. Well, never thought I'd say I'd ever celebrate Christmas in July but that's how it worked out. And I think I managed to show every main character in this one. _So_ close to Earth-2, I'm really excited for it, I've been thinking about what I'd do with it since season 2 aired. Speaking of, I'm trying third to have this finish and the fourth story/third season up by the time season 4 airs. I think I can do it but that either means increasing the pacing, writing _exceedingly_ long chapters, or updating multiple times a week. *Fingers crossed*.

Oh, and the running theme through this story (that I'm surprised no one guessed) boils down to family, while Barry, Cadence, _and_ Brady all are dealing with having two sets of parents/families. (You can add Wally into it with the Wests as well).

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** Whew, glad it all worked out well. Your suggestion actually worked with one other mention of Batman I already planned, so thanks!

 **WinterRain36:** This one is just as long if not longer. I'm glad you enjoy watching/reading her in action. Figuring out how her powers would work along with her abilities and background in athletics is fun for me. I was going to have them testing on her healing in this chapter but with all of the Christmas stuff it became too long, so a superhero tag game was put in instead. It'll show up in the next one, hope you're not too disappointed.

 **Kindleflame5:** I'm glad that you like that aspect. I was afraid she'd come across as too much of a mary-sue if I did. So, to see it's being positively received is great. Also, I'm almost finished with the next part of _Buried Decadence_ that we talked about, I didn't forget.

 **Ethan:** Well, I think her gift is better than a teleportation device. And I'm unsure of how a teleportation device will be faster than what she can do/make it better for her. Glad the action points were as good as ever, I continuously worry over how it comes across as the way I write it and read it are different than someone who's just reading it. It was mentioned in an earlier chapter that Ryder hasn't seen or talked to his parents since they sent him away, unlike Cadence who was still in contact with her parents and saw them a little.

 **Josephguy217:** Once again, thank you so much!

 **Guest:** Hahaha. Yeah, finally.

 **Spinquin142:** Wow, glad you like it. You're sort of right, as it wasn't the last we'd see of Maya. There's still more of her to be shown. For the emotional part of the whole thing, that's right. I'm glad the fights were done well. Yes, they officially love each other.

 **Yummers:** Thank you.


	34. Vandal's Savage

**.:34:.**

 _Vandal's Savage_

* * *

 **A/N:** Very long chapter ahead.

* * *

Barry pulled open the door to CC Jitters, taking a step back so Brady could duck into the store front first. He bounced his way over to the glass cabinet that held muffins, scones, and other pastries, gazing over them, eyes shifting back and forth. Barry, walked over to the back of the long line that led up to the counter and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

He looked at his watch then glanced at the line once more, deciding whether to use his powers. On one hand, he wasn't too important to be unable to stay in line. On the other, he needed to get back to STAR Labs. Cisco and Caitlin could get nasty without their morning coffee. Any of them could. And now that Harrison, Tess, Harry, and Jay were all there to bear witness to the training that was going on, there were more than enough things to worry about. Harry was as abrasive as ever, Jay completely refused to talk to or stand on the same side of the room as him. Harrison was now working in STAR Labs more, having come back from being a backup for Tess's studies with the MRA.

Barry shook his head.

It was getting worse than he could ever believe it'd be. He and the rest of the CCPD had been told that officers from other precincts would start to patrol the city more often, looking for metahumans. Training for each person aligned with the CCPD would have be increased so that response time of metas would become tighter. Mayor Bellows's press conference had been all about that. It scared and surprised Barry more than he thought it would. What else could he as The Flash do when people were just starting to become too afraid. Zoom was menace for the city, a boogeyman, a nightmare's worst nightmare. It hung over their heads and made people scatter into buildings, stores, and homes as soon as the sun set.

Barry hadn't planned to watch the Press Conference, he would've known things quickly; rumors and news spread around the CCPD faster than mild gossip at a high school. But Batman had given him a letter saying he needed to. So, while he worked, he kept the TV running in the background, stealing glances at it when interesting things were said. But nothing that would show why Batman was so adamant about his viewership. Then, towards the very end, Bruce Wayne was called up onstage to give his thoughts about the meta-human crisis. That's what the media was calling it now.

Bruce had cleared his throat as he stepped up to the microphone and got right to the point. "I have been in Central City for conferences pertaining to philanthropic opportunities as well as a possible expansion and a possible collaboration of Wayne Enterprises—specifically WayneTech—and have come across these meta-humans myself. From what I have seen, there are meta-humans that have stepped up to aid the efforts in keeping this city safe. That is not something that should be completely forgotten due to fear. Fear has a way of taking something tiny and blowing it up, I do not want to see Central City turn out to be corrupted due to fear. As a matter of fact, I want to be a helping hand to keep it from continuing further and am pledging a grant of meta-human studies to STAR Labs, as well as two million dollars to the city to continue its reconstruction efforts."

As soon as the press conference ended, Cisco called Barry and babbled into his ear for some time about how everything was going down. Of course, he couldn't do much more than make squeaking sounds when speaking about Batman. He'd been the only one who spent an immeasurable amount of time with the caped crusader, fighting alongside and taking a ride with him to get to the warehouse that Caitlin and Harry had been captured in when Trickster, Joker, and Weather Wizard had been around. Then when he appeared in the Cortex, well…Barry was surprised that Cisco was still standing and hadn't passed out.

Barry looked up as the line started to move forward again. There was so much to think about and so little time to figure everything out.

"I'm curious," a voice said behind him. "Does your caffeine intake directly affect your speed?"

Barry looked over his shoulder and found Oliver standing behind him, arms crossed. His lips were pulled back into a thin smile, though his eyes were friendly. Barry's head jerked back in quick surprise then he grinned and the two came together in a very quick hug. Rather, Barry tried to hug Oliver and ended up awkwardly slapping his arm as Oliver kept his arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"There were some things I needed to figure out here in Central City and I figured I'd stop by and see how my favorite speedster was doing," Oliver replied.

Barry's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "For real?" He asked.

Oliver chuckled, leaning forward slightly. Then he shook his head. "No, we've got reason to believe that Vandal Savage has come to Central City."

Barry's heart sank. He had almost forgotten about the immortal magical…very threatening man that had made quick work of them and disappeared just as fast. Fast enough that Barry was starting to wonder if he was really Zoom or was at least working with him. It would only be so convenient. "So _everyone's_ here?"

Oliver nodded.

Barry sighed, shaking his head. His eyes darted towards the menu boards that sat above the cash registers before using them to scan the room. It didn't look like there was anyone there that was looking back at them. Waiting for the right moment to pounce. But that's what their most recent enemies had been; people they least expected. Barry shifted his thoughts about to their time in Star City. There were enough unanswered questions that we restarting to stack up. Not just with Vandal but because of all the Earth-2 stuff.

If Zoom was constantly going back and forth from there…they needed to break it off at the source to keep him from continuing to bounce around. Anything that'd make it so that they could get at least one step ahead of something.

"So, that's new."

Oliver's statement caught Barry's attention. He looked up to the TV screen that projected an image of 'The Flash' and smiled. It was still so weird to see it there. First Flash Day and now a drink. And, the action figure he'd gotten from Iris for Christmas. How many other things would celebrate him when the city was trying to criminalize him?

"Oh, yeah." Barry shrugged modestly. "Well, it's about eight months old. Maybe if you save Star City, you might get one, too."

Oliver truly laughed this time.

But his laughter was cut short when something behind him and Barry jostled them forward. Barry leaned to the side and watched as Conner hurried forward, dropping something to the floor as he went. Hearing the clatter, he turned around to see a Flash action figure on the ground. Barry smiled at it, noticing Oliver glance at him with a short roll of his eyes before bending down to pick it up.

"Watch yourself, buddy," he said. His smile widened as he examined the figure. "You don't want to lose this guy."

"Thanks," Conner replied.

"Hey Barry, I figured out what I want," Brady said, walking back to them. His eyes lit up when he spotted his best friend. "Conner!"

"Hey," Conner replied with as much enthusiasm. He gently punched Brady on the shoulder in greeting.

"I thought you were visiting your grandparents."

"We were, but we got back last night."

"Oh." Brady then noticed Oliver and smiled to him as well. "Hi, Oliver. What are you doing here?"

"Just some business," Oliver mumbled, smile gone. He kept his eyes on Conner.

Conner looked at him funny before turning back to Brady. "So, what'd you get for Christmas?"

"A lot of toys and books and stuff," Brady explained. "Some money, too. My mom's giving me more allowance, so that's cool. What about you?"

"Same thing mostly," Conner agreed. His smile nearly split his face wide open. "But my grandparents got me that new video game system I was talking about. You can come over and play if you want."

"I've got some stuff that I need to do right now, but later I definitely will. Have you heard from Leah?"

"She said she got a few things for her birthday, but that most of her stuff is going to be from her birthday party. You're still going right."

"Mhm. Mom says I could." Brady placed his hands on his hips, shook his head. "She also said she's offering to chaperone, but I think she said she'd do it so she can avoid the PTA people again. They keep calling her about that bake sale that's coming up when school starts again."

Conner laughed. He looked to the side and waved to his mother, who was trying to get his attention. The two waved back and forth for a moment then she sighed and headed their way. "That's my mom, I have to go. See you, dude. It was good seeing you again, Barry. Bye Oliver." He turned. "I'm ready to go, mom. Mom?"

Samantha Hawke stared at Oliver, who stared back at him. Barry looked back and for the between the two and looked at Brady, who appeared just as confused. Conner tilted his head, watching his mother.

"Oliver," Samantha finally said. She pulled her hair behind her ear. "I-I didn't…wow, what are you doing here?"

"I'm visiting some friends," Oliver replied, motioning to Barry.

Barry lifted his hand in a wave when Samantha's gaze shifted to him. He lowered it almost immediately, now unsure of what to do. Thankfully, the line moved and he was up at the counter. He placed his order and stood aside, trying his hardest not to eavesdrop, but couldn't help it. Everyone knew Oliver Queen had a past of being a playboy and of the time that he knew Oliver, Barry knew it to still be a little true. But the presence of Samantha seemed to have rattled him to the core.

"I didn't realize you had friends in Central City. Seemed like Star City and Gotham were more your speed," Samantha said.

Oliver slightly turned his head to the side. Barry wasn't sure if he was offended or not. "I've got a lot of friends all over," he said. "I've met a lot of people over the years. Barry, here, came to Star City a couple of years ago working on a case and that's where we met."

There was a moment of silence and Barry realized that Samantha was looking at him for confirmation. He nodded like a bobblehead. "I, uh, yeah, it was a case that brought me to Star City. And we got to know each other very well." It was also the time Barry had found out that Oliver was the Arrow. They didn't get along at first but Oliver quickly realized that Barry was much more of a hero than he could be and gave him the push needed to take on the powers.

"When did _you_ get here?" Oliver asked. There was a little bite to his voice that even Brady didn't miss.

"I've been here for a long time," Samantha replied.

Oliver nodded. "About ten years or so?"

For a moment, Samantha closed her eyes. Then she reached out and placed her hands on Conner's shoulders. "We've got to get going, okay?"

"Okay," Conner replied.

"It was…good to see you again, Oliver."

Barry didn't quite believe that. Samantha didn't look at him as if she were happy to see him. Probably a jilted ex-girlfriend. He couldn't completely believe there were many women out there that would've met Oliver in the past and be happy to see him now. But he knew Oliver and greatly looked up to and respected him. He knew the man had changed and it'd take other people more time to figure it out.

"You too," Oliver agreed.

He watched as the two left Jitters, only looking away when Barry waved a coffee in his face. Oliver looked over and took it from Barry's hand with a sharp tug, nearly making the drink slosh over the sides.

"Um…" Barry started, but Oliver's glare cut him off. He decided to change the subject. "Yeah, you were saying that you think Savage is in Central City?"

* * *

Caitlin rested her hands against the side of her desk, watching as Cadence kept up with the moving treadmill belt under her feet.

Harsh breaths came from the fire meta-human's throat as she continued to pump her arms, running as fast as she could. Not as fast as Barry, but faster than anyone else she'd seen. The air shimmered around her, like the sky on a very warm day. Little flickers of fire sparked like a firework before disappearing again. And she continued to run, focusing on a point on the wall in front of her.

Finally, the treadmill beeped and she slowed to a stop, resting her hands on her hips. Once it came to a complete stop, she stepped down from the treadmill and picked up a towel to blot at her face. "How'd I do?" She asked.

Cisco looked at the results that came up. "Looks like you clocked in at about 500 miles per hour. That's an increase from where you were at least year," he explained. "Of course, with your teleportation you can go much faster than that, but it's not too bad of a base speed."

"Yeah, doesn't sound like it," Cadence agreed. She draped the towel around her neck and brought her hands up to rest on her head. "What about everything else?"

"Your vitals are still holding strong and they're much better than they had been before you had hit your plateau," Caitlin added. "And of course, from what you've explained and having taken your DNA, your healing powers have certainly increased exponentially. Not just for the healing you can do for others but what you can do yourself."

"And you're very eager to test that, right?" Cadence asked.

Cisco and Caitlin both nodded.

Harry, who sat at a nearby desk smiled to himself, polishing off a piece of metal equipment. Otherwise, he stayed silent as he always did when he was around them. Typically, it was only when they were alone or when there was an increasing tense situation that he'd speak to them all. Harrison stood behind Caitlin, arms crossed over his chest.

"I still think it's time that we focus more on Cisco's and Caitlin's powers," he said. "No matter how much it aided in them getting out of their restraints, Caitlin's powers could've easily gone wrong. There was the threat of Harry's skin being completely frozen if not necrotizing due to frostbite. And what happens if Cisco's powers of portal make it so that you're trapped somewhere. He needs to figure out how to use it as a fighting mechanism and hone in on it rather than what he can hopefully do."

"I love the idea of punching these two through a wall as much as the next guy, believe me," Cadence said. "But even I have a hard time convincing them to do it."

"Well, when you make statements like 'punch them through a wall'," Harry murmured.

"He's got a point," Harrison agreed. "But statistically, scientifically, if we continue to keep them from using and controlling their powers the same way you, Barry, and Brady have then there's a great chance that their abilities could harm them more than others. Caitlin's specifically."

"What?" Cisco's eyebrows came together. "Why Cait's?"

"If they're as similar as Cade's as we think, then it'd directly impose my body temperature," Caitlin said slowly. "Maybe could freeze me from the inside out."

Cadence let out a sound of understanding, she knew exactly how that felt. That fear. Once she got her powers and found that it worked against her body temperature and made many things of her own health difficult, she became afraid. Afraid to even play sports because of how overheated she could potentially get. Slowly, she worked things out for herself so she didn't need to hold back quite so much. But being warm to the touch was easier to navigate than freezing someone you touched.

"That's the point of working on your powers," Harrison pointed out. "The sooner you can get a hold of them—"

"That's not necessarily true," Harry broke in. "The more she'd use them, the more powerful she'd get. Who's to say she wouldn't completely lose control?"

"It'd come in handy with some of our fights, honestly," Cisco said. Then he turned to Caitlin, reaching out to rub her arm. "Hey, things are going to be okay, alright? We've got all of this stuff here to make it so that we're safe when working on our powers. Plus, if you _really_ don't want your powers so badly, Bruce Wayne did just make it so that metahumans can be studied."

"Isn't that weird though?" Cadence asked. She ran a hand through her hair. "He basically proved to the rest of the city that we're still in working order. To everyone else we're supposed to be shut down. We work out of here in secret. How are we supposed to study metas if people are walking in and out of here all the time? I don't know if you know, but there are certain regulations and codes that had be followed."

"She's got a point," Cisco said.

"That's typically something that will go through the government first," Harrison said. "Considering the metahuman task force as well as the new act that they're trying to pass. However, I have it on good authority that Bruce Wayne has given the money straight to STAR Labs through a foundation of sorts. That money will be funneled straight to STAR Labs to help with said metahuman research."

"And what research do you specifically plan to do with said money?" Harry asked.

"Determining what is it in our DNA that makes it so that specific people become metahumans and others don't," Caitlin explained. "Not everyone who was around when the Particle Accelerator turned into a meta when it blew. But that wave of energy was a big one. If we want to figure this stuff out, we should do as many tests as possible. We're scientists, right?"

"Is that your go to excuse for everything?" Cisco asked. Caitlin elbowed him in the side.

"What we should be focusing it on is getting Barry to go faster," Harry insisted. He finally lifted his gaze away from the machinery he had been focusing on. His blue eyes glinted with steel, he spoke with conviction. "And that's only going to happen once we get—"

"You can't use that serum on Barry," Caitlin interrupted.

Harry merely smirked. "That's up to him, isn't it? If Barry wants to stop Zoom, then Velocity 6 is what he needs."

Caitlin turned to face him completely. "Jay said it could hurt Barry."

"Jay's a coward."

Caitlin's eyebrows rose in surprise and offense. Her eyes flashed. Cadence walked closer to Cisco and the two watched the impending argument with an air of amusement. Cisco crossed his arms, pressing his lips together to keep from laughing. "Sheesh, remind me to _never_ make her mad," Cadence murmured. "I never want that look on her face direct my way."

"I don't know, I think yours is a _lot_ scarier," Cisco replied. "She'll just be _very_ systematic at the way she tears you down."

"I buy it."

"Jay's a _scientist,_ " Caitlin said. Her tone held a frosty bite to it that even Harrison had to stake a step back and check to see that he hadn't been caught in the crossfire of subconscious use of her powers. "He knows a _lot_ about speedsters."

Harry stood up and pointed the machinery towards her, it looked very reminiscent to a syringe. " _You're_ a scientist, Snow," he said. "If you've been watching Barry you know he's nowhere near as fast as he needs to be." A crease appeared in his forehead as his frown deepened, frustration evident in his voice. "This other mentor, this other Harrison Wells—"

"—It wasn't me," Harrison interrupted.

Harry ignored him. "He did not want Barry to reach his full potential. I do."

Caitlin sucked in a deep breath through her nose. Her eyes flashed. "You know, you're starting to sound a lot like him."

"Again, it wasn't me," Harrison pointed out. "But he does kind of have a point."

Caitlin's eyes widened as she whipped around to face him. Her hair following her movement violently. "You can't be serious." She then turned to Cisco and Cadence, eyes shifting from one face to the other. "He _can't_ take this drug."

"If we're willing to do anything to get Barry to be as fast as he can— "Cadence started.

"That's not surprising, coming from you," Caitlin snapped.

Cadence blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?" Her head jerked back like Caitlin's had seconds before.

"You're his— _their_ —daughter! Your thought process is probably all the same. Willing to do literally anything, even if it means potentially killing someone, just for a tiny shot of him becoming faster. What if we came up with a drug to make you stronger? Would you take it? A _drug_."

"If it meant taking down, I might!"

"Okay, Cait, I think you're going a little too far now," Cisco said. He held up his hands, moving in between Cadence and Caitlin. "Don't forget that you were the one who helped Harry create this thing. It didn't just come out of nowhere—"

"—I can't believe you're taking their side," Caitlin said.

Cisco's eyes darkened with hurt. "I'm _not_. I'm _always_ on your side, Cait, you know that. I'm just saying you can't blame everyone else for this."

"You did decide to help me create it," Harry said. "You can't shirk your responsibilities form that just because Jay's too afraid to make sure things work better for Barry than what worked for him." He looked at her a little closely. "Or maybe it's just that you're letting your emotions get in the way."

Harrison shook his head, watching as Harry stepped to the side and walked around Caitlin, walking out of the Cortex. Caitlin rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She glared out of the corner of her eye at Harrison as he spoke up, "This speed drug may be the only way he can stop Zoom."

"The side-effects," Caitlin started.

"We don't know that there _are_ any side-effects—"

 _Wham!_

The sudden noise made Caitlin, Harrison, and Cisco all jump seconds before Cadence let out a wail of pain. The three turned around to find her white-knuckling a hammer in her right hand and blood spurting out of the index and middle fingers on her right. Clenching her teeth, red-faced, Cadence turned back to Cisco and Caitlin and held up her injured hand. "You wanted to test out my healing abilities, right?"

"And you thought obliterating your hand with a hammer was the best way to do it?" Cisco's mouth hung open, he looked to be stuck between laughing hysterically and frozen in shock.

"Are you crazy?" Caitlin was in the medical bay and back within a few seconds, carrying a First-Aid kit. "You're going to cause irreversible damage and…" her voice trailed away when the blood stopped pouring down Cadence's hand and her mangled fingers healed itself in the blink of an eye. "How'd you do that?"

"I healed myself," Cadence replied. She tossed the hammer aside and wiggled her fingers. Then she waved her entire hand back and forth, squirming. "Oh, I wish I didn't have to feel it when it happened, though." But it hurt a lot less than when she had her fingers blown off, it was enough to make her go into shock then. She noticed everyone giving her a funny look. "I had to get your attention somehow, all of that arguing was so stupid. Plus, you _did_ say you wanted to test my healing."

"You're absolutely crazy," Cisco said. "But that was so badass." He looked at Harrison. "Is that something that Barry's powers could do with Velocity 6? Say…heal a broken bone faster? It already takes a couple of hours unless you jumpstart the Speedforce within him."

"It's quite possible," Harrison said. His eyes lit up at the scientific theory. "Considering what we know about the Speedforce—"

"—Give it a rest," Caitlin said.

She and the others looked back when they heard footsteps coming their way. Barry, Oliver, and Brady walked into the Cortex. "Got the drinks," Barry explained, holding them up. "And I ran into Oliver in line."

Oliver walked into the Cortex and looked at Harrison for a second, giving him a double take. His muscles tensed and he started to move forward but Barry reached out and grabbed his arm. Harrison held up his hands and took a step back. "I know it's very confusing but I'm not who you think I am. I mean, I'm Dr. Wells but not _the_ Dr. Wells you met before." He lowered his hands. "Yes, I know how confusing this is. Trust me, I've get it enough as it is."

"Yeah, dad, I don't think you're going to make it any easier," Cadence said to him.

"We ran into Conner and his mom at Jitters, too," Conner said.

"That explains why it took so long," Cisco said.

"Did we miss anything?" Brady took a large bite of his chocolate muffing while waiting for a response.

"You missed Cade deciding to smash her hand with a hammer," Caitlin explained dryly. "To test out her new healing powers."

The corners of Brady's mouth turned down. "Aww. I miss everything."

"Not everything," Barry mumbled under his breath. Cadence shot him a look and Barry discreetly shook his head in response. She nodded and fell silent.

Oliver brought up a hand and ran it through his hair. "Unbelievable. You people nickname all of the people you're going against and now you decide to inflict self-harm to test out your abilities."

"Not everyone can be brought back to life from penicillin tea and the will to live, Oliver," Cadence shot back. She lifted her chin, eyes narrowing and asked, "What are you doing in Central City anyway?"

Oliver leveled his gaze at her. "I think you'd be interested to know that we think Vandal Savage is here."

Cisco nodded. "Oh, that explains the bad attitude." Then he seemed to understand what Oliver said and his face went slack with concern. "Kendra?" He asked.

"Kendra's fine," Oliver said. "But that's not the issue. Since you came back to deal with your issue with the Joker and…Trickster." Oliver glanced towards the ceiling, shaking his head. "Vandal Savage hasn't attacked again. But we have reason to believe that he's coming to Central City to go after the Staff of Horus."

"The what?"

"It's an ancient powerful weapon. If you believe the myths surrounding it," Caitlin explained. Her nose wrinkled as she thought about it. "Dating back to…Cleopatra's time if I remember correctly. But what would he want with the staff of Horus?"

"And where would it be?" Cisco asked.

"That's what we need to find out," Barry said. He scratched the back of his head. "We need to do a search of museums, private collections…"

"Would there be a database for that?" Cadence asked.

"You never know until you try," Oliver pointed out.

She eyed him suspiciously, pointing towards the ground. "And you think it's here in Central City?"

He hesitated before saying, "I came to Central City because of some business I need to handle but it was something that occurred to me once I arrived. Kendra said something about feeling drawn to the city, and then Vandal Savage said he was drawn to her, it might have something to do with that."

"Okay, we'll check it out," Caitlin said. She nodded over to Cisco and he nodded back, sitting down at his spot. His fingers immediately started to fly over the keyboard, filling the room with a clacking sound. "Is everyone else here or…?"

"Just me," Oliver replied. "Like I said, I was dealing with some business here." He reached up and scratched at his beard. "Uh, you didn't tell me that you knew Samantha Hawke," Oliver said to Cadence. "Or, that you knew her very well."

"Oh, did you run into her?" Cadence asked. "I mean, Conner and Brady hang out all the time. I kind of have to know who the parents are of who he's hanging out with. Why? Do you know here?" She stopped after a second. "Stupid question, if you're asking you probably do."

"They knew each other a long time ago," Brady supplied.

Cadence nodded. Oliver looked uncomfortable. Then relieved when Cisco cried out, "A-ha!" and shoved his fists in the air. "The Staff of Horus was consecrated at the St. Mark's Cathedral eight months ago. That's why you wouldn't have found it with any of the searches in Star City. He must be able to follow it as easily as he can follow Kendra."

"So that means that he really _does_ have some sort of a past with her," Cadence said.

"Whatever the reason, we need to get to the staff before Savage does," Barry said. He looked over at Oliver who nodded back at him and Cadence and said, "Suit up."

"Be careful," Brady said.

Harrison backed away from the group and left the Cortex, walking to Cisco's office. He was sure Harry was there and found out he was right. "Looks like they've got hit on the Vandal Savage case from Star City," he explained.

Harry lifted his eyebrows. "And I bet they were all so gung-ho about being able to take that on, right? Not when there are so many other important things to deal with, like Barry's speed."

Harrison chuckled, moving his lower jaw to the side. "I want Barry to get faster as badly as you do."

"No, I don't think that's true," Harry said.

"But you're going about it the wrong way. Putting everyone on edge, making Caitlin so made like that— "

"Unfortunately, I don't think Caitlin's anger over the situation is because of me. I think it may be because of something else." Harry's eyes lifted towards the ceiling as a warning alarm started to blare. "You might want to take care of that. It seems like it's important."

* * *

Barry, Cadence, and Oliver slowly walked into the back of the St. Mark's cathedral. Oliver brought a finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet before walking into the seating area. Rows of empty pews lined the sides of the aisle as they walked towards the pulpit, footsteps echoing along the walls.

Barry couldn't help but let out a low sigh, blowing his lips as they walked along. Oliver glanced towards him in irritation. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Nothing," Barry replied. "Just that I like to speed into rooms usually."

"Uh-huh," Oliver grunted. His eyes searched the walls. "So where do you think we find this thing? I haven't been in one of these places in a while."

"You're not the only one," Cadence agreed. "I was surprised I could even get over the threshold without bursting into flames." She tilted her head. "That wasn't from my own doing anyway." She tilted her head back, looking around the sloping walls and stained-glass windows. "This place looks to be very…authentic. Where would be even begin to look for this thing?"

"How about right here for starters?" Vandal Savage's voice brought their attention to the pulpit. He walked up to the group, using the Staff of Horus as a walking cane, the end tapping against the floor menacingly. He had blended in with the shadows of the balcony that stretched overhead, giving him an even eerier air as he approached the three heroes.

Oliver laced an arrow, Barry couched down, and Cadence's hands erupted with flames. All three waited tensely for Vandal to make the first move, or else an opening for them to catch him off guard.

Vandal chuckled, watching the three. His eyes shifted back and forth over the three, scrutinizing them with each passing glance. "I see you're not too used to that happening very often. You tried those arrows once before, remember? They didn't quite finish the job, did they?"

"I'm not going to make that mistake again," Oliver growled.

"You're going to leave Kendra alone," Barry added.

Vandal lifted an eyebrow. "I can't do that. While it is my destiny to live forever…" He pressed a hand to his chest, finally coming to a stop. His cloak billowed behind him, beady eyes boring into them with a malicious flame. "Chay-Ara's is to die. As is yours now."

A bright blue glow burned through the church. Barry closed his eyes, turned his head away. It was so bright that he suddenly wished for Cisco to put shades in his suit, rather than just space for his eyes. Oliver grimaced turned away, bringing his arm up to shield his face. Cadence, the only one had goggles to protect her eyes, watched Vandal like a hawk, waiting for him to make a move. But he continued to stand stock still.

Finally, there was a pulse of energy the heroes could feel in their gut and the blue light collected into a ball of energy and shot towards them. Cadence quickly lifted her arms and sent fire back at him, to block the attack. The fireball connected with the energy blast and ping-ponged back to her. It struck her in the chest and she flew back, crashing into a pew.

Barry turned on his heel and raced out of the way of the energy blasts. Once out of the way he knelt own next to Cadence. "Are you okay?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Just watch out for that staff, it's got a powerful punch."

Barry nodded and stared running again.

To distract Vandal from following Barry's movements, Oliver shot an arrow at Vandal. Once. Twice. Three times. But each time, they were knocked away like flies. Determined, Oliver gritted his teeth and continued to threat arrows. Cadence finally got back to her feet and followed Oliver's lead, sending fireball at fireball towards Vandal.

They deflected with ease, crashing through the stain glass windows, sending colorful shards glittering to the ground. Cadence immediately extinguished the flames from her arms and raced towards Vandal, ready to use her fists instead. He turned toward her and she teleported fast enough to get behind him, giving her the opening for a well-placed kick. Vandal swung around, flinging his hand into his cloak and threw out a dagger.

It caught her in the side and she fell to the ground with a hard thud and a gasp.

Barry raced up and down the aisles of pews, hoping his speed would give him the upper hand. The 4000 years must've been good to Vandal for he managed to deflect all three of the heroes' attempts to take him down. Each time Barry came close to reaching Vandal, he was knocked back by an invisible force that made his head swim. Finally, the three were forced to take cover behind pews.

"You have any ideas?" Oliver asked. His chest heaved, body scrunched up into a ball having haphazardly thrown himself to the side to avoid another attack.

"Oh, _now_ you want to listen to me?" Barry asked.

"It's _your_ city," Oliver snapped.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," Cadence said. She looked over her shoulder. "We've got to at least get the staff away from him. If we keep attacking individually, he can see it coming. We all have to attack at once, flank his sides."

"Okay, let's try that," Barry agreed.

Cadence teleported at the same Barry shot out from behind the pew and aimed towards Vandal Savage from opposite directions. Oliver charged him towards the middle. At the same time, they leapt towards Vandal. At the exact same time, he lifted the Staff of Horus, this time the energy glow took on a blue-white light. It blinded them so much it left them open for Vandal to use it to send energy into them, flattening them to the ground.

"I used to enjoy slow deaths, but now I find them boring," Vandal said. He spun the staff in his hands. The gem burned brighter and brighter by the second. His lips pulled back into a crazy snarl. He lifted the staff high above his head.

Barry's eyes widened in disbelief. He knew what was going to happen. Whether from watching too many TV shows and movies, having been in a ton of meta fights, or his analytical brain figured it out before his body did, but terror completely filled him. He knew what would happen the second the staff touched the ground. He felt Cadence grab his elbow.

"Go," Cadence said.

"No," Barry added, a split second later.

Cadence turned and teleported as Barry grabbed Oliver and super speeded him out of the cathedral. A powerful blue wave of energy followed them, blowing out every window and wall that stood in its path. The three heroes crashed to the ground, meters away from the building as energy continued to warp around it. Finally, it faded and only flames returned, of which were quickly dissipated when Cadence absorbed them.

"Thanks," Oliver said to Barry. He grunted in pain, coughing from their impact with the ground. Finally, he rolled to his side and got to his feet. He reached out and grabbed Barry's hand, pulling him to his feet.

"Any time," Barry replied. He turned, bringing a hand to his forehead. His eyes searched the flames. "Any chance he blew himself up in there?"

"Not likely," Oliver replied.

Barry turned to Cadence, finding her goggles down around her neck, eyes already glowing orange as she worked to see through the flames for Vandal Savage's heat source. Her eyes squinted and widened to their normal size a few times before she shook her head. "He's not in there."

Barry sighed.

Of course not.

* * *

"A farm house was the best place you could think of?" Thea asked, tilting her head as she scrutinized the building. She slammed the door to the utility van, dropping her overnight bag to the ground and looked at her brother, who gave her a stern look in response. "I'm kidding, Olly, you've outdone yourself."

"Putting a bunch of superheroes together in _one_ farmhouse, it's the sleepover of the century," Cadence added, making the two giggle. Then Cadence's expression immediately turned into a grotesque expression when Mick walked up behind her, slinging his arm over her shoulders.

"Let me know when to get my pajamas on then, princess," he growled.

Cadence shoved his arm away from her and Mick smiled, rapidly raising and lowering his eyebrows. "Why did we decide to bring these guys along, again?" She asked the question out loud, referring to Mick and Snart.

Snart turned her way and said with his slow drawl, "If I remember correctly, we had a deal," he said. "We help you get rid of this immortal being…we get these expensive daggers that he's been toting around."

"And we'll get them," Mick added. "One way or another."

News of the church blowing up spread through Central City quickly. Despite how fast Barry and Cadence went to repair it, they knew their priority was capturing Vandal Savage since he got away. Then they hurried back to STAR Labs, getting in contact with Team Arrow to explain why they suddenly all needed to get out of Central City. The part that confused them the most was how quickly Oliver managed to procure a house for them to stay in.

Now, Oliver eyed the two warily before turning to Thea to answer her question. "We needed a secure location," he explained.

"What's wrong with STAR Labs?" Caitlin asked, picking up her own bag and walked up the gravel driveway to the farmhouse. She came up to Oliver's side, brushing her hair back behind her ears. "I mean, if we're still going to be in Central City…"

"Absolutely nothing's wrong with STAR Labs," Oliver replied. "If you forget about the revolving door you guys installed to make the bad guys come and go as you please. And the entirely strange Earth-2 stuff you've got going on there."

Caitlin pursed her lips. "Remind me again what happened to your old lair?" She pointed out. "Or the one before that?'

"Well, lair number one was compromised by the police," Felicity said, counting off on her fingers. She poked up her second finger then noticed Oliver staring at her. Warning her not to say anything else. Felicity smiled, scratching behind her ear. "and…I will stop talking."

"Thank you," Oliver said. He looked over the group of heroes from both cities, eyes widening for a moment, briefly wondering if was in over his head. Then he turned on his heel and headed towards the house. "Vandal only let us live because he can sense Kendra's presence. We don't need to make it easier by staying in the city limits. So, we need to find a way to neutralize savage's advantage."

The group stepped into the house. Cadence looked around at the farmhouse. Despite it being further out from the city limits it looked as extravagant as the others in the city. Then she briefly wondered how everyone was going to fit there. She, Barry, and Brady didn't need to stay; they could get to and from their places within a few seconds. But with the sheer numbers of the others it would be a tight squeeze.

As it was, Snart and Mick were looking around the room, eyeing the valuables on the shelves. Snart even picked up a vase and examined the bottom while Mick knocked over another one, watching with disinterest at the broken pieces that shot across the floor.

"What?" Mick asked, once realizing everyone was staring at him. "This was an invaluable piece of junk anyway."

"How did you even get into the Arrowcave?" Thea asked. She looked over the broken pieces. "You can barely get through here without making a mess."

"If you think we only run through Central City then you know nothing about the general practice of being a criminal," Snart said. He rolled his eyes before lowering himself into an armchair. He stretched out his legs and plopped them onto the coffee table in front of him. Flecks of mud dropped off the bottom of his shoes to the table top. "We don't only run through Central City. Too easy to make a pattern. There are other places we've been…there isn't any building that we haven't canvassed for a place to lie low for a while. Color me surprised when we find it's been turned into a new sort of lair. An I thought STAR Labs was high tech.

Oliver frowned. He bared his teeth. He did all but growl at the two criminal masterminds. Cadence knew he was already regretting the decision to have them help. _He's not the only one,_ Cadence thought. She turned just as the door to the house opened once more, revealing Barry and Cisco walking inside, pulling a cart filled with tech behind them.

"Barry, you're late!" Oliver barked.

"I know," Barry said. He ran a hand through his hair. "it's not easy to find this house in the middle of nowhere."

"That's kind of the point, Barry," Brady pointed out, making Barry roll his eyes before reaching out to ruffle his hair.

"We're discussing how to take away savage's newfound power," Oliver pointed out.

"It was protected by some sort of energy field," Barry explained. He crossed his arms, thinking back to the fight. It was like he had run into a brick wall when Savage had the staff of Horus. One minute he was sprinting forward, the next he was shot back across the room. I couldn't lay a finger on him."

"Maybe wear mittens next time," Kendra teased. She walked over to Cisco with open arms. For a second, Cisco looked stunned. Then he let go of the cart, making it crash into Barry's ankle, who let out a curse and started to jump up and down. Cisco wrapped his arms around Cisco, hugging her tightly, rocking back and forth. "I'm sorry, I really wish we could've been together for Christmas."

"Yeah, I know," Cisco replied. He smiled when she stepped back. "But as long as you're okay."

"Better than okay," Kendra said. "Now that you're here. Now that we're out of Star City. I don't think the guy could make it out here to find me. I can finally feel relaxed."

"Are you okay?" Cadence placed her hand on Barry's shoulder to keep him upright. Barry glanced at her as he lowered his foot.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "But Cisco definitely owes me for that."

"I mean, you have to be pretty good bros if you're willing to take shots to your ankle for him," Cadence teased. He rolled her eyes but smiled when she kissed his cheek.

"Oh, that makes sense." Mick's voice grabbed their attention and they turned to face him. He waved his heat gun back and forth between the two. "You're dating him. I thought it was me."

"It's you," Snart said. He was now flipping through a newspaper that had been sitting on the table.

Cadence felt Barry tense beneath her hand and noticed the fierce glare on his face. Mick merely smiled back at him, rapidly raising and lowering his eyebrows. She grabbed Barry's arm and walked him out of the living room and into the kitchen. "Trust me, Tholly, having murder on your record, even if you're not found out, will stay on your conscious for the rest of your life. Even if it is Mick."

Barry sighed and nodded. Then he tuned into the rapid conversation moving back and forth between Caitlin, Cisco, and Felicity. Diggle and Thea were continuing to look through the house, milling through the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets. Kendra, on the other hand, looked antsy for some time alone with Cisco was bewildered at the conversation.

"What if we made some sort of insulated gauntlets?" Felicity suggested.

"Yes!" Caitlin's eyes lit up. "The magnetic fielding could disrupt the—"

"—staff's magnetic polarity," Cisco broke in. Caitlin nodded and the two slapped each other with a high-five.

Cadence smiled as she watched the two. It was obvious they'd gotten over the fight they had earlier that day. Though Cadence couldn't help but wonder what really had changed her mind about the whole thing. Like Cisco said, she'd been the one to willingly help Harry create Velocty-6 in the first place. But the next thing they knew, she was rounding her attention on Harry like he had suggested they lopped off Barry's head to make him run faster. It was just very strange.

 _And I thought I was supposed to be the moody one,_ Cadence though. She reached down and started to twist the ring that sat around her pinkie. She hadn't worn it for long and consistently wanted to make sure it was still there. It had been one of the things her father had left her in his will, a ring that he had gotten from his grandparents but couldn't wear as the sizing was wrong. As far as she knew, it lived in the back of his dresser drawer. But she had always admired it.

God, how much longer until she'd stop thinking about it so much.

"Well, while the geek squad works," Oliver started, only getting cut off by Felicity's call of, "I heard that honey." He focused his attention on Barry and Cadence. "We need to know everything there is to know about him."

"Well, I google reincarnated nut jobs and came up with nothing," Thea snarked.

"I'll check with ARGUS for anything that's come up with him," Diggle said. "He's been around for 4000 years, might've left a trail. Or at least has had some other crimes that he may have committed. Even something as little as littering."

"And I can check police reports," Thea agreed.

"I'll look around," Cadence said. She dropped her hands. "It should only take a couple of hours before I find something. There's only so many people in the city that'd look like him. And judging by the way he carried himself, it doesn't look like he'd be in a club or anything like that." Her eyes shifted for a moment. "I could always check through the Network."

"I thought you said the Network was only for smuggling of goods," Cisco reminded her.

"I did," Cadence agreed. "But any information passed through is helpful." Besides, her surveillance skills should come in handy with this. If it's a man that was 4000 years old there had to be patterns he created. Even sitting on a bench in the mall for an hour told you a lot about the people that passed you by.

"Actually, Cadence, I need you to help me run something down," Oliver said.

She and Barry exchanged confused glances. More often than not, if there was anything that Oliver needed he went to Diggle and Barry first. She wasn't quite sure which part of her skillset was anything that Oliver would need help with. _Other than brute strength, anyway_ , she thought.

"Okay?" She finally replied, making the statement a question.

"Is everything okay?" Felicity asked. She reached out and grabbed Oliver's arm, rubbing her fingers over his forearm. Her brown eyes bored into his behind her glasses.

"Yeah." Even Cadence could tell that Oliver wasn't being very truthful. Not many people would know it but she'd been around Oliver long enough to notice his lying tells. While Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin were unquestioningly terrible at keeping a straight face when lying Oliver was fantastic at it. However, his voice tended to take on a higher pitch when he lied. Much like he was trying to show he wasn't being truthful and didn't care if anyone knew it. It must've been a hard habit to break. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

Felicity wasn't letting him go yet. "But what are you running down?"

"Nothing dangerous. I mean, other than a madman with a magical staff in hand."

"I know." Felicity finally dropped her hand from Oliver's arm. She continued to watch him, her eyes never leaving him. "But you were fine when we were back in Star City. But since you got here, you haven't been you."

"Well, maybe it's too bright and sunny for me here."

Cisco snorted. "Understatement of the year."

"I know, right?" Barry agreed. The two cowered when Oliver cleared his throat to let them know he heard them.

"There's something going on," Oliver finally said. "And I'll tell you about it, but there's something I'd like the chance to figure things out first, okay?"

"Okay."

Oliver pressed a kiss to Felicity's lips then looked at Cadence while tilting his head back. "Let's go."

Cadence nodded. She reached over to Brady, laughing as he spun in circles while trying to get a phone signal and ran her fingers through his hair. "Stick with Barry, Caitlin, or Cisco. But be on your best behavior, okay?"

"Okay!" Brady gave her a kiss on the cheek before backing away, holding his phone aloft.

Cadence then received the kiss that Barry gave her. "Make sure Oliver doesn't surprise you with any arrows," he said.

"You _really_ have to get over that," Oliver said to him.

"I still feel it when it rains," Barry defended himself.

Cadence laughed.

* * *

"Man, all we need now is some horses and we're _really_ in business," Cisco said as he and Kendra walked into the backyard of the farmhouse. He spread out his arms and spun in a slow circle. "Maybe we can use this as our superhero getaway considering none of us ever get any privacy."

"I know what you mean," Kendra agreed. She slowly walked along behind him, sliding her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "If there's anyone that needs some time away more than me, I'd give them a medal." She let out a low breath, reached up and smoothed her hair back from her face. "It's a lot to ake in, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," Cisco agreed. "When I first learned about my powers and what I could do, I remember feeling the same way. And sometimes I still do. And all I can say is everyday gets a little bit more normal. This is normal for me now. It'll become normal to you, too. I promise you."

"Thank you," Kendra said.

Cisco smiled back at her. "You're so welcome." He leaned into kiss her but stopped when they heard beating wings heading their way. Turning around, Kendra and Cisco watched as a man dressed in a leather jacket, a gray t-shirt, jeans, and motorcycle boots landed on the ground. His stunning, golden-brown wings beat a few seconds more before sliding into his back.

The man looked at Kendra, stared straight into her eyes. Cisco took a step back, then stopped, noticing Kendra didn't move with him. He stepped up to her side and peered at her face, her eyes were transfixed on him as well, lips slightly parted as if to ask what he was doing there. But she didn't seem afraid.

"Kendra?" Cisco asked. He reached out and grasped her wrist. He felt her grasp his hand. Good. At least it meant she was still in there somewhere. "Kendra, what's going on?"

"You look as lovely as ever, Chay-Ara," The man said to her. Kendra's eyebrows lowered. "It's me…Khufu," he said after a second. "Do you remember? Look at me. You need to wake up."

"She's woken up, buddy," Cisco said.

"What are you talking about?" Kendra asked. The man took a step forward and Kendra took a step back, seemingly broken out of her trance. "I don't know who you are."

"You will once you emerge," The man replied. He swallowed hard, licked his lips, stretched his hand towards her. "I go by Carter Hall in this life. You might recognize that. But I need you to remember. I need you to trust me. Until then I need to protect you from the man who's hunting you; Vandal Savage."

Cisco moved in front of Kendra and held up his hands. "Listen, pal, we're not playing around here. You've come upon private property. We're just here trying to have a good time and—"he paused, eyes flicking up and down Carter's form. "Did you say Vandal Savage?"

"So, you've heard of him," Carter said.

"Yeah, he's just the guy that really managed to blow the house down at church," Cisco replied. "What do you know about him."

Carter's eyes widened. He brought his hand up to rub his five o'clock shadow. Paced. "This isn't good. If Vandal has already revealed himself to you then he's after you already. He won't stop until you're dead. I need to protect you."

"We're already protecting her," Cisco said.

Carter continued to only have eyes for Kendra. He took long strides towards her. "Chay-Ara, please—"

 _Fwit!_

Carter stumbled back when an arrow pierced his shoulder, a cry escaping his lips. He stumbled for a few seconds, another groan escaping him, before falling onto the ground. Cisco whirled around to find Thea holding her bow menacingly towards them. Caitlin stood behind her, looking towards Cisco. "What's going on?" She asked.

"This guy might know something about Vandal Savage," Cisco explained. "He says he knows Kendra."

"Let's get him inside," Thea said. "See what he knows."

Within a few minutes Carter was picked up and brought into the farmhouse. Everyone crowded around him, watching as his head lolled back and forth, recovering from the stun arrow that Thea had shot into him. "Well, this isn't quite what I expected when I woke up," he said. Then he looked around at all of the others. "You need to let me go." Kendra leaned around Cisco, peering at him. "Chay-Ara."

"My name is Kendra Saunders," Kendra said.

"Your _name_ is Priestess Chay-Ara and I'm Prince Khufu. We're lovers, soulmates. We've been partners for 4000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life and when we die we reincarnate and find each other again and again and again."

"Ok, pump the breaks Romeo," Cisco said. "We ask the questions here. What do you know about Vandal Savage?"

"Other than he's trying to kill us?" Carter asked. "His lifeforce is tied to ours. He gets stronger every time he kills us, taking on that lifeforce."

"Like some sort of a battery?" Brady asked.

Carter nodded. "He's done it 206 times."

"If that's the case, then we're in more trouble than we originally thought," Caitlin pointed out. She brought up her hand and chewed on her thumbnail. "4000 years and he killed them 206 times? Doing the math on that…it's not good."

"Thanks for the update, Sherlock," Snart called. He and Mick sat in the corner of the living room, uninterested in the conversation. Having found a pack of cards it appeared they were playing a game of poker with the money and other valuable odds and ends that sat between them.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Diggle demanded.

"You saw my wings," Carter said. He ignored Diggle, speaking only to Kendra. "I know you know the truth. I know you saw something when I first arrived. You are the priestess, you can do this. Give me the chance to train you and you can be the key to stopping Vandal Savage."

"I don't like it," Felicity said.

"Neither do I," Barry agreed, finally speaking up. "But this is more than we know from anyone else. It seems like it's making sense. Cisco even said he vibed Kendra as some sort of a…hawk girl and this guy has the same sort of wings. So, he has to be telling the truth, right?'

"Something is blocking you from remembering," Carter said. "There has to be a jolt that gets you to remember."

"Like what?" Cisco asked. "Make her jump off the roof?"

"Push, shove, fall, whatever it takes," Carter said dismissively. He rolled his eyes, tilting his head back to rest on the couch behind him. He hadn't tried to fight them, to get away and didn't need to. There were too many people that could beat him before he got to the door. "But she and I are the only ones who can defeat Vandal Savage and if you're caught in his crossfire, you're as desperate to get rid of him as I am."

* * *

Cadence let go of Oliver's arm once they finished teleporting. He coughed, backing away from the smoke that seemed to hover around her every time she did so. Just so long as it wasn't as bad as the motion sickness of being toted around by Barry so much. Finally, when Oliver recovered from his coughing fit, she looked around the neighborhood, immediately recognizing it.

Suspicion fell over her and she turned towards him, placing her hands on her hips. "So, what do you need me for?"

Oliver licked his lips. He took a deep breath then said in a low vice, "I'm going to tell you something that I've never thought could be true. Not until you guys came to work in the Superhero Fight Club with me so I could train Brady."

Cadence tilted her head, listening quietly.

"And, I thought about it for a long while and I'm sure my suspicions might be correct but I didn't know who else to talk about this with." He ran a hand over his closely cropped blonde hair then rubbed his goatee. Emotion swirled through his eyes, his voice caught in his throat.

"And you want to talk with me?" Cadence asked to make sure. "it's not like we're best friends or anything."

All of a sudden, Cadence felt scared. Not that he'd hurt her, but scared for what it was he was about to reveal. If it was something he felt he could only talk to _her_ about it had to be serious. It was true she and Oliver weren't very close. He was about six years older than her so when they were around she spent more time with his little sister. Still, they had grown up in the same sort of social circles despite being in two different cities that they commiserated on being in the upper class on certain occasions while being invited to each other's events. There was nothing she had thought she'd ever need to confide in him, though found, even for a moment, that when he heard she was pregnant, he was one of the few that had faith she could handle things.

But now…

"But Brady is best friends with Conner," Oliver said as if that explained everything.

"And?"

"And…" Oliver held his breath. He lowered his eyes. "I think Conner might be my son."

Cadence's eyes widened in surprise. What? She choked off her sentence as a minivan pulled up in front of the Hawke house. Samantha noticed her and waved and Cadence waved back. She nodded to Oliver and the two crossed the street to her. Samantha told Conner, who Cadence could see was sitting in the backseat, to stay in the car before getting out and turned towards them.

Samantha's smile faded when she spotted Oliver. She hugged her jacket tighter to her body and her footsteps stomped on the ground. Conner noticed the change in demeanor and looked out the window. He smiled and waved towards the three. "Hi, Ms. Nash!" He called.

"Hey," Cadence called back.

"Cadence, Oliver," Samantha said. She came to a stop in front of two, looking back and forth between the fire-metahuman and Star City's vigilante. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry to drop by unannounced," Oliver quickly apologized. His voice was smooth as silk though his body language told another story. "But, at Jitters this morning…I really saw you two together and it's hard not to wonder. He's Brady's best friend and they're about the same age. So he's…what? Nine and we had our thing ten years ago-"

Samantha held up a hand. "Okay, let me stop you there. Conner isn't yours."

"Are you sure?" Cadence couldn't help but ask. Even she didn't quite believe it. She hadn't looked too closely at Conner before, trying to figure out his parentage. But now that Oliver was there, insistent about the whole thing, she could see it. She saw it in his eyes. That's where they were uniquely Oliver. Though Conner's shyer personality was certainly not Oliver's, she could see little flashes of him in there as well.

Samantha glanced at her with a stunned expression. Almost as if she couldn't quite believe her firend didn't believe her. Then she shook her head and spoke to Oliver. "I…I told you that…that I lost our baby. And, I met Conner's father two months after moving to Central City, so…"

"Mom, we're going to be late," Conner called from the car.

Samantha pointed over her shoulder then rapidly backed away. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"No, go. I'm sorry I took up some of your time." Samantha continued to move away, dropping a baseball cap as she went. Oliver quickly picked it up and handed it to Samantha. His eyes narrowed as he watched her get back into her car and drive away. Then he turned his hand over to reveal a few strands of hair nestled in the palm of his hand.

Oliver turned to her and Cadence looked into his eyes, immediately knowing Oliver's eyes narrowed as he watched them walk away. He reached out a hand and held up a few strands of hair. She had an idea of what he was thinking.

"And I thought Barry moved fast."

Just then the sound of Oliver's phone ringing caught their attention. Grunting in annoyance, Oliver pulled it for his pocket and glanced at the screen. The text Merlyn flashed across and he answered the call, putting it on speaker phone. Oliver didn't get a chance to say a word before Malcolm Merlyn was speaking rapidly.

"I arranged a conversation with Savage," Merlyn said curtly. "It's the only way out of this. Negotiation. He's going to decimate Central City to get what he wants."

"That's not what—"Oliver started.

Malcolm cut him off again. "If you child were here, you'd understand." Cadence could see the pain shoot through his eyes, listening to Malcom's words. "Suit up, I already spoke with Fleet Feet. He's on his way."

"Fleet Feet, I have to remember that one," Cadence said once he hung up.

Oliver shot her a look before Cadence grabbed his arm and they teleported again.

* * *

It was a bad scenario for all of them. Vandal Savage wanted Kendra and Carter to be relinquished or else he would destroy but Central and Star City. Considering what they'd seen of the Staff of Horus had done to the cathedral it was a threat they couldn't take lightly. Going back to the farmhouse to tell Kendra she immediately denounced the idea of them holding her for 24 hours. _My life is no more important than thousands of lives,_ she had said. But it was the push of the conversation for Carter to train Kendra, to give her what she needed to become the Priestess she was previously known as.

However, she wasn't convinced until Diggle came back with intel from ARGUS that he'd gotten from his wife, Layla. On a Betamax tape was a video diary of a man who had been following Chay-Ara, Khufu and Vandal Savage from long in the past, noticing the immortal man who continued to pop up in random moments in history. While watching that tape, Kendra got a few more hints of her past as the Priestess, explaining it was the staff that had made it so that she could defeat Vandal. That had been enough, she decided to stop being so scared and to train to go after him.

Along with that tape, it gave Cisco and Caitlin the push to start working on the magnetized gauntlets to reverse the effect of the Staff of Horus and its energy output. With the attention, back on Kendra and Carter—who was a little smug about having finally been believe—Oliver took Barry and Cadence back to his lab at the CCPD to run some tests.

Cadence sat quietly, Oliver paced back and forth, and Barry dated back and forth using the chemicals that sat on shelves around his lab to expedite the test. Frowning, Cadence ran a hand through her hair. It wasn't any of her business and yet it was so weird to know that in a few moments the boy that she had grown to love as much as her own son was the son of Oliver Queen. But not because there were many that wouldn't have been surprised, but because this was a different Oliver Queen. He was much more mature and had a lot more responsibility on his hands. If it were _this_ Oliver that had gotten Felicity or another girlfriend pregnant she could wrap her head around it.

But know it was _this_ Oliver who had a ten-year-old son he didn't know about she couldn't quite grasp. Especially how close it was to her own life; how she hadn't had Ryder around for a long while and Brady longed for a father. Then he had gotten one suddenly. Now it was the same for Conner, though the biggest difference being, well, whether Oliver truly _wanted_ Conner. From what he told her, explaining everything to her when he had the passing moment, he had never thought Samantha was pregnant. Yes, he had been cheating on Laurel with her, but they'd mostly been careful.

Then she had gotten the chance to further her education in a way that couldn't keep her in Star city. Or else that's what he had been told. The lie seemed to have kept him reeling more than anything else.

"Okay, here you go," Barry finally said, after the results printed out. He picked it up and turned to Oliver, who practically leapt at him when he started speaking. "I gene-sequenced the hair strand with the blood sample you gave me. I don't know what that means with Damien Darhk, but the y-chromosomes match."

Oliver took in a deep breath but didn't let it out. Cadence's eyes fell shut. She wasn't sure whether with relief or…or something else. But the truth was out there now. Oliver was Conner's father. "Thank for this," Oliver finally managed to say. "It's a big help."

"Yeah, no problem," Barry replied. He caught the look on Cadence's face and looked at her curiously, tilting his head to the side, trying to catch her eye. She skillfully looked away from him, unsure if she could say anything.

"Barry?" Oliver stopped before leaving the lab.

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell anyone about this."

Barry nodded then turned back to Cadence. "Is everything okay, Cade?" He asked. Cadence nodded mutely. Barry reached out his hands and grabbed onto hers, running his thumbs over the back of it. "Well, what's wrong? I don't think I've ever seen you this quiet before." He chuckled. "Not that it's a bad thing."

"I'm fine," Cadence mumbled.

Barry took in a deep breath. Then he stepped forward and cupped her face in his hands. "Cade…I'm your friend, I can tell when something's wrong. You have that crease in your forehead. You only get that when you're brooding about something." Cadence managed a small smile. She hadn't realized he noticed. "If there's something going on, you know I'm here to help you. I'm your partner, we're a team. But I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."

"Okay, what's going on?" Felicity's voice made them jump. Cadence backed away from Barry and turn towards her. Barry's eyes widened when they landed on her. He turned his back and superspeeded Oliver's test results into his pocket then turned back to her as if nothing had happened. "I mean, if I'm not interrupting a special moment, if I am, I'm sorry. I-what was that?"

"Mm?" Barry folded his arms. "What?"

"You superspeeded something into your pocket," Felicity said.

"Drop it, Felicity," Cadence warned.

Felicity looked at Cadence then back at Barry who had busied himself with re-arranging the chemicals on his shelves. The clinking of the beakers and bottles filled the otherwise silent lab. "Nothing." Barry's voice practically came out in a squeak. "It's…it's just something to do with Damien Darhk."

"Show me," Felicity demanded.

"Felicity," Cadence warned again.

"Why?" Barry asked.

"Because you don't want me to see."

"Oliver asked me not to."

"Show me!" Felicity jumped forward and grabbed onto Barry's arm, forcing him around so that she could take the paper form him. Cadence shook he head, briefly wondering if it would be a bad idea to set Felicity's clothes on fire to distract her. Or maybe to set the paper on fire.

"Felicity, stop!" Cadence snapped. It was too late, Felicity had read everything over the paper and was already walking out of the room.

Barry rubbed his arm where Felicity had smacked him to get the paper. "I don't know what the big deal is. It' just a DNA test."

"No, it isn't, Tholly," Cadence said quietly. She brought her hands through her hair, clasped her hands along the back of her neck, rested her hands on her head, mimicking a move Barry habitually did. "It was a paternity test. To see…if Oliver is Conner's dad."

Barry's eyes widened. "I…you…." Then he turned his head to the side, realization of his testing coming to him. "He's his dad?" He asked. Cadence nodded. "I just…wow. And you knew? That's what Oliver wanted you to help him with?"

Cadence nodded. "We went to see Samantha earlier, he confronted her then. She said he wasn't, he got a hair sample and…" she shrugged. "You know how the rest went. I didn't mean to keep it a secret, Barry but Oliver asked me not to say anything. I guess because I understand—how mind altering it is to go form having the world at your fingertips then figuring out that you've got another life, another part of you that's suddenly there."

"No, no, I understand," Barry said. "But, don't you think Felicity should know?"

"Oliver only just found out Barry," Cadence reminded him. "Like, just seconds before. I don't think it's really anyone else's business. It's probably why he didn't even tell you." She let out a long sigh. "Look, I'm worried about Oliver right now, he just found out that he was lied to. Knowing him, chances are he's going to make some pretty bad decisions. So I'm going to find him, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Barry replied. "Let me know if there's anything I can help with."

Cadence nodded and teleported after Oliver, reaching him just as Samantha opened the door to her house. She looked at the two in suspicion and confusion. She'd only just gotten rid of them about an hour before.

"Can we talk?" Oliver asked.

Samantha licked her lips. Her breath came out shaky. She knew, Cadence realized. Knew why they had come back. She'd thought she felt something strange, sensed she was lying when she said Conner wasn't Oliver's. The sudden flux in body temperature gave it away. But still, she herself was reeling from the news, she wasn't focusing so much on it. Simply knowing that Conner was Oliver's son put him in even more danger than being Brady's friend. She didn't know if she could take it. Things with the MRA were already getting to be too dangerous for them but to be aligned with the Green Arrow?

"I don't know what you want—"

"I know, Samantha," Oliver interrupted. He took a step towards her. "I know Conner's my son. Why didn't you tell me?"

Samantha shushed him before dragging the two inside. She closed the door behind them and lowered her voice so that it didn't carry past the foyer. Listening, Cadence could hear Conner playing quietly in his room. "Your mom told me not to," Samantha explained. "She offered me $1 million dollars to tell you I miscarried."

"Huh, and my parents just kicked me out," Cadence said.

Oliver took in a breath through his nose. "My mom was a complicated person but she'd never do that."

Samantha gave him a look. Tilted her head to the side. "You can't be that stupid, Oliver. You know how your mother was. You know the shady dealings she and your father were in. She'd do anything to make sure her perfect world wasn't shattered. You were her baby boy, nothing could be done to you. How many paparazzi do you think she paid off." Samantha rubbed her temples. "I never cashed the check. I didn't need her money to know I didn't want her near my child."

"Or me," Oliver realized.

"So he can be like his dad? Punch out paparazzi and knocking up girls."

"I'm not like that anymore, "Oliver insisted. Cadence could hear the hurt and desperation in his voice. This was a man who desperately wanted to know his son. The time they were apart didn't mean anything. He really wanted to know his son.

"I know. You're running for mayor; your parents were killed. Your friend Tommy…you're a different person now. But is your life really any less crazy? Isn't it better to keep him away from your world." She inched towards the door, seconds away from ushering them out.

"I want the opportunity to know my son," Oliver said forcefully. His voice raised with emotion and he glanced over his shoulder, afraid Conner might hear. Then he lowered it once more and hissed, "I think he deserves the opportunity to know his father."

"He's happy!" Samantha hissed back. "He's well-adjusted. He has friends. I don't want to run the risk of him getting sucked in your orbit."

"He already is in his orbit, Sam," Cadence finally broke in. She was there for moral support but she couldn't keep quiet anymore. Not when Oliver's character was being attacked. She knew him as Oliver and as the Green Arrow. She knew what he was like. Knew what it was like to be discriminated against as a parent. The anger she felt towards all of the older parents of her son's classmates bubbled up. "Because of me. Do you want me to go away, too? My line of work is just as crazy. My past is just as crazy, you know that. And you know I love Conner as much as I love Brady. He's Brady's best friend, you want them to stop hanging out?"

"No." Samantha reached out and grasped Cadence's shoulders. They looked at each other, mother to mother. Cadence could see how scared she was. "I just want to make sure he's safe. I will do _anything_ to make sure he's safe. I know you understand that, Cadence. You do the same for Brady. But Conner can't know that Oliver's his father. No one else can." She lowered her hand, leveled her gaze at Oliver. "I know it sounds harsh, but I need to protect him."

"But…" Oliver licked his lips. "There's someone in my life now, don't let me keep it from her. Please."

"You will if you want to see my son. Those are my conditions. You already asked the world of me, I'm asking the same form you in return."

Oliver's nostrils flared. "You know what Sam? You're just as shallow as you've always been." She blinked in surprise, took a step back. "When we were first going out you implied numerous times that you only liked me for my looks. That we would never be serious because I wasn't smart enough for you. Now you're saying, just because of the way my life looks, how hectic things can be, that I'm not worthy enough to be around my son. I'll do anything to see him, Sam, but that doesn't stop you from being just as bad as me."

With that, he left the house, slamming the door behind her.

Cadence started to say something to Samantha then stopped, distinctly sensing a presence behind her.

She turned to find Conner leaning against the doorframe from his room, watching the two.

* * *

"Felicity, will you please come inside?" Barry pleaded.

Felicity shook her head. She continued to sit on the stop step that lead to the farmhouse. Everyone else was inside, the lights on as they talked and laughed with each other. Despite how serious their situation was, it was nice they could get a few minutes to themselves. Barry shivered, pulling the sleeves of his jacket tighter, rapidly rubbed his hands up and down his arms.

"It's too cold out here," he tried again.

"I need to talk to Oliver," Felicity insisted. She sniffed, reaching up to push her glasses up her nose. "it can't wait." She looked over her shoulder to him. "You don't get it, Barry. He lied right to my face."

"I understand that," Barry said gently. He reached out and pressed his hand to Felicity's shoulder. She didn't move away. That was a good sign. "It always hurts. But I'm sure he had a very good reason."

"There's never a good reason to lie."

Barry wasn't quite sure if he believed that. If there was a way to make sure people were safe because of a small lie was it so bad? His heart was in the right place. Then he thought about the pact he made with the rest of Team Flash. They couldn't lie to each other anymore. It caused too many problems as they tried to move forward. But was it the same for big things like this?

He hadn't come to a conclusion when Oliver and Cadence walked across the front lawn towards the house. Felicity stood up and immediately walked over to Oliver, stopping him in the middle of the yard. Cadence walked over to Barry and pressed her forehead to his chest, he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back. HE could feel her shaking.

"Everyone's waiting for you," Felicity said to Oliver. Her voice was sharp.

"I just had something to take care of," Oliver said under his breath. Startled, Barry looked at him. It looked like he'd been crying or was about to start.

"I bet you're off that secret keeping wagon right?" Felicity spat. She took out the test she had taken from Barry and shoved it into Oliver's face. "Is this the sort of lead that you're running after?" Oliver glanced at Barry and he shrugged in response, mouthing 'sorry' as he did so. Felicity took Oliver's attention back to her. "He didn't know what he's giving me but I know your DNA sequence anywhere. You had to run a paternity test."

Oliver closed his eye. Caught. "Look, Felicity—"

"Stop! I can't take anymore lies."

"It's more complicated than that."

A incredulous laugh escaped Felicity. She threw her hands into the air. "You're the only person on the planet who considers the truth complicated. But let me be clear, I don't care that you have a child. I can't believe that you have one you didn't tell me about. I care that you _lied_ to me."

Oliver ran his hands over his face. He wiped at his eyes. "My world just fell apart, Felicity. I think I'm entitled to process it by myself."

"But you went to the CCPD to track down Barry. To talk to Cadence."

"Cadence is the only one who would understand what I'm going through. Do you think I wouldn't go to her for something like this? I'm a _father,_ Felicity. A father. Earlier today I was just Oliver Queen and now I'm someone's dad."

"When did you plan on telling me?" Felicity asked.

"I don't know."

"If you loved me, if you trusted me. Telling me this wouldn't be such a burden, it'd be a relief. But you don't trust me. You never will. And how can I be with someone who doesn't trust me."

" _Felicity, shut up!"_ It took Barry a second to realize why he was suddenly incredibly warm. Why he didn't feel the cooler temperature of the night anymore. Then he realized Cadence was the one who had the outburst. Her eyes flashed with rage. "This has absolutely nothing to do with you. This has nothing to do with whether he trusts you. It has to do with Oliver and Conner. Don't get that?" She got into the blonde's face. "Oliver is a dad. And I'm so sorry it's not yours because you don't have a motherly bone in your fucking body. But this is Oliver's life. He wants to be a dad to Conner and is reeling from figuring out that his life has just changed. Get the fuck over yourself."

"I asked him what was going on and he continued to lie!" Felicity snapped back.

"He's trying to process. Do you know what that's like? At all? For one minute where your life is just as normal as can be and then the next you're responsible for another life? For another life that's tied to _yours_ for the rest of the time you're alive? That responsibility, that sense of fear and anxiety is fucking scary. It's something that you have to work through. Do you think it's easy to find out you're pregnant and just tell people right off the back? There's a reason people take time to themselves to figure things out. And you couldn't even give him a damn minute."

"Cade, you don't have to do this," Oliver said.

She ignored him. "As far as Conner's concerned it's like his father just came back from the dead. Someone he hadn't known for most of his life is finally there for him and you're more concerned with him trying to process things."

"Cade," Barry tried this time. He could immediately see what the problem was. She was hurting for Oliver and hurting for Conner with how long the two had gone without knowing each other. She clearly was feeling for how long Brady had been asking about his father and wanting one before Ryder had come back into his life. And, if he wasn't going too far with the thought, she was putting a little too much thought of her own father into it. He could practically see steam coming from her ears. "Cade, you're going too far."

"Maybe, for once if you stopped being such a bitch-" Cadence snapped.

Barry grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him. Her words sounded in her throat. "Cade! I get you're angry but stop! You have to stop! I know you're hurting but please, stop."

Felicity hurried into the house, hand covering her mouth. Barry knew she was crying. He looked at Cadence again, who stared back at him. "What?" She snapped.

"Oliver," Barry pleaded to his friends.

"I'm fine," Oliver said gruffly.

"Are you sure?"

"Is everyone inside?" Oliver asked instead.

"Yeah," Barry said. "But—"He sighed when Oliver walked by him and up into the house. Then he took a step back from Cadence who continued to glare at him. "That was totally uncalled for."

"Because I was trying to help Oliver?" She asked.

"Because you made it all about you," Barry replied. "This was something that Oliver and Felicity should've figured out on your own but you turned it back to you. That has nothing to do with you. I know you care about Oliver and I know you love Conner but it's like you said, it's something they should've figured out themselves." He pressed his hands to his chest. "Trust me, I get it. You want him to have his dad around, I want them to have that, too. I want that for both of them. Growing up without my dad, I know how bad that feels." He took a deep breath.

Cadence held up a finger. He was glad it wasn't the middle one. "If you ask me if I'm fine, I'll punch you."

"I don't have to ask you, Cade, because you're not fine. I'm worried about you. You can say you're as fine as you like but I don't believe it. I know where you are, Cade and you're not letting the rest of us in. If you can't do that, then nothing's going to work."

Her eyes darkened. "You're giving _me_ the ultimatum now?"

"No, Cade. I'm not going to give you an ultimatum. I'm going to be there for you whenever you need me. But I can't sit back and watch you continue to spiral downward like this."

"Well, that's fine," Cadence said. She crossed her arms. "Because we have more important things to worry about anyway." She stepped around Barry and walked into the house. Barry let out a long sigh and followed along behind her. He stepped inside as Oliver explained the situation to everyone.

"Savage doesn't know Kendra has access to her full abietites," he was saying. "Which makes her our ace in the hole. We have the element of surprise." He looked at everyone around the room. "We'll lay down cover fire," he said motioning between himself, Cadence, Brady, Snart, and Mick.

"Finally, something to do," Mick said with a grin. He pumped the action o the heat gun. It started to emit a high-pitched whirring sound, charging up.

"Barry you'll speed in—"

"-and get the staff," Barry said.

"What about us?" Diggle asked.

"This is just us, Kendra and Carter," Oliver declared.

Thea's mouth dropped open in protest. Surprised cries ran out around the room. "—Olly," Thea protested.

"No, I'm not going to risk any more lives than we have to." Oliver glanced at Felicity, who pointedly looked away from him then left the room.

There was only one thing left for Barry to say. "Suit up."

* * *

Oliver, Barry, Carter, Kendra, Cadence, Brady, Snart, and Mick arrived at the warehouse they had met Vandal Savage earlier. He waited for them to arrive, holding the Staff of Horus tightly in his grasp, fingernails making plinking sounds as he tapped the staff.

"You brought them," Savage said, noting the chains wrapped around Carter's and Kendra's wrists. Snart held the other end of the chains in his hand. Mick stood nearby, his heat gun pointed towards them. Barry couldn't quite trust that Mick wasn't waiting to turn them into barbecue if he had the chance. "Dressed for the occasion I see."

"We're doing this because two lives aren't worth two cities," Oliver said.

"You're wiser than I've given you credit for," Vandal said. He waved the staff around. "Over 4000 years and you're still wearing those ridiculous outfits?" He referred to the gold and black suits and helmets that covered Kendra's and Carter's bodies. Exactly like the ones that Cisco had seen in his Vibe of Kendra. Vandal's smile turned malicious. "But as long as you're going to die anyway, there may be some worth in perishing in them."

"Just do what you're going to do," Carter said.

Savage smiled. "You have no idea how much I enjoy hearing you say that." He dug into his cloak and whipped out a dagger, He charged towards Kendra and Carter. Snart reacted quickly, shooting a blast of his cold gun towards Vandal's feet. The ground immediately turned slick with a sheen of ice, making Vandal lose his balance for a moment.

Mick then lifted his heat gun and sent a blast of fire towards the Staff of Horus. The blast didn't come close to Vandal. With the staff of Horus, there was a protective layer around him that bounced the blast back at him. Mick growled, his upper lip curling. He pulled his goggles up over his eyes then charged towards Vandal with Oliver, Cadence, and Brady right after him.

Barry started to run in a tight circle around the warehouse, picking up speed as he went. Electricity started to crackle around him.

Snart turned and blasted the chains that held Kendra and Carter, making each locking mechanism as brittle as a toothpick. With a strike of his elbow it broke apart, letting them free. Carter immediately unfolded his wings and turned to Kendra, waiting for her to do the same. Her eyes widened in surprise. Despite all the training they'd done that day, she couldn't get her wings to come out. She couldn't tap into her Priestess persona.

Vandal, on the other hand, wasn't having any problems. He fought in a circle, taking down each of the heroes that right to fight him. Even Brady, who couldn't get hit by any of Vandal's attacks ended up being outwitted by him. Vandal's staff went through him a few times, then he lifted his foot and kicked him straight in the chest, figuring out it took enough time and energy to keep his phased form.

Snart and Mick turned their cold and heat guns to maximum and shot them at the staff of Horus at the same time. For a moment, it looked like it was going to work. The staff turned a bright orange-red from the heat of Heat Wave's gun while the gem at the top turned bright blue and crystalized from Snart's cold gun. Cadence leapt high and teleported, aiming her foot towards the gem of the staff while Oliver shot a precision arrow to the body of the staff.

Savage spun in a quick circle, his protective aura deflecting both attacks. Cadence slammed hard to the ground and Oliver's arrow shot off to the side. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a handful of daggers, throwing them at the others. They were too slow to move out of the way. Snart was struck in the arm and Mick was struck in the leg. Vandal did the honors himself for Carter, stabbing him directly in the stomach. Then he whipped around when Kendra came behind Carter, stabbing her in the chest.

Vandal turned back to the staff but Barry got to it first. The electricity he gathered crackled around the finished gauntlets that Cisco and Caitlin had finished. He and the staff became encompassed in a blue-purple glow. But the energy of the staff was much more than he could bare. "The gauntlets aren't working!" He cried. The energy continued to surge through him, making him threaten to fall to his knees. Then he felt hands wrap around him and found Cadence and Oliver flanking his sides.

"Let go, Barry," Oliver said. The three watched as Vandal got back to his feet, slowly advancing towards them.

"No, I'm not leaving you," Barry replied. His heart sank. No. That was the last thing he was going to do. Not when things were already falling apart. There had to be something else they could do.

"You're fast enough to get out of here," Cadence said to him.

"Go!" Oliver added.

"No, Olly," Barry protested.

Oliver slowly pried his fingers away from the staff. He looked Barry in the eye, with more emotion than Barry had ever seen him give. "Run, Barry, run."

Barry slowly removed his hands from the staff. He had no choice. They weren't going to let him stay. Their plan hadn't worked and it wasn't going to work. Barry started to run; he saw everything happen in slow motion. Savage threw a dagger towards Cadence, using the time that she watched Barry remove himself from the staff to his advantage. The dagger shot through Cadence's leg, the tip slamming into the ground, pinning her there. She screamed in pain, falling to the ground. Brady turned towards her, his voice muted as he screamed her name. Vandal deflected the blast of energy Oliver frantically shot his way then knocked Oliver off the staff and to Cadence's side.

Eyes wild with malice, Vandal picked up the staff, held it high above his head, then slammed it to the ground.

The same wave of energy that blew up St. Mark's Cathedral shot through the warehouse. It hit Oliver and Cadence first, immediately reducing them to skeleton before his eyes. It hit Brady next, he fell to his knees in terror and covered his eyes with his hands before he was hit and reduced to a skeleton as well.

 ** _"NO!"_**

The scream ripped from Barry's throat. Snart, Mick, Carter, and Kendra were next. He watched them turn to skeletons, too. Then Barry turned and ran. Fast, fast, faster than he'd ever run before. The wave of energy followed behind him. It licked Barry's heels, ripping everything in the city apart as easy as a card castle being knocked over by a cross wind.

And ran.

And ran.

Until he passed through an invisible portal. He felt it like a punch to the chest. He pumped his arms and legs, finding a second version of himself running at his side until it disappeared. And suddenly, he stopped running, finding himself in front of Oliver and Malcolm like he was that morning.

He'd run back in time.

* * *

Sine going back in time, Barry knew everything was different. He knew that Conner was Oliver's son but Oliver, Cadence, and Felicity no longer knew. They hadn't had that big blow up fight. They hadn't been there when Vandal managed to destroy them all with such ease. None of that happened. And yet, he couldn't get it out of his head. There had to be something they could do to make things different. But what? He knew with his last trip through time that things managed to get worse the more they went back, the more they tried to fix things.

Oliver sussed things out that something was wrong with him pretty quickly when they got back from their meeting with Vandal at the warehouse. _Our second meeting,_ Barry explained. He told Oliver everything. How he was Conner's father, how him to telling Felicity messed everything up. How he wasn't on his a-game when going against Vandal and that made them all die. It was the part that Barry could barely get out. They died and he watched it all happen.

Oliver said they were going to do things differently, that nothing was going to happen like it did the last time, but Barry wasn't quite sure. It was hard to figure out what could and couldn't be changed so the future would and wouldn't happen. It was times like these he hated having the ability to do it.

He sat on the front steps of the farmhouse, chin resting in his hands as he thought about it. Oliver always knew how to figure things out, he always asked questions. But this was Central City, _his_ City. He needed to figure things out or else he wasn't the beacon of hope that they relied on.

"Barry, are you okay?" Cadence lowered herself next to him. He immediately hated how she was able to sit in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with little regard to the temperature.

"I'm fine," Barry replied.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on," Cadence said.

 _I guess that's where the timeline tried to restore the balance,_ Barry thought. He wasn't fine. That was a lie. They weren't supposed to lie anymore. He was barely holding on. "I've got a lot on my mind. I…I went back in time, again." Cadence's eyebrows furrowed and she listened quietly. "We went up against Savage and…we all died. Well, everyone but me. They all died. And he had no problem doing it. He stabbed everyone then used the staff to…" Barry cut himself off.

Cadence reached up and rubbed soothing circles on his shoulders and neck, waiting patiently for him to continue his story. He ran a hand over his face, tears coming to his eyes. "I couldn't do anything to stop it but run so fast that I went back in time." He closed his eyes, the images of skeletons were permanently imprinted there. He opened them again. "I don't know if we can do it. Oliver says we can but…I don't know what I can do."

Cadence continued to listen quietly, rubbing his back.

"It's not fair. The rules keep changing. One minute I run through time, the next we're fighting a telepathic gorilla. But now we're chasing down a madman on a rampage against a reincarnated warrior priestess? I just never thought I'd have superpowers and feel so powerless that I ever have in my entire life."

Cadence chuckled. "I know how that feels. What's the point of having powers if you can't do anything to stop the trouble?" She brought her hand down to stroke his cheek. "But here's the thing, you're the beacon of hope for a reason. Barry Allen or The Flash. You've already helped Kendra, you've kept her alive. In many ways and many times, you've kept all of us alive; It's a tough burden to bear but you're not doing it alone. And if something goes wrong, you know I'll pull you back and regroup."

Barry smiled a little.

"It happened in a past timeline, Tholly. We're still here and we still have ways to take down Vandal Savage. Just as long as we do it as a team. You know I've got your back. Promise. I'm your partner."

"Not my sidekick," Barry said. It was starting to be an inside joke to them now. As long as it wasn't being yelled at him anymore. He tilted his head to rest against hers. Cadence smiled and pressed a kiss to his temple before leaning his head back against his.

In the backyard, Cisco and Kendra were having a similar conversation about Kendra's worries of her powers. "We need to talk," Cisco said to her. "A 'try and get you to sprout wings' talk." Kendra shook her head as she looked at him. Oliver had really drilled into him how important it was for her to take on her abilities, how he'd be the one to do it. He knew Oliver knew something he wasn't quite saying. But, it was true. She was having issues and…maybe he wasn't just the engineer in STAR Labs. Maybe he could give good speeches, too. "I think you need to focus on the priestess part of you," he explained. "The nurturer part to get you to work on your powers."

"How do you think that'd work?" Kendra asked. She sounded so sad, Cisco felt his heart hurt. What hurt worse was knowing what he was about to say. He was going to give up a great relationship and as selfish as he was to want to keep it, it was for their own good. "How do you know how I was that long ago?"

"Because I know you, Kendra," Cisco insisted. "And some things don't change. I think you're resisting what Carter's trying to teach you because it means remembering who you were. And that's someone else…" He swallowed hard. God, did this hurt. "Someone who loves him."

Kendra shook her head. "Ever since I emerged, I've been remembering our first life in Egypt. But I tell him I don't because I don't want to accept the truth."

"Okay," Cisco said. He managed a half smile. Yep, still hurt. "That's pretty heavy. But it's also pretty amazing. I've been through this and what you're going through is a gift, a miracle that most people don't get to experience.'

"It feels like a nightmare," Kendra admitted.

"That's a choice. You can choose to remember." He took her hands in his, squeezed them tightly. "Close your eyes. Let yourself remember." He watched Kendra's face. Watched as her eyes flickered back and forth under her eyelids. Watched as a tear slid down her cheek.

Cisco lowered his head in dismay, knowing it was the end of what they could have been.

She remembered.

They came up with a new plan. It was going to work out this time. It just had to.

"Everyone's in position," Barry said to Oliver as they approached the place to meet Vandal Savage again. "Are you sure about this?'

"What could happen here that isn't worse than what you've already seen?" Oliver reminded him. But Barry saw Oliver's hand trembling against his bow. He was just as afraid.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be so worried," Barry admitted.

Barry took a deep breath and they went to face Vandal once more. It played out similarly to the last time they had fought him, but also very differently. This time, Snart and Mick distracted Vandal at the very beginning, shooting off their heat and cold guns from opposite sides of the warehouse. They repeatedly struck the staff, making it difficult for Vandal to hold onto.

This time, after Barry released Kendra and Carter from the chains, Kendra was able to use her powers for her and Carter to swoop into Vandal at once, knocking him off his feet. At the same time, Cisco drove the utility van like a kamikaze into the warehouse. The backdoors popped open and Team Arrow came tumbling out the back. Laurel, having arrived from Star City, leapt to the ground and screamed with her Canary Cry, sending an ear-splitting screech through the air. Thea crouched down and shot arrows towards Vandal's feet while Diggle repeatedly shot his pistol towards Vandal.

With a snarl, Vandal reached into his cloak and produced daggers. He threw them towards them. Cadence reached out her hand towards Mick and he shot his heat gun towards her. Absorbing the absolute fire, Cadence sent it towards the daggers, melting them down to liquid metal that dripped to the floor. Then she teleported in front of him and kicked her leg up by her head, striking him under the chin, snapping his head back.

Brady then phased out of the floor and reached up, grabbing Vandal by the back of the head, tightening his grasp on Vandal's stringy hair. Vandal cried out as he was bent backwards from the younger boy's sudden weight attached to him. He lifted his feet and used even more of his weight to knock him down to the ground. Vandal snarled and swiped towards him but he phased through Brady's body repeatedly. Finally, Brady was far enough out of the way that Vandal retrieved his staff and started to attack them once more.

Around and around he fought off Snart, Mick, Cadence, Brady, Thea, Diggle, Laurel, Kendra, and Carter. And over and over he knocked them down with the protective shield of the staff. Snart and Mick got very strong punches into him, Snart going so far as to freeze Vandal's feet to the ground at one point, giving Mick the opportunity to punch him square in the face. Then Savage turned and knocked him onto his back. Mick fell to the ground, his finger pressing the trigger of the heat gun, sending a fiery blast towards the heroes. It encircled around Cadence as she absorbed it.

"Thanks!" She called then leapt high into the air.

She spun in a quick circle, creating a fire tornado that arched towards Vandal, finishing up with a strong kick to the side of his head. Much like when she was fighting against Zoom, she fought Vandal in an animalistic rage; sticking to him like glue with strong punches, kicks, and fire attacks, coming right back to him when the staff power knocked her back.

Brady threw his yo-yo and entrapped Vandal in the retractable line. Oliver and Thea both shot retractable arrows towards him, one getting stuck in his shoulder blade, the other into his leg. When they retracted he became wrapped up like a fly in a spider web.

With Vandal distracted, Barry raced in and grabbed the staff from him. This time, his gauntlets reacted well to his electrical charge; he wasn't afraid this time. He could feel the energy of the staff course through him as he charged it. Like last time, he felt arms wrap around him and looked over to see Oliver and Cadence—his two biggest supporters-grab the staff to help Barry steady himself.

He looked at them and they nodded back.

He could do this.

Barry tightened his grasp on the staff and shoved it forward, sending the blast straight into Vandal Savage, where he was reduced to dust.

It was over.

* * *

Barry, Oliver, Cadence, and Brady walked into Central City Square with Kendra and Carter. Cadence shifted Brady up on her back, letting out a low grunt. "I'm telling you, bud, you're getting too heavy for this stuff."

"I'm tired," Brady replied. "There's only so much you can do to fight against an immortal man before you get tired. I'm still a kid."

"Yeah, yeah." Cadence lifted her foot and kicked Barry in the butt. "How come you're not offering to do this? I'm sure he'd have a much better time getting a piggy-back from you."

Barry held up his hands, backing away. "I don't know, Cade, you're stronger than me, remember."

"Shut up."

Oliver smiled as he watched the three. Barry looked back at him, letting out a low sigh. He had to tell Oliver sometime. But right now, they had to say goodbye to Carter and Kendra. Though it would probably take some time, as it was, Cisco was already taking it hard knowing she was going to leave.

"Cisco, I'm really sorry," Kendra said, once they came to a stop at an empty clearing. The best place for them to take off.

Cisco shrugged. "Well, the way I see it, it's like every classic story. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, girl sprouts wings and flies away with her reincarnated soulmate." He held up his finger. "The only thing is you don't even seem to like him."

"Not as much as I like you," Kendra pointed out. "A week ago, I was a barista and I didn't have a plan for my life."

Cisco lifted an eyebrow. "And now you do?"

"One I want to find out."

"Okay." Cisco nodded. He could do this. He really had no choice. If Snart and Mick could help them defeat Vandal Savage just because 'they felt like it' then he could do this. Then again, Snart and Mick had left the group with the leftover weaponry collected from Vandal like kids in a candy store. And Cisco wasn't _that_ crazy. "I made you something that I think you could use." He reached into the pocket of his jacket, holding out a golden pendent. "A late Christmas gift, I bet. It's got a microchip in it, so if you're in trouble we can find you." Kendra smiled as she took it then leaned in and gave him a kiss. "What was that for?" Cisco asked.

"For being you," Kendra said. She squeezed his hands. "Thank you, Cisco. I'm sorry but…there's a girl out there for you. I know it. And maybe you've already found her."

"I can only hope," Cisco murmured. But he took a step back and watched as Kendra nodded at Carter. Their wings unfolded form their backs and they shot straight up into the air, flying out of sight in only a few seconds.

"Well, you did it, Barry," Oliver said once they were out of sight. "Everyone's alive. Our guardian angel."

Barry couldn't help but grin. "You said that when I told you about my powers."

"Yeah, well…" Oliver shrugged. "I meant it then an Di mean it now. You have a lot more to give than you think, Barry. Don't doubt yourself."

 _Speaking of which._ "Yeah…" Barry let out a sigh. "We need to have a difficult conversation."

Oliver quirked an eyebrow. "About my son?"

"He has a son?" Cisco asked. He brought a closed fist up to his mouth. "Damn, son! I _so_ didn't see that coming." At Oliver's hard stare Cisco suddenly cut off his louder with a loud cough. He slapped himself on the chest. "I mean, that's awesome, man."

"Don't worry, Cisco, I get it," Oliver agreed. "It sounds weird to say it out loud."

Barry was going to cut to the chase. "Oliver, take it from someone who didn't get to grow up with his father. I think the best thing is for Conner to grow up with you in his life." Oliver didn't respond. "This is something that I know you can do. The minute I told you that Conner is yours, I could see it in your face. You were ecstatic."

"And you're so different from how you used to be, 'Liver," Cadence added, making Oliver roll his eyes. "No one can deny that."

"I'll think about it," Oliver said. "But thanks for all of your help with this Vandal stuff." He reached out and grasped Barry's shoulder, gently shaking him. "I've seen how you worked in Central City and I saw how you worked in Star City. I can only hope, one day, I can be like you." Barry smiled and moved towards him, opening his arms. Oliver quickly ducked out of the way. "I'm not a hugger."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Barry said. He gave a sly smile. "But the thing is I can move fast enough to hug you and you not know it. So, you may as well let me." Oliver grinned then and allowed Barry to give him a hug.

Oliver then turned and reached out his hug towards Cadence, who looked surprised. "You're the only one I know that has gone through all of this with Brady at your side. Sam has told me that she doesn't want me to be around Conner and bring him into my crazy lifestyle."

"You're asking for my advice?" Cadence asked.

"Yes, I am."

"I think you should ask Brady." Cadence gently slid her son down her back and looked at him. "What do you think, bud?"

"Well," Brady said. "Conner and I wanted the same thing for Christmas." He looked at Barry. "I wanted…to have Barry be part of my life. Like…like a dad. And I got my Christmas wish." He turned back to Oliver. "Why can't Conner?"

Oliver nodded, licked his lips. "Will you go with me?" He asked.

Cadence smiled. "Of course."

* * *

 **A/N:** Looking at it right now, and depending on length of chapters and plots, this story looks to be ending at about 50 chapters. I shoved a lot of stuff into this chapter and I think it's one of my best emotion oriented ones yet. And I'm sorry it was _very_ long but there was a lot that was needed. Hope you all liked it as well.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday. Also, if you have a tumblr, don't forget to follow us at Purple-And-Red-Ribbons or follow us on Twitter at DarkElements10.  
****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Actually, their shipname (or bromance if you prefer) is Barriver or Olivarry. And now you know what Batman gave to Barry as well.

 **luna:** I'm so glad that it worked out well. It's true, they haven't had truly happy times in a long while so they were overdue for it.

 **DarkHelm145:** Again, glad you liked it so much.

 **WinterRain36:** A little humor on Cade showing off her healing powers. And then a bit of how fast she can run, too. There will be more sparring between them soon.

 **Babyj:** Yeah, I managed to accidentally ignore Joe and Iris as the stories have gone on, so I made sure to give them some more screentime. But Iris does get a little more with Cade soon since they usually aren't seen hanging out.

 **yummers:** Aww, thanks so much.

 **Spinquin142:** No, you'll see their gifts. It's just going to be small mentions or else I'll do a flashback scene of what each of them got. Yeah, I wanted to use it to symbolize that Cade really is part of Team Flash now and that her worries are just that, worries.

 **Guest:** Honestly, I don't particularly care if you don't like the story because I can't please everyone. However, I'd prefer if you gave actual constructive criticism or a reason as for the hate instead of just giving a blanket statement.


	35. The Policeman's Ball

**.:35:.**

 _The Policeman's Ball_

* * *

Barry pulled on his sports jacket. It was the last thing needed to be ready. And, looking at his watch, he was miraculously early enough to stop by a flower shop on the way to the restaurant. Shifting his weight on his feet he did just that before changing course and arriving at one of the nicest places to eat in Central City.

He spotted Cadence sitting on a bench on the patio, her face illuminated by the light from her phone. Judging by the way she flicked her thumbs over the screen he knew she was playing Candy Crush, her newest obsession. He had played it before but got to the end within an hour and had showed her how to play, cementing it to be all she wanted to do.

She looked up when the familiar gust of wind pushed her hair from her face. Her smile illuminated her face when she spotted at him, before her expression switched to one of horror, noticing the burning fauna in his hands. Unbeknownst to the rest of the patrons, she held out her hand and absorbed most of the flames before Barry threw the flowers to the ground and frantically stamped on them.

"Sorry," he apologized when she got up, hurrying to his side. "It's all good." He pushed his jacket behind him, placing his hands on his hips in a pose of calm-cool-collection.

"I hope those weren't for me," Cadence joked. She brushed off the sleeves of his jacket where a spot had started to smolder.

"They were," Barry said. Amusement swam through his green eyes as he looked at the now smoking lumps of plastic. "But I didn't know that roses were so flammable."

"Well, if they're plastic, just be glad they didn't melt your hands, Tholly." Cadence reached out to grab his hands, checking them over. "All good. And besides, it's the thought and proper fire management that counts. So, you're lucky."

"I've spent most of my life feeling very unlucky," Barry admitted.

"And?"

A smile bloomed on Barry's face. "It feels like I've bene struck by lightning twice."

Cadence laughed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "That was so charmingly cheesy."

"Yeah, but it worked, right?"

"Yeah."

Cadence leaned in and gave him a kiss. Barry kissed her back until there was a sudden gust of wind and Cadence's scream reached his ears. And Barry stared in horror. It wasn't a scream of horror but of pain. Pain from Zoom's hand sticking through her stomach.

 _No._

Barry reached out to grab her, but couldn't move. Unable to do anything but stare. Stare at the stunned expression on Cadence's face, the blood that trickled out of the corner of her mouth, the bloodied hand that stuck through her stomach. Then his eyes shifted towards Zoom, who stood behind her, his eyes burning into Barry's. They stared each other down for a long moment before Zoom raced away with Barry on a second after him. They raced through the city, zig-zagging back and forth around the cars that filled the streets. Barry ran and ran, only stopping when Zoom stopped at the top of a tall office building, dangling Cadence over the edge.

She had stopped moving now, eyes closed. Barry could see that she'd stopped bleeding, her healing powers starting to kick in but…who knew how long it'd be until she healed completely. Who knew if she could even heal from the attack knowing what a speedster could do to hurt other people.

"No…" Barry whispered. He turned pleading eyes to Zoom, stretching out his hand.

Zoom removed his hand from inside Cadence, a fresh splattering of blood dripping to the ground. He held her high over the edge of the building. "Flash, everything you have will be mine," he rasped and let go.

Barry screamed and scrambled to the end of the building, watching as Cadence fell. Faster, faster, faster. He clenched every muscle in his body; willed him to use his powers to race down and grab her, to save her, to keep her safe. But he couldn't move. His entire body was frozen in fear and anguish and he could only watch as she fell.

Barry shot awake the moment, in dream, Cadence's hit the ground. Gasps escaped his lips, sweat poured down his face, and his hands ached. Where he was gripping onto the building railing for dear life was the sheets of the bed. His knuckles were white from the effort of his grasp. His throat even burned, he must've been screaming in his sleep. Again. It was the fourth time it happened, from what he remembered anyway.

"Are you okay?" Barry turned his head to find Cadence pushing herself up on her hands. She turned reached to her bedside table for her phone, waving her hand over the screen for it to illuminate. She grimaced, turning her head away when it lit up the room. Then she turned her attention back to him, smoothing her hair from her face. "You were tossing and turning."

"Uh, yeah." Barry reached up and ran a hand over his face. His forehead was covered in sweat, bangs sticking to his skin. "I just…wasn't sleeping very well."

"I can tell," Cadence replied. She eyed him. "You're sweating like crazy." She reached out and placed a cool hand on his cheek. "And you're burning up."

Barry took in a deep breath and pushed his hair back once more. He sucked in a few lung-fulls of breath to calm himself down. Nothing happened. Zoom wasn't there. It was just another dream. Another terrible dream that had plagued him for as long as he could remember. But now they were becoming more frequent and harder to wake up from now. It also wasn't the first time that Cadence had questioned if he was alright.

"I'm fine," he replied in a low whisper. "I just…"

"…haven't been sleeping well," Cadence supplied.

"Yeah. I'm okay." He gave her a kiss. "Promise."

Cadence nodded and laid back down, closing her eyes. Barry continued to stay awake a little bit longer. He sat and stared at the wall in front of him, trying anything to block out Zoom's image from his mind. Trying to push his adrenaline back down. His heartbeat was racing even more than it had when he'd been struck by lightning. So fast he couldn't feel it beat. As if it were completely absent.

Finally, Barry stared to feel himself calm down. Still a little warm, he pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the floor, allowing the AC to run over him. Anyone that came to her apartment always complained. She ran so hot due to her powers that the AC was almost always running, forcing everyone else under blankets or sweatshirts. This time around, it worked well to calm him down even further. Barry leaned back and rested against the pillows behind him. He pressed the heels of his palms to his face then dropped his hands to the mattress.

Barry rolled over and put his arm around Cadence, immediately making her snuggle to his side. He reached up and gently stroked her cheek, the contact reminded him she was still there. It was just a dream. A terribly horrific dream.

"You know I'm always here for you," he murmured. Cadence made a humming sound in response. "And I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"Mhm," Cadence replied.

"I promise."

After that, Barry got a restful night of sleep. It's always shortly after he falls asleep that he dreams start. And as many times as he woke up from them, there were many of them that he couldn't wake up from. He was stuck in those dreams watching them play out time and time again he was forced awake. Even when he had been forced into sleep paralysis by Nightmare it hadn't been so bad. Zoom was taking over every part of his mind since coming back from defeating Vandal Savage. The immortal meta—if you could even call him that—had been a good distraction from what was going on. But now with no leads on him or the breaches, they were right back to where they started.

Thankfully, there was more than enough to take his mind off it. He was going to have breakfast with Joe and his dad that morning. It was the first time the three of them had been alone together since his father was released from jail and he was looking forward to it. He had his father back and his pseudo father was still in his life. He said goodbye to Cadence and Brady before leaving her apartment to go to the Motorcar Diner, arriving at the same time as Joe.

"Hey Bare," Joe greeted him.

"Hey," Barry replied. He gave him a quick hug before stepping back, hands resting on his shoulders. "Are you okay, man? You're shaking. You're…kind of jittery."

"Oh, yeah, I was, uh, I was showing Wally around the CCPD today," Joe explained. He pulled open the door to the diner and the two walked in. "Showing him around my desk and everything that was there. Iris was there too. Francine thought it would be a good idea if we got to know Wally a little bit better and for him to get to know us. So, we stopped by the CCPN first, then headed to work. He met Captain Singh, too."

"Oh, I bet that went well," Barry joked.

He remembered the first time he had been shown around the CCPD and met his future boss. There was only so many times that Captain Singh had been in a visibly good mood at work and that was not one of them. He had been working on a particularly hard case that kept him up all hours of the night and he hadn't wanted a little kid to annoy him. It was no wonder Barry could even work there when he was old enough. He'd gotten to know Captain Singh since then but the man was very serious about his job and those that worked for them. He could only imagine how Captain Singh was.

"Singh was on his best behavior," Joe said. He let out a long sigh, resting his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "But Wally…things are still really tense, you know? The moment I mentioned he was my son he went cold. And he mentioned you were the White Shadow—"

Barry rolled his eyes. "Oh, God. I thought you guys agreed to stop calling me that."

"Only when you stopped following Iris everywhere," Joe pointed out. He laughed to himself then reached up, rubbing his chin. "Then there was this guy that was being brought in that seemed like he knew him. Called him 'tailights' or something like that."

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "Well, we can't all have good nicknames. Anything is better than the White Shadow. And, besides, you're all still learning how to be a family. I mean, you only _just_ found out about Francine and Wally, you can't expect things to move that quickly."

"Yeah…yeah, you're right. And you'd know about things that are fast," Joe agreed. "But we're going to have dinner tonight. Chinese. And it'd be great if you could come, too. I'm really nervous about it."

"Why are you nervous? You're, like, the best dad ever, he'll see that. And you know I'll be there. Not just for you, but for the free Chinese food, too."

"And you can never turn down Chinese."

"Exactly."

Barry slapped him a low-five before a waving hand caught his attention. He turned and walked across the diner to Henry, who got up when his son approached. He reached out and wrapped his arms around his dad, rocking him back and forth. "Hey dad."

"Barry, I'm not going anywhere," Henry remined him once the hug ended. "You don't have to hug me like I'm going to disappear every time."

"Sorry, I can't help it," Barry said. He moved aside to slide into the booth, watching as Joe and Henry firmly shook hands before sitting down as well. "Knowing my luck and my life, it's not much longer until something decides to take you away. I don't know, to Keystone or something."

Henry smiled. "And what would be waiting for me in Keystone?"

"Well, you were talking about getting your medical license again, weren't you?" Joe asked. "You can do that while working along the others in STAR Labs. I'm sure trying to keep up with all of this stuff is going to do your head in. I'm surprised I haven't gone completely crazy yet while being there."

Henry tilted his head to the side. "If I remember correctly, you didn't completely have it all anyway? I mean, you were the one who decided to go into law enforcement."

Joe laughed. "And you were the one who decided to go into medicine. Both professions that have to consistently deal with the potential loss of life." Now Henry started to laugh. "I guess we're both kind of crazy."

Barry watched the two, looking back and forth between them as they laughed. The two calmed down after a few minutes before the three gave their order to the waitress. Henry's eyebrows rose when he heard how much Barry wanted; nothing too strange so that the waitress would look at them funny, but enough to keep him satiated for a few hours.

"I can't imagine what it must be like to have your powers," Henry said. "Let alone at your age. I can only guess your food bill has skyrocketed, Joe."

"You have no idea," Joe agreed. "And I thought he liked to eat a lot _before_ he got them."

"Growing boy, what are you going to do?" Henry spread his hands, shrugged. He leaned back in his seat, draping his arm over the back of the booth, resting his hand on Barry's shoulder. Barry smiled at him. "I just hope that it's things that are healthy."

"What would you rather eat, dad?" Barry asked. "Cisco's nasty calorie bars or Big Belly Burger?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "Do you not remember the health reports I've read to you about the food there?"

"Food's food, dad, and I get hungry. It doesn't matter anyway, I burn through this stuff so fast anyway it doesn't make a difference." Barry rolled his eyes. "I don't think I'll have to deal with clogged arteries anytime soon."

Henry pointed at Joe. "Did Barry ever beg for you to go to Big Belly Burger after errands? He used to sit in the back of the car and whine and complain until we'd go through the drive thru." He chuckled again. "I remember this one time—"

"—Yeah, yeah, yeah," Joe interrupted, eyes lighting up. "There was this one time…" he started to laugh in the middle of his story. "There was one time that we had to go Christmas shopping for a multitude of relatives but because of work I had left it to the last minute. So, we were in the mall going from store to store…"

Barry listened quietly to the story, already knows what it was about. It hadn't been his finest hour, and yes, he did have a bit of an obsession with the fast food chain like others to McDonald's. But it was good and it was cheap. And, so far, it hadn't had any adverse effects on his healthy so what was the problem? Then he turned his head to watch his father's reaction and frowned. Henry was facing Joe, looking like he was paying attention, but his eyes were diverted down towards the menu placemats. Every now and then he'd reached out to take a sip of the coffee he'd ordered.

Then Henry noticed and turned his way, smiling at him, eyes crinkling up in the corner. The hand that rested on his shoulder tightened. And yet, Barry could see the smile didn't react his father's eyes. Henry's lips were tight-lipped rather than pulled back into a relaxed smile. He could even feel the tension in his hand as he gripped his son's shoulder.

The food had arrived by the time Joe finished his story, wiping the tears from his eyes that came from his hysterical laughter. Barry ended up laughing along with him, but in the back of his mind he couldn't help but think about what had happened during Thanksgiving. He'd seen the same look on Henry's face when he was telling another story about his childhood. He'd kind of remembered Henry being quiet after that but hadn't put too much thought into it.

The subject changed when their food came and they dug in. Once again, Henry couldn't help but remark at the speed of which Barry was able to eat some of his food. As a matter of fact, he stared while Barry moved from his waffles to the plate of eggs that went along with it. "I'll say it again, Bare, I _wish_ I had your speed."

"Being able to go fast doesn't always help," Barry said. "Sometimes, I wish I could do things slowly."

Joe gave a bark of laughter. "Yeah, right."

"Do you know how boring work can get when I'm done with work but am still scheduled until late afternoon?" Barry asked. He pointed his fork at Joe. "Especially with my line of work, if there's not an active call or meta problem, it goes slow."

"Wah, wah, wah," Joe teased.

Barry rolled his eyes. Clearly, he was always going to get teased about something, he just needed to learn to live with it. It wasn't like there weren't a lot of things he knew about Joe or his dad that could be used against them, anyway. It was just a matter of time until they got theirs.

"So what else has been going on?" Henry asked. He lifted his chin. "Do you know anything about what happened to St. Marks?"

"Yeah, it was this whole thing with an immortal guy who's been alive for 4,000 years," Barry said, trying to downplay the situation." But he couldn't help but notice the shake of Joe's head. He'd gone back to Joe and Iris and explained what had happened once he got back. It was still hard to believe. Especially the point of Oliver being a father. _That_ was hard for him to wrap his head around. No matter the changes to the timeline, Oliver was still Conner's father. "It took us to Star City and then back here. And it took a lot of us to take the guy down."

"And what about that Zoom guy?"

"Uh…" For a moment, a flash of his dream entered his head. "Nope…still nothing on him. But we're still working hard to get me to run faster."

"You can go even faster than you already do?" Henry's eyebrows rose. "Talk about a medical marvel."

"Actually, it was more like the massive amount of chemicals that spilled on me that did it, but yeah," Barry said. He motioned towards his dad. "If you ever want to study me, I'm sure Caitlin will give you a tour of all of the DNA samples I've given."

Now a mischievous light flashed through Henry's eyes. "Caitlin? I thought you were going out with Cadence."

"Ha ha. You're so funny, dad." Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, I'm going out with Cadence. We're, uh, pretty serious."

"Serious enough to call her your girlfriend," Henry agreed. "I thought you had a thing for Iris. As a matter of fact, your mother and I were pretty sure we'd be going to your wedding one day."

"Iris and I are just friends, dad. Really close friends. Best friends. And I'm glad that we're still best friends."

"Didn't you say you were thinking of moving in with her and Brady?" Barry's eyes widened and he shook his head at Joe's knowing smile. That had been something he'd briefly mentioned, if things didn't work out with potentially moving in with his dad. Besides, there was only so long he could live in Joe's house rent free and not on his own. He stopped living alone before because he was lonely and Joe hadn't known about his powers then. But Cadence and Brady knew about his and had their own powers. "You said it, not me. Besides, it's just a simple statement."

Henry's eyebrows rose.

Barry sighed and held up his hands. "I know I'm moving pretty fast, but stop me if you've heard this one before," Barry said. "Boy meets girl. Happens every day, except this boy"—he motioned to himself—"was struck by lightning and became the fastest man alive. So, nothing is ever that simple." He laced his fingers together.

"That's a nice watch you've got there," Henry commented, eyeing the new piece that sat on Barry's wrist. "I didn't notice you wearing it before."

"Oh yeah." Barry glanced at it. "Joe gave it to me for Christmas."

"It was my dad's, their Grandpa Ben's—"

"You mean _Iris's_ Grandpa Ben," Henry prompted.

Joe blinked at him. Glanced at Barry for a second. Looked away. Then looked back at Henry. "Uh, yeah, you're right. It was Iris's Grandpa Ben. He gave it to me as a meaningful gift, because I was late all the time. And I gave it to Barry."

"Because no matter with my powers I seem to be late for everything," Barry concluded. He cleared his throat, shuffled his feet. "And, I, uh, Iris gave me a Flash action figure. And then I got some other things from Caitlin and Cisco and Cade." He scratched his neck. "Did you like the gift I gave you?"

"I absolutely enjoyed it," Henry agreed. "I know you really like science-fiction and you're great at suggesting books."

"And I know you like to have a certain amount of time during the day to read," Barry agreed. It was most of what his father did to pass the time while he was in prison and he'd read a lot. Every visit he would ask Barry what he brought him and Barry would produce a new book that he thought his father would enjoy, all ranging from fiction to non-fiction to memoirs to graphic novels. And he read them all. "This one should last you for a while."

"I don't know, I read pretty fast now," Henry said. "I might give you a run for your money." He glanced under the table. "I can't help but notice you got some new shoes, too."

Barry looked down at his new Converse shoes and nodded. "She knows how much I love these shoes and knows someone from high school that works at Converse so I can get as many new pairs as I want. And I go through them pretty fast."

"That was nice of her," Henry said. He nodded. "Let me know when she's free, I'd love to have dinner with her sometime. And Brady. I'd like to get to know them both better."

"Me too," Joe agreed. "She never really comes by the house."

"Well…I think she still feels a little awkward about things," Barry said slowly. "I mean, with my old feelings for Iris and then the whole CPS thing—"

"—CPS?" Henry broke in.

"It's a long story," Barry said. "But I'll run it by her." He looked at his watch. "Actually, I've got to get to work. I have some paperwork to fill out from St. Mark's. Without telling them it was a magical staff that blew everything up, they're asking a lot of questions."

"Do they think it's a meta?" Henry asked, eyebrows lowering in concern. "I've seen the news reports. It doesn't look like things are getting any better."

"No, thankfully. They think it's a gas leak but I'm investigating to know for sure." Barry waited for Henry to move before sliding out of the booth. He pulled out his wallet and tossed money onto the table. "I'll call you later, dad," he said to Henry then, "See you at work, Joe," to Joe before heading towards the front door. He was stopped by Captain Cold as he strolled into the diner.

"Well, well, looks like this isn't Central City's little secret anymore," Snart said. He stood up straight. "What brings you here? I can't imagine it's a place you routinely want to eat."

"I'm just here with my dad," Barry explained patiently.

Snart glanced over Barry's shoulder. Then he smirked, turning his gaze back to Barry. "Which one?" He asked. Barry glared at him. "Your life must be going pretty swimmingly if both men want to be around you."

"I know you didn't have a great relationship with your father," Barry started.

"If you could even call him that," Snart interrupted. "Isn't a father supposed to be the one who protects you at all costs? But, if that were the case…what do you call the man who put himself into prison for a crime he didn't commit? It looks like Detective West was the one who protected you more."

Barry's temper flared. "You don't know what you're talking about," he growled.

"Oh, but when it comes to fathers, I do." Snart looked over his shoulder once again. "What was it I heard before? Two's company and three's a crowd? Doesn't look like dear daddies are getting along very well." Barry looked over his shoulder and watched as Henry and Joe appeared to be in a heated discussion.

Both men had stat up straight, their shoulders stiff, rounded towards each other. He'd only seen his father angry a few times before and it was very much like that stance. Joe, on the other hand, he'd seen angrier more than others, especially due to his line of work. But he'd never seen them mad at each other. Barry turned back to Snart, who was still staring at him.

"You have a good day," he said before walking by him.

Barry gritted his teeth, let out the breath he'd been holding. Then he turned and raced from the diner, but not before what sounded like his father saying, "The last time I checked, Joe, Barry's my son. Not yours."

* * *

Iris crossed her legs at the knee and wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee. Caitlin and Cadence sat across from her with their own cups of coffee and hot chocolate. "So, Wally's supposed to come over for dinner."

"Oh, Francine's not going?" Caitlin asked.

"Well, she hasn't been feeling very well lately," Iris explained. She tilted her head and scratched behind her ear. "It's still really…awkward. Since meeting she hasn't come around me and dad so much. Or mabe just not me. But we've been working to get to know Wally, so that's cool I guess. I've always wanted a baby brother."

"Not a sister?" Cadence asked.

"No. I've always wanted a brother," Iris insisted. She shrugged. "And I guess I got that with Barry, but he's a little older than me so…" She shook her head. "So, we're going to have Chinese and just have a nice, quiet night at home." She drummed her fingertips on the sides of her mug. "Yep."

"It's okay to be nervous, babes," Cadence reassured her. "You just learned that a big part of your life that you believed was, in essence, a lie. There's not many people who would know how to take it." She shrugged. "And I think being able to invite him to dinner is a step in the right direction."

"What would you have done?" Iris asked. "If you found out you had another sibling?"

"I'd ask my mom and dad a lot of questions because last I heard, they couldn't have children," Cadence said with a light laugh. "And from the amount of time they spent on me, there's no way they could've had the time to spoil anyone else so…"

Caitlin shook her head then fixed Iris with a kind smile. "I'm sure everything's going to be fine. Joe's great, Barry's great, you're great. If there's any other family that Wally could be a part of, it wouldn't be as great as the Wests."

"Uh-huh." Iris smirked. "And you decided that Joe and Barry were greater than me, right?" The girls all laughed and Iris reached out to pat Caitlin's hand. "I'm just kidding. I guess I'm as nervous as dad is about this whole thing. But, you're right, things should go well. I'm just looking for problems before there are any."

"Have you lived our lives?" Caitlin joked. "We're nothing but trouble. You could be thinking about how nice of a day it is and next thing you know, the sky is falling."

"At least you'd have some company," Cadence pointed out. "Now that you've got Jay to keep you warm at night."

"No comment," Caitlin said. Iris and Cadence made sounds of protest and Caitlin brought up a finger to run over her lips. "I already went over all of this with Cisco. If you want to know anything, you have to ask him. I'm not going to say it more than once."

"You told _Cisco_ before you told _me?"_ Cadence asked. She reached out and swatted Caitlin on the shoulder. "I'm your best friend. Chicks before dicks and all that." She pointed to Iris. "By the way, did you know Cisco called me a 'ho'?"

Iris's eyes widened and Caitlin quickly came to Cisco's defense. "No, he _almost_ called you one. But he quickly cut himself off before he could. He'd _never_ disrespect a woman like that. And as for the other thing you're mad at, yes, I told Cisco first. He badgered me about it after the Christmas party and wouldn't leave me alone until I told him."

"I don't know," Iris said. "You're supposed to tell your girlfriends these things first."

"Cisco's a girlfriend," Cadence pointed out. "Haven't you seen his hair?" That made all the girls burst out laughing, loud enough so that the other patrons looked at them.

"Don't hold back, Cade, tell us how you really feel," Caitlin said.

"Cisco's like my brother, he'd do the same thing to me," Cadence said. "But just in case I'll be sure to re-stock his candy drawer. Brady hasn't told him he cleaned him out yet and I'm sure he'll find out soon."

"I'll be sure to keep that a secret," Caitlin said. "But you might want to move fast, Harry's causing him so much stress around STAR Labs that he's going to start snacking on them soon."

"Speaking of fast," Iris broke in. "How are things going with you and Barry?"

"Really great," Cadence said. "Though he hasn't been sleeping very well lately." She noticed the looks Iris and Caitlin gave each other and rolled her eyes. "Not like _that_." Then she smirked. "Okay, like _that_ but seriously, he's been having a _lot_ of trouble sleeping. He wakes up in a sweat, screams in his sleep. It's obvious he's been having bad dreams, or else he's really lucky I haven't fire punched him from how many times I've been hit or kicked in my sleep. But he keeps downplaying things when I ask. He's practically your brother, Iris, you got any ideas? I'm trying to figure him out."

"If you did, you'd be the first to do so," Iris said.

Cadence smiled. "Since getting back from Star City he's being really—"

"—Guarded?"

"Yeah," Cadence agreed. She knew a big part of it had to have been what he saw in the last timeline. You didn't get over watching all of the people you care about get vaporized right before your very eyes. But he'd been quick to explain that and how he felt like even with powers he was powerless. Still, that hadn't changed things, there was something else. "Something holding him back."

Iris nodded. "The thing with Barry is he has a bad habit of carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And as much as the rest of us will try to get him to stop he'll do that." She shook her head. "This is the kid that even when he was the smallest in his class, he'd protect other people from bullies. Nearly every day he'd have a bruise from taking the beatings from those bullies and he always did it with a smile." Iris took a deep breath. "Even if it means being dishonest to protect the people he cares about. So, if there's something he's not telling you, it's just that he's trying to process things and he doesn't want to worry you."

"Then he clearly doesn't know what he's dealing with because you don't ever tell a mother not to worry about things," Cadence joked. Caitlin smiled. "Like this whole CPS thing, Ryder keeps telling me not to worry about—"

"Wait," Iris interrupted. "What CPS thing?"

"I know there are some things from STAR Labs that we try to keep secret, just so not too many people figure things out, but I'm sure we've mentioned it at some point," Caitlin said.

Iris held up her hand. "No, I mean, dad says that's been closed."

Now Cadence looked confused. "That's impossible. Ryder just had his last meeting with them and I have another one scheduled soon."

"I'm being serious, your case was closed." Iris tapped her finger against her chin. "But I do remember Ryder saying something about a lot of questions when he was asked the last time." She shook her head. "That doesn't sound good to me."

"Yeah, it's not sounding so good to me either," Caitlin agreed. She ran a hand through her hair, pushing her coffee aside. "When was the last time you had your meeting with your CPS agent?"

"Uh…" Cadence wracked her brains, trying to think about it. "A little while ago now. Not long after Barry came back to join the team again."

"That was a while ago," Iris said.

Caitlin eyed her. "Do you know how to get into the police's database?" She asked.

Cadence gave her a look. "Hello? You know I work with the CCPD right? I mean, I'm not supposed to have a gun but—"Iris looked startled. "My job isn't required for me to have a gun, but I have a concealed carry license. I got one a little after the Singularity."

"Ah."

"I know you can get into the database but I'm thinking specifically with Joe's computer," Caitlin explained. "He's the one who had to call CPS in the first place. So, he'd have the information to know whether or not it was closed, right?"

"Right," Iris agreed. "Actually, if he hasn't changed his password." She pulled out her phone and navigated to the CCPD database. She put in her dad's log-in info and held her breath while a dial spun around the screen. Finally, the screen changed and she grinned. "Oh, dad, you need to stop making your passwords so easy."

Cadence and Caitlin moved to the other side of the table and crowded around Iris. "What does it say?" Caitlin started to chew her lower lip, eyes darting back and forth across the screen.

"It says here that it was closed," Iris confirmed. "Not long after your last few meetings with them. It says here that was no reasonable doubt that you were an unfit mother and your custody arrangement with Ryder helped swing things your way."

"Okay," Cadence said slowly. She could feel her heat start to drop. There was something wrong. Something about this was incredibly fishy. "So what does that mean for when Ryder was doing his meeting? When was that?"

"It's not registered on here so…"

"So maybe he didn't meet with Natalie?" Caitlin suggested. "Maybe someone pretended to be her and went to the meeting with him."

"That's crazy, who would want to do that?" Iris asked.

Cadence stood up straight and looked around the coffee shop. Suddenly, she felt she was being watched. There were too many people around, she thought. Much more than were usually there at the time of day. And she and her friends met up for breakfast as many times as week as they could. No one was watching the but still…something…something about being in Jitters was reminding her.

She had asked Oliver what he was doing in Central City but hadn't answered her.

Then the _last_ time Oliver had been around was when he said he was visiting a friend. And he'd mentioned something about a car that had been parked nearby the school.

"What sort of questions were they asking him?" Caitlin asked.

Cadence's heart dropped even further. She understood it now. "Questions about my day. If there were any times I had been late and for whatever reason. How I generally acted. Then Oliver said there was a car he'd seen at Brady's school that was fishy to him." She turned to the girls. "I think someone's been trying to figure out my secret identity as Flare. But not just that…I think they're trying to figure out which kids are metas."

"Who would want to do that?" Iris repeated.

Caitlin pressed her lips together. "The same people who are trying to get the Metahuman Registration Act together."

Once they came to that conclusion, the girls paid their bills and quickly left Jitters. Cadence teleported Iris back to CCPN, teleported to Ryder's office to tell him about their findings, and Caitlin drove to STAR Labs. Caitlin hurried into the Cortex, explaining what was going on.

"Calm down, calm down," Jay said, standing up from his position at the control panel. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't hear what you're saying."

"Yeah, it sounded like you were about to go into warp-drive or something," Barry added.

Caitlin took a deep breath. "I said that we were having breakfast—"

"—Why wasn't I invited?" Cisco broke in.

"I invited you, you said you had to clean up your office," Caitlin reminded him.

Cisco's eyes narrowed into a glare across the Cortex, where Harry stood, holding onto a pen and a pad of paper. "Because _someone_ here, while getting frustrated at their failed equation wouldn't stop knocking my things to the floor."

"It's not like they were expensive anyway," Harry shot back. Cisco rolled his eyes and Barry smiled.

"Anyway, we were at breakfast and we figured out what was going on with Cade's CPS case," Catlin explained. "Iris thought it was closed but Cadence thought it was open. We checked it out and it turns out it _had_ been closed." Now she had Barry's and Cisco's undivided attention. "The last meeting she had with Natalie was really the last one. The one with Ryder was with an imposter. We figured out that when Oliver was here the last time that he'd seen a strange car at the school. We think they're trying to figure out whoever you guys are and who the metas are at Brady's school."

Barry's eyes widened. "For real?"

"I wouldn't joke about this."

Barry ran his hands through his hair. "I just…I never thought about it."

"You have to admit there's been a lot that's been going on at the school," Cisco said. "I guess it was just a matter of time before people were starting to look into it." Then the realization suddenly struck him and he whipped around to face Caitlin again. "You don't mean—"

"We think the same people who are trying to get the MRA passed is studying that school," Caitlin explained. "Why else would they work so hard to get all of that security so fast? At that _one_ school? Have you heard any others getting it, too?"

"No, definitely not," Barry agreed.

"So, what are we going to do?" Cisco asked.

"I'll have Joe look into it. Maybe he can talk to Captain Singh and see what's going on with Chief Paulson," Barry suggested. He pulled out his phone and started to compose a text. "To see how far the MRA is going."

"Geez, first this slow meta and now this," Cisco murmured.

"I'm sorry?" Caitlin blinked. "A slow meta?" Jay started to explain and Caitlin rolled her head towards Cisco and said, "Oh, this isn't about the Turtle again is it?"

"What?" Barry asked. "Who's the turtle."

"It's Cisco's white whale," Caitlin explained.

"It's half-whale, half-turtle?" Jay asked.

Cisco glared and pointed at Caitlin. "This is what happens when you try to explain things you don't understand! You confuse people!" Caitlin held her hands up defensively and Cisco continued after Harry's harsh clearing of his throat. "There's been a lot of these cases; robberies that seemed to be commited by a speedster. But I looked further into it and check this out." He typed on his computer and pulled up security footage of a recent heist.

They watched as, on screen, people milled around and suddenly came to a stop. A man walked on screen and went to each person, taking phones out of their hands, jewelry from around their wrists and neck, things out of purses, then walked away once more. It took only a few moments before Cisco pointed out that the time-stamp was still moving.

"So, he slows down everyone around him, and it's why we call him the Turtle," Cisco explained.

"How come you never mentioned him before?" Barry asked.

"Oh, I don't know, we were a little preoccupied," Cisco said sarcastically. "What with Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, Captain Cold, Heatwave, The Assassination Bureau, Gorilla Grodd, anything else?"

"Okay, so if we catch him and get his powers…" Jay said. "Maybe we can use them against Zoom."

"And slow him down," Cisco agreed. Jay nodded. It looked like a light was coming back to his eyes. He smiled at the revelation. All until Harry asked, "How are we supposed to know where this guy is?"

"Well, he's done a lot of robberies of things that are valuable to others," Cisco explained. "And I mean _really_ valuable. Like, give your life up for it, valuable."

"Again, how do we trap him?" Harry demanded.

Barry turned on his heel and raced to the computer. With flying fingers, he tapped on Caitlin's keyboard, leaning over her shoulder to do so. He focused on the screen until a news bulletin popped up. "According to this, there's a press conference at the CCPD of a set of diamonds that'd just been recovered."

"Chances are that's where he's going next," Jay agreed.

Barry nodded and raced from the Cortex.

* * *

Coming to a stop at the balcony overlooking the lobby of the CCPD, Barry squinted as he scanned the floor below. Captain Singh stood next to two older men who were holding a box filled with jewels. As cameras flashed and questions were shouted out, Barry scanned the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Barry noticed someone who was clearly not dressed for the occasion. He stood at the corner of the lobby in a winter jacket, hood pulled up to cover his head. His eyes were trained on Captain Singh and the two men with the jewels.

"Gotcha," Barry murmured.

When the man stared forward, Barry raced down from the steps and towards the man. As soon as he came off the last step he felt stuck, as if he was moving in slow motion. No part of his body was moving. A strange feeling swam through his gut. And yet the man, the Turtle, walked through the stillness of everyone and over to the jewels. He grabbed them, looked at Barry, winked at him, and walked out of the CCPD.

Then, finally, Barry was able to move again. He blasted to the other side of the lobby, skidding to a stop as Captain Singh said, "the jewels are gone. Lock this place down! No one leaves, sweep the precinct!" And Barry raced back to the Cortex, ripping off his hood as he arrived.

"He did it again," he breathed. Barry brought a hand to his stomach. "He stopped everyone around him, including me. He got the jewels."

"The Turtle strikes again," Cisco agreed.

"Well, the good news is that you weren't hurt," Caitlin said. "And that whatever he did to you was temporary."

"What _did_ he do?" Cisco asked. He moved closer to Barry, looking him up and down. "What'd it feel like?"

"Weird. It was like all of the energy was sucked out of my body and returned," Barry explained.

"That's it. He has the ability to transfer the surrounding kinetic around him to himself. Leaving everyone else in a temporary state of potential energy. Your speed lets you change positions faster than anyone else, making you put your stored potential energy back into kinetic energy," Harry said. He turned and left the Cortex.

"Okay, so facial recognition shows this guy is Russell Glosson who was a small-time thief who stopped after the Particle Acceleartor explosion," Caitlin said. She stood up and crossed her arms, studying the picture. "So at least we have something to go off of." It was then she noticed Jay staring at the picture of the man. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" Jay turned to face them. "It's just hard not to think about not being able to help people."

"We have lots of technology here," Caitlin reminded her. "And we're working to get your speed back."

"Yeah, man, we haven't given up on that," Barry said.

Jay smiled. Shook his head. He reached up and scratched his eyebrow with his thumb. "That's great, guys. It's really helpful, but the thing is. I'm a scientist, too. I'm a scientist and a speedster who lost his speed. If there's anything that's been done to figure out how to get it back, I've done it. It just looks like it's not going to happen." He looked relieved when there was a sudden flash of light and Cadence teleported into the Cortex.

"Okay, I just got Ryder up to speed," She explained. "He says he had absolutely no idea that the woman who came to talk to him was an imposter."

"Well, when you've got someone from the police coming up to your door you basically will do whatever it is they want," Cisco pointed out.

"CPS isn't _exactly_ affiliated with the police," Caitlin said. "But I get your point."

"So now we've got figure _that_ out and The Turtle," Barry said. He brought his hands up to his head and let out a long breath. There was only so much he could handle at one time. It was all serious, but the Turtle was what was really important at the moment. Especially if they could use his power to slow down Zoom.

Cadence looked around at everyone. "I'm sorry, the what? What's the Turtle?" Barry explained to her everything that happened. "And that all happened within the, what, ten minutes it took for me to talk to Ryder? Man, you really do work fast."

Barry smiled at her. Then he took her arm and stepped her away from the others. "Hey, I know this whole CPS thing is crazy, but once we get this thing with the Turtle done I promise we'll figure out what's going on. The last thing I want is for Brady or Leah to get in trouble because of these guys who are trying to get the MRA started."

"I'm not worried about that," Cadence said. She paused. "Well, I _am_ but I'm more worried about you. I know you have the tendency to make things your obsession for a bit, but with what happened this morning—"

"I'm fine," Barry insisted. "Promise." He looked away for a moment. "I'll prove it to you. We haven't had a romantic night in a little while, just us. So why don't we go to dinner and get some drinks and…maybe some kissing?" He suggested.

"I don't think there's any way you could ask me that without me laughing," Cadence said. From the way her lips twitched it was obvious she was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. "I'd love to have dinner with you."

Barry started to smile, then stopped. There was something he was forgetting. Oh right. "Oh, crap!" He said, then slapped his hand over his mouth. Cadence looked at him funny. "No, it's not that, it's just…I completely forgot about the Policeman's Ball. I was going to ask you before we went to Star City but with everything with Vandal Savage—"

"What's the Policeman's Ball?" Cadence asked.

Right, she hadn't been working at the CCPD for too long. Maybe coming up on a year at this point. Barry said, "It's this…ball…where people get dressed up…for the police…And there's expensive food that most people don't really like but we pretend to while we talk to people about things we pretend to care about when we'd rather be anywhere else." Cadence tilted her head to the side. "But the recognition of the officers that do their job to protect the city is cool! That's the best part. That and…you know…having someone to go with."

"Are you trying to ask me to be your date or are you explaining what is turning out to sound like a really bad night?"

Thankful for her joke, Barry let out a breath, his shoulders slumping slightly. "Do you want to go to the police ball with me? I promise it'll be just as bad as I described, but we'd have a good time making fun of it."

"Well, my plans haven't changed within the last ten seconds. I'd have to find someone to watch Brady, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Barry smiled. "I think he's old enough to stay on his own for a while."

Cadence smiled back. "Clearly, you don't know my son."

"Well, this event is for police and their families so he's welcome to come," Barry added.

"Then I'd loved to go with you, Barry, it sounds fun."

"I think we've found the next target for the Turtle!" Cisco called, getting their attention. "CCPD's Policeman's Ball is being held at the Central City Museum. It's supposed to showcase the Crystal Ball. The painting is on loan to the museum where it says the painting's return is worth all the money in the world."

"So the Turtle will make his move and we'll be there to take him down," Barry said.

Caitlin smiled and motioned to Jay. "How do you look in a tux?'

"He's 6'2—"

"—6'4," Jay interrupted.

"Whatever. He's jacked, Cait. I don't think things will be too bad for him in a tux," Cisco pointed out. He grinned at Caitlin's blush and her attempts to hide her face.

"Sounds like a plan," Barry said. He then made a face and turned back to Cadence, who smiled sweetly at him.

"How romantic," she teased. "A date with all of my friends. A date with a meta. A date with danger." She paused, thinking for a moment before grinning. "Sounds like a good time to me."

* * *

Later that night, Barry, Cadence, Brady, Cisco, Caitlin, and Jay all arrived at the Central City Museum for the policeman's ball dressed to the nines. The boys wore rented tuxes while the girls wore the most elegant dresses they could get at the last minute's notice.

The Central City Museum no longer looked like the museum. The event space had been transformed into one of the most elegant of event spaces. Carefully pressed linens were draped over the tables and chairs, champagne flutes decorated the tables along with gold plated dishes and silverware. Soft jazz music played through the speakers in every corner of the room, barely rising above the sounds of the party-goers's conversations.

"Wow, they really know how to dress this place up," Cisco said, pulling at the collar of his dress shirt. "Hard to believe there was a dinosaur exhibit over there."

"And ancient artifacts over there," Caitlin agreed.

"Now where would they hide that Crystal Ball painting?" Jay asked from Caitlin's other side.

"Look, there's Iris and Joe," Brady said, pointing. He waved enthusiastically and caught Iris's attention. She waved back before holding up the bottom of her dress to walk over to them. "Hi, Iris."

"Hey Brady," Iris aid. "Hey everybody. You all look great."

"So do you," Cadence replied. "I love that color on you," she added about the ivory dress that Iris was wearing.

"Thanks!" Iris beamed. She brushed her hair behind her ears and smiled at the group. "I couldn't miss anything like this Not just because of what you guys told me about The Turtle, but there's also a lot of the CCPD here and those working with Mayor Bellows…" her eyes shifted around the room. "May as well get a good story while I'm at it."

"Investigative Reporter, Iris West," Barry teased.

"Well, that's not the only story I'm looking forward to tonight," Iris said. She smiled mischievously at him. "Just make sure that you brush yourself off before all cameras are pointed your way." She waved off to the side. "I see Linda, I'm going to catch up with her for a minute. I'll see you guys later."

"What was she talking about?" Caitlin asked Barry. He shrugged in response. "Okay, well, we've got to think about the Turtle, remember?"

"Split up and we'll re-convene later," Cisco agreed. He held his arm out to Caitlin but she smiled and took Jay's offered arm instead. Then he turned towards Barry and Cadence, who had already started off towards the dance floor. "Looks like it's just you and me, kid," Cisco said to Brady.

Brady smiled back. "That's okay. I think we'll have more fun than everyone else, anyway." He turned and pointed. "I see a buffet table over there."

"Ooh!" Cisco rubbed his hands together. "Shrimp cocktail!"

As the two headed off towards the food, Barry whisked Cadence out onto the dance floor, her red dress flowing around her knees as they moved to the smooth jazz song that was playing. "Did I tell you that you look great tonight?" Barry asked as they swayed.

"Uh, yeah, about five times already," Cadence replied. "See, I know you don't lie very well. But the fact that you've said it so many times is making me wonder if I really _do_ look that good."

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it," Barry said.

"Well, you look very handsome as well," Cadence replied. She laughed in surprise when Barry dipped her down towards the floor and snapped her back up before twirling her around again. "Smooth. I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I, but I figured it couldn't be too hard. And, you don't weigh that much so I figured it'd be easy to get you back up."

Cadence punched him on the arm and the two laughed. Barry placed his hand son Cadence's waist and held her closer as the music segweyed into a slower song. They were focused on finding the Turtle but even so Barry knew it was the few times she would have to completely relax. To no longer have to think about his horrific dreams or what happened in the first timeline of Star City. He could enjoy his time as long as he had it. But he knew there was a point where he'd have to explain everything that'd happened in that other one, just so they'd all be caught up to speed.

Not to mention knowing that the changes in timeline always had a way of coming back to haunt him in the new one. It was only a matter of time until it did. He just hoped it wouldn't be as bad as it was then. Still, it looked like everyone was having a good time. Cisco and Brady were sampling nearly every appetizer on the buffet table, Caitlin and Jay were certainly enjoying each other's company on the dance floor nearby; it was the biggest smile he'd seen on any of their faces in a long while, and Iris and Joe were dancing nearby when Iris wasn't talking to Linda and Wally. Barry watched them for a moment, Wally looked the most comfortable there at the Ball rather than around the Wests.

Even when at the Christmas party, Wally had stayed closer to his mother. He joined conversations here and there but it was obvious he felt out of his element. At least now he was having a good time. As far as Barry knew, as well, they were still going to have their Chinese dinner after the ball—maybe want to be switched to dessert—and Joe was still nervous about it.

 _At least everyone at the CCPD can relax,_ Barry said, noting Captain Singh and his fiancé standing nearby as well. It was the most he'd seen any of the older members of the CCPD laugh as much as they did then. The first hour of the even went by without a hitch. Dinner was served and they all moved to sit at the large tables to take on the five-star meals that had been prepared for the guests of the Ball. As dinner was served departmental awards for the CCPD were passed out. Captain Singh and Joe both received awards from Chief Paulson for their longevity of working for the CCPD. Then other officers received departmental awards as well.

Captain Singh went up to announce the next award. He cleared his throat, standing at the podium. "Good evening," he said to the audience. "Thank you for all of the friends and family that could join us for the CCPD's Policeman's Ball. Not only is it a night to thank those of us that put their lives on the line for the protection of this city, but for giving their time and energy to our brothers and sisters on the force. Many places say they're family but I don't feel they're as tight knit of a family as this precinct here in Central City. Whenever someone is in a bind the others from the precinct rally around that person to lift them up. When one of us hurts, we all hurt. There is nothing in the world that can break apart the brotherhood of those that work for the CCPD.

"We're glad to announce the winner of this next award. This person is who embodies the CCPD as their family through their entire police career and has continued to receive the admiration of those around him, even if he doesn't notice it. He continues to show his admiration for his work on a day to day basis no matter how difficult it can be and continues to work hard, efficiently, and effortlessly and continues to excel with any task that comes his way. Through his work, he continues to inspire the rest of the CCPD in ways he could never imagine. So I'm honored to present the award for Leadership in Forensic Science to Mr. Barry Allen."

Barry's mouth dropped as thunderous applause—and loud cheering from his friends—filled the room. He won an award? He didn't expect to ever get one. He never worried so much about his recognition with his work, either. Even when it started out as a career to find his mother's killer it became his life's passion and something he loved to do. But to get an _award?_

Cisco shoved Barry on the shoulder and he got up from his seat, weaving his way through the compacted tables. He got pats on his back and shoulders as he went to the podium. He took the award from Captain Singh and moved up to the microphone. For a moment, he looked over the audience. He found Joe and Iris sitting nearby, Iris with a camera up to her eye. So that's what she meant.

"Uh, wow," Barry said, looking it over. "I don't know what to say. I really didn't think I'd get an award, because, honestly, I don't think I deserve one." He cleared his throat, rubbed the back of his neck. "I do my job because I love my job. It's something I've grown to love over the years, unlike most I can't wait to go into work to see what I do day after day. No day is ever the same but the constant support I get from the guys at the CCPD. They've become more of my family than the only family I've ever had. Once my mom died and I went to work with Joe, despite their personal thoughts about what really happened, they'd opened their arms for me to visit and ask questions. I wouldn't be where I am today without the people who've supported me in their own ways. So, I want to thank Captain Singh for believing in me enough, despite my age, to give me a chance. Joe and Iris for being some of the best family I've ever had, my best friends Caitlin, Cisco, and Cadence, my dad Henry Allen, and of course my mom who always told me that I could do whatever I set my mind to. So, thank you."

There was another round of thunderous applause, and blinding lights from flashing cameras, as Barry took his award and stepped down from the podium. He looked up, shielding his face from another round of flashing lights. Something caught his eye. A still figure in a nearby room. With the Crystal Ball painting.

The Turtle.

Barry turned towards his friends and frantically waved his hand towards them then gestured to the Turtle. They all turned and spotted him at once. The movement from their table caused a rippling of movement and murmurs through the rest of the crowd.

Cadence slipped her hand into the slit of her red dress that moved up her leg and produced a pistol. She extended it in front of her and stood up shouting, "CCPD! FREEZE!"

All hell broke loose then. Cadence fired four shots towards the Turtle just as he turned and sent a wave of energy out at the group. It kept everyone but Barry frozen in place. He turned and ran to change into his suit before running back. In that time, the Turtle had grabbed the painting and had moved out of the way of the bullets that had been fired towards him. As he moved, Barry noticed something else that caught his attention. Cadence wasn't moving.

She stood still, her hands still wrapped around the gun to point at him. She could run faster than any human, like he could, why wasn't she moving? _Because her energy is based on fire power, not kinetic energy,_ Barry realized. _She can't teleport out of the way._ Then there was more movement. The Turtle walked forward and grabbed the pistol from Cadence's hand. He backed up a few steps and shot up into the sky towards a chandelier.

Barry superspeeded down and raced towards his friends, who were all stuck in the way of the falling chandelier. He pumped his arms, strained himself to move as he crossed into the Turtle's slowing field. The Turtle stepped back and watched Barry as he continued to run, hoping to move his friends out of the way. But Barry continued to shift in slow motion. Barry moved closer to the group, The Turtle pushed out another wave but Barry kept moving.

Finally, The Turtle released his grasp and Barry shot forward, lifting the table so that it blocked his friends from being hit. Brady grabbed Cisco's arm and phased the flying parts of the chandelier through them. Jay turned and grabbed onto Caitlin, shielding her from the crash. Cadence lifted her foot and placed it against the end of the table, propelling herself and her chair backwards. Unfortunately, it was in the direction of The Turtle.

He wrapped his free arm around her neck just as Barry whipped around to him. The Turtle sent another wave of slowing energy, freezing the room and keeping Cadence locked to him as he backed out of the Central City Museum. He kept it up all the way to the Naydell Museum, where he housed everything he had stolen, forcing her into a chair and placing metal clamps around her wrists.

Cadence struggled to get free from her restraints, tugging back and forth as she did so. Her muscles bulged as she willed her arms to use her strength to pull the restraints off. Finally, she gave up, her head dropping as she tried to catch her breath. She couldn't even conjure a tiny flame. "What's going on?" She gasped.

"Meta-dampeners," The Turtle explained from beside her. He sat at a desk, working an old-fashioned typewriter. "Can't get out of those anytime soon. You'd think with these being created that Mayor Bellows and Chief Paulson would be more concerned about where they'd hold it. You see, I was planning to take Chief Paulson, but once I saw how The Flash was trying to help you, well…I realized what was really near and dear to him."

 _Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows are creating meta-dampeners,_ Cadence thought. _That means they're moving faster than ever on the Registration Act._ She continued to struggle against her restraints. One way or another, she was getting out of that chair. But then another thought nearly knocked the wind out of her.

He knew she was a meta.

Cadence flipped her hair back from her face, studying the room around her. There had to be something that would give her an idea to get out of there. But so far she saw nothing but antiques and books strewn all over the place. And the incessantly slow typing of the typewriter was starting to do her head in. Cadence tightened her hands into fists and continued to wiggle back and forth. Finally, she tried to get to her feet, but found the chair she was attached to much too heavy to lift when there were meta-dampeners around her wrists.

Lifting herself so that her weight pressed down on her right, Cadence strained against the restraint. Pain erupted through her wrist at a popping sound and a screech of pain ripped from her throat. She slumped over, trying to catch her breath. She wasn't giving up, but needed to buy some time. Not just for herself, but for her friends to find her.

"What do you want from me?" she growled.

"Nothing from you," Turtle replied. "Other than for you to shut up. I already told you what I wanted. To take what is near and dear to the Flash and preserve it forever. I saw the way he saved you."

"He saves everyone," Cadence replied.

"It's a waste of time. They take everything for granted." The Turtle reached out and caressed Cadence's cheek. She whipped her head around and sank her teeth into his hand. The Turtle screamed and brought his hand back, her teeth ripping his flesh as he did so.

Cadence spit blood from her mouth. "Too slow," she hissed.

The Turtle glared at her before bringing back his hand and smacking her across the face. Stars exploded in front of Cadence's eyes, the force of the hit knocking her and the ground. She landed painfully on her side. The Turtle walked to the side of the room and ripped down a sheet. Cadence's eyes widened with horror when she saw a cadaver propped up inside a glass case with another one standing beside it. It didn't take her too long to figure out it was for her.

She wiggled harder, the chair started to rock back and forth.

The Turtle walked over to the table directly next to Cadence and picked up a needle with a long hose attached. He started to move it towards her arm. _Oh, this is going to hurt,_ Cadence thought. She steeled herself for a moment then, when the Turtle was close enough, she pressed her back into her chair. She shot her leg up. Her heel flipped off her feet, catching the Turtle's attention. With it diverted, she kicked her foot aside and cracked the Turtle in the side. He crashed into the table next to her and she lifted her foot once more. Pushing herself backwards, the chair tipped and landed on its side, crushing Cadence's hand against the ground.

Cadence screamed again.

Then the doors at the back of the library opened and a jolt of lightning swirled through the room. Barry sprinted down the aisle that led toward them. But once again, the closer he got to The Turtle, the more energy was exerted against him. This time it kept him frozen in place. Long enough for The Turtle to attack.

One punch to the side of the head split Barry's lip. Another twisted him the other way. A third to the underside of his jaw made his teeth rattle inside his head. He could feel each individual tooth shift from the force of the hit. Then he crashed to the ground in a heap.

"Flash!" Cadence cried.

The Turtle smirked down at him as Barry lifted his head. He spat blood on the ground and looked back towards the Turtle before racing the room. The Turtle turned back towards Cadence, this time carrying a knife in hand. All before there was another sonic boom sound. The Turtle turned once more.

"Head's up!"

The Turtle looked over just as Brady, in his Shadowhunter cloak, emerged from the shadowy corner of the library. He aimed his slingshot directly towards The Turtle, striking him in the middle of the forehead with a piece of ammo. It struck him so hard his skin split open, the ammo became lodged in his skin, and blood trickled down his forehead. The Turtle screamed, bringing his hand to his forehead.

Then Barry came running through the door once more. Brady turned his slingshot towards Barry and shot something toward him that struck him in the ankle. The Turtle, blood seeping into his eyes, sent out a wave of slow energy.

But Barry continued forward at his top speed and rammed his shoulder into The Turtle's chest, sending him flying up into the rafters. He crashed into it then fell hard to the ground.

Barry came to a stop, gasping for breath. Brady hurried over to Cadence and righted her chair from the ground. "Are you okay, mom?"

"Just fine, bud. As long as you help me out of this," Cadence said. Brady grabbed the metal clamps and tried to pull on them. "Careful. They're meta-dampeners."

"So how are we supposed to get you out?"

Barry walked over to them. His eyes flashed with lightning as he stood over them, gazing at the clamps. Then he went to the other desk and picked up the type-writer. He walked back and held it up over her arm. "This is going to hurt," he warned. Cadence nodded. She knew but she trusted him. Barry slammed the typewriter down onto the clamps, breaking them open. As soon as Cadence was free from the chair her hands healed. Then she looked back and forth between Barry and Brady. "You beat the Turtle's meta power. How'd you do that?"

"With Velocity 6," Brady explained. He carefully plucked the needle from Barry's ankle. "I didn't think that plan would work but it did."

"Caitlin knows you—"

Brady looked guilty. He chewed his lower lip. "She knows _now_ ," he admitted. "It was my idea. I didn't tell them that I was going to use it. I just told Barry and he said to hold onto it in case it we needed it."

"How'd you even—"

"I'm not stupid or deaf. You guys talk about it like it's Voldemort. It wasn't hard to use my powers to get it without them knowing." Cadence thought of reprimanding him but decided against it. She had been the one that said she'd use it if she ever got the chance, not understanding the worry of the unknown. They hadn't tested it to know any side-effects and only Jay had said _not_ to use it with no real reason why.

Cadence looked over at Barry, who still had lightning spill through his eyes, shaking all over. Then, as quickly as it began, it all went away and he slumped to his knees, pressing his hands to the floor. "We can talk about this later," she said to Brady. "First, let's get Barry back to rest. It looks like Velocity 6 took a lot out of him."

Barry held up a hand, shook his head. "I'm okay," he breathed. Cadence pulled his arm over her shoulders and helped him stand up. He wrapped his arms around Cadence and she hugged him back. "I'm okay."

"Well, we need to get back anyway," Cadence said. "There's a lot I need to tell you guys about the meta-dampeners." She turned and hugged Brady, ruffling his hair. "You did a great job, bud."

He smiled back, pleased at the praise.

* * *

Barry watched as The Turtle slowly woke up inside his pod. He turned this way and that, like a rat in a cage, trying to find a weak spot and push himself out.

"Hey Turtle," Barry greeted him. The Turtle glared at him. "You know what the irony of all of this is? You're _our_ most prized possession."

If possible, Turtle's glare deepened. He tried to use his powers. Failed. Over and over until it finally hit. He wasn't getting out and his powers wouldn't get him out. He screamed a rage-filled screamed while Cisco reached over and closed his pod in the Pipeline. "Back to your shell, Turtle."

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" Caitlin asked.

"Not long, it just popped out," Cisco replied.

Barry finger waved as the door slid shut and pulled off his hood, turning back to his friends. "If we're going to use his speed to help us slow down Zoom, we need to get started figuring out how to use it."

"Mom? What is it?" He stared to leave the pipeline then stopped at Brady's voice, noticing Cadence staring down another hallway towards a pod. Brady stood at her side, trying to get her attention but she continued to stare. "Mom?"

Barry walked over and put his hand on Cadence's shoulder. "Cade? You okay?"

It took a moment before Cadence snapped out of her trance. Then she smiled and nodded at him. "As long as you are," she replied.

"I am," Barry said. Cadence looked at him with a pointed stare. Barry looked back at her. "What?"

"Promise me," she prompted.

"Promise her," Brady echoed.

Barry laughed. "I promise."

"Good." Cadence reached out and looped her arm around his waist. Barry looped his around her shoulders and the group headed towards the Cortex.

He was right.

There was a lot they needed to talk about.

* * *

 **A/N:** Going to be traveling tomorrow and without much wi-fi Wednesday so I'm updating today. Well, now we know some more about what's going on with Cadence's CPS work as well as the MRA. Who would've thought they'd go hand in hand? Good plot twist, huh? If anyone was wondering, I've got some more friendship moments with Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco and Cadence, Caitlin, and Cisco so they're not just hanging out together.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** It's a lot, but there's a lot of reconstruction/construction that needs to be done to the city and it costs a lot. Cade's always had a different sense of humor so mangling her own hand isn't so strange. Back then she could only teleport places she'd been, now she can do it instantaneously.

 **Guest 1:** THANKS!

 **Spinquin142:** Glad you liked the emotion of that one. It's a good change from action sometimes and I thought there was a lot to go on with it. Snart and Mick do have some more/one last bang before they're moving onto Legends.

 **Guest 2:** She's not too powerful in the way you're thinking it. Chances are you haven't seen her backstory where it explains she's had her powers since she was 8. That's over 16 years of having her powers so it makes sense that she, compared to Barry's one year at that point of having powers, would be stronger. And, clearly you haven't heard of the term deuteragonist; meaning the secondary main character. Hence Barry is the protagonist and she's the deuteragonist, it's about both of them.

 **WinterRain36:** Already responded to this in PM but I'm so glad you liked it. I haven't decided what to do with Olicity yet since they're not important to the main plot of this story but when I do it'll be mentioned.

 **Highlander348:** Again, thank you for the vote of confidence in Cadence.

 **Yummers:** Yeah, I haven't shown a lot of their friendship and knew it'd be good. Even though I do absolutely love Oliver's and Barry's bromance, it's nice to see Oliver go to Cade for some advice.

 **DarkHelm145:** You're very right, some things from before time travel is going to come back at some point. As we've seen on the show it has 'fix itself' at some points and it's coming for Team Flash. Thank you so much, I'm glad I could write the emotions so well.


	36. Return of the Reverse-Flash, Is He Fast?

**.:36:.**

 _Return of the Reverse-Flash, Is He Fast Enough?_

* * *

"I'm almost done with breakfast," Brady said as his mother walked into the kitchen.

He turned off the stove and carefully picked up the sizzling skillet with a glove. Twisting his wrist, a pair of eggs slid onto the plate next to him, completing the dish that was otherwise comprised of toast, bacon, and a yogurt parfait.

"Wow, bud, you really outdid yourself," Cadence said. She leaned over and gave Brady a kiss on the side of the head. "If I knew you were this good at cooking I would've had you making breakfast years ago." She sat down at her spot at the table, waiting for him to bring her plate over.

"I tried, but you wouldn't let me," Brady reminded her. He moved the dirty dishes to the sink and rinsed hem off before putting them in the dishwasher. Cadence's eyebrows rose as she watched him.

"That's because, somehow, you managed to get burnt toast stuck to the ceiling."

Brady sighed impatiently. "I told you that the maintenance man did something weird to that toaster. How was I supposed to know it was going to shoot toast that high?"

"Hey, as long as it was document as his fault and I got my security deposit back," Cadence said.

Brady smiled and picked up the two plates, bringing them to the small table. He slid his mother's plate over to her before sitting with his own. And Cadence continued to watch him, pressing her chin into her upraised palm. He'd only just turned ten but there was already so much that was different about him.

He'd gotten a little taller—she'd noticed that a few days before and it annoyed her how he was now, legitimately taller than her. He had lost some more of his baby fat. His normally bright eyes were starting to become more solemn as the days and fights with metahumans went on. But it wasn't just the physical things that had changed; he'd always been a sweet kid but now starting to make his own breakfast and lunch, do his own laundry, take responsibility for his school work.

That all had changed.

It was a pleasant change, but she also couldn't help but worry. He didn't talk to her as much as he used to. They used to tell her everything and while she understood he had his own friends and his own experiences in life that he'd be less forthcoming with, her intuition was telling her something was wrong.

"This is amazing, bud," Cadence said once she started into her parfait. "I didn't know you knew how to do this."

"I got a cookbook from the library," Brady explained.

"So you really like to cook, huh?"

Brady shrugged and nodded. The two ate in silence for a long while then said around a mouthful of toast, "I don't really get a chance to do it when Barry's around."

Ah, that was it. Barry had been trying to make sure he was 'earning his keep' so to speak when having stayed over. Mostly it was the speed of which he'd made breakfast while the mother and son were asleep. She hadn't realized it was a problem for him. Cadence pushed her plate aside and looked at her son seriously. They'd already had the conversation where Cadence pointed out that Barry was more likely to be around more often. That he was probably going to be there when Brady woke up. And Brady had seemed to be very receptive of it. He didn't say anything about not enjoying it.

"Does it bother you that Barry's here?"

"No. I like when he's here. He pays attention to me."

" _I_ pay attention to you."

"Yeah, but you're my mom, you have to. And he's a guy, so we can talk about guy stuff."

"Since when has talking about guy stuff ever been a problem with us?" Brady gave a wry smile. "Don't worry, bud, I get it. It's what you have Ryder and Barry and even Cisco for. Still, I don't want you to ever think that just because I'm dating Barry again that you're not the most important thing to me."

"I don't know, mom, I don't think you're going to keep a boyfriend that way."

Figures, he'd still find a way to meddle into her love life. But it showed he cares and his was the only opinion she truly trusted about that sort of thing. "I'm being serious, bud." Brady's eyebrows rose. "I know you're getting older and you want to hang out with your friends more. And now you have a pretty big responsibility with this meta stuff. It's been hectic lately and we haven't had any time together just the two of us. I haven't forgotten that. So, what do you say, once things die down that we take some time for just us to hang out. Maybe go back to Coast City?"

Brady's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Really."

"That'd be fun! But maybe we can go somewhere besides Coast City? I'll think of something." He looked at his phone and shoveled the rest of his plate into his mouth. "I have to go or I'm going to be late for school." He grabbed the backpack that hung form the back of his chair and went to his mother, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Bye mom, have a good day."

"Bye."

Brady hurried from the apartment and down to the corner bus stop. Once it arrived he stepped on board and looked along the seats for Conner, then frowned when he didn't see him. Leah waved his way and Brady went to her, plopping down and resting his backpack on his lap. "Hey, Leah. Where's Conner?"

"He's not going to be in school today," Leah explained.

Brady nodded. "The Oliver thing?"

Now Leah nodded. She kicked her legs back and forth, looking out the bus window. "He says Oliver really wants to get to know him. But it's kind of weird because, he always wanted a dad but never figured it would be Oliver Queen."

Brady eyed her for a moment. He smiled a little. "When did he tell you that?"

"Oh." Leah's cheeks turned red. "We were still talking after you got off chat last night." She reached up and scratched the back of her head. "We were talking about the play and everything and it came up." Right. Peter Pan. She was playing Wendy and Conner had mulled over wanting to be in the play too, rather than working with most of the other boys to paint the scenery. Brady would've liked to be on stage but knew he couldn't risk it if he lost control of his powers. As it was, he was still trying to figure things out.

"I hope he's back in school soon," Brady said.

He let out a long sigh. He truly did hope so. He had gone with his mom and Oliver when he went to explain things to him. But Conner already had a feeling, after having found the check from Moira Queen that his mother was hiding. Then seeing the look on her face when Oliver came to her house, how she had reacted when he told her about Oliver being at their school, when they ran into each other…

Conner was quiet about the whole thing, not quite sure what to feel about it. Their conversation had been short before they started to play with his action figures instead. Though Brady did notice that Conner now favored playing with a Green Arrow toy rather than a Flash toy.

"Oh, but there's some stuff I need to tell you," Brady said. He lowered his voice so no one around them could hear. Leah nodded and leaned closer to her, instinctively knowing it was something metahuman related. "You know how my mom and I were being asked a lot of stuff? From those Child Services people?"

"Mhm."

"And you remember that strange car Oliver saw that one time at school?"

Leah nodded again.

"Right. Well. It all goes back to the Registration Act. From what my mom said, some lady was pretending to be the woman that was really working with Child Services. We think they're people working for the government who are trying to figure out who are metahumans."

Leah's eyebrows came together. "What does that have to do with school?"

"A lot of things have been happening there. They're trying to figure out which one of us are metas and why things keep happening."

Fear took over Leah. Her face crumpled, hands moved to her cheeks. "Oh no. And it's my fault. I can't be found out, my mom and dad—"

"Nothing's going to happen," Brady promised. "Now that everyone at STAR Labs knows what's going on. We just have to be more careful with our powers and…we have to figure out who else at school might be a meta. To protect them. We already have more security being put up—"

"What's going to happen? If they find out who we are? What about your mom and Barry and the others?"

Brady shrugged. He didn't know. He could feel her anxiety starting to affect him. She had good questions. What _was_ going to happen if they were found out? If they had been smart enough to pretend to be the Child Services person to get information on them, then that meant they must've known he was a metahuman. Or had an idea that he was. Brady chewed his lower lip, leaned over to look out the window. It didn't look like anyone was following them this time. But that didn't mean there was no one around trying to figure things out. How many of his classmates, who already thought he was weird, were trying to figure out _why_ he was so weird? How he was always around when metahuman things were going on? With the security cameras that were being brought in, how much longer until they was finally caught?

Brady let out a long breath.

Now he understood how Barry felt every day.

The stress from having to keep the secret, not knowing when he was going to be exposed, was slowly going to kill him.

* * *

 _The world inverted as Cadence held her body ramrod straight. Her arms hung over her head, tightly grasping the bar that held over her head. She let out a long breath, her arms starting to wobble slightly. She hadn't done this in a long while, the muscles she hadn't used in as much time was starting to burn. But in a good way. She swung her body forward, doing a full rotation around the bar. Coming back to the top she moved hand over hand until she twisted to face her original position once more._

 _Rotate, twist._

 _Rotate, twist._

 _She let out another long breath to steady herself and on the last rotation, let go of the bar, and snapped her arms towards her ankles. She did seven full, fast-paced flips then landed on the ground in a crouch, feet placed firmly together, then stood up straight, bringing her arms above her head. Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry all clapped, making Cadence give an embarrassed chuckle and turned towards them._

 _"Okay, I already said you could watch, but I draw the line at clapping," She remarked._

 _"But that was so amazing," Cisco said. He shook his head in awe, resting his chin in his hands. "I mean, you see things like that in the Olympics."_

 _Cadence lifted an eyebrow. She dusted chalk off her hands and "The Olympics is a little much, don't you think?" She thought for a moment. "The prelims, that's fine. But I doubt I'd go that far." She laughed along at her own joke then motioned towards the uneven bars. "Are you sure you don't want to give it a try?"_

 _Barry's eyebrows rose. "And break my face open?"_

 _"You can heal, Barry, I don't think that's going to be a problem," Caitlin pointed out. She nudged him on the arm then looked at Cisco. He nodded back and moved to push Barry forward. But then he and Barry reached over and grabbed onto Caitlin's arms, shoving up to her feet. "Hey! No, I don't think so."_

 _"Oh, come on, Cait." Cadence reached out and grabbed onto her hands, pulling her to her side. Barry and Cisco were behind her, continuing to shove her forward. "You have to live a little. And a couple swings around a bar can do that."_

 _"I'm in a skirt and heels, I can't do that," Caitlin continued to protest._

 _"So, take off your shoes. As for your skirt, that's not a big deal, either."_

 _"I don't have the upper body strength."_

 _"That's the beauty of having powers, Cait," Barry said. "Your physiology increases and you're stronger than you were before." He and Cisco looked at each other once more and the two stuck their arms underneath Caitlin and started to lift her up while Cadence continued to hold Caitlin's hands, keeping her from lashing out at the others. "Now, let's see what you can do."_

 _"Yeah, I mean, you're a girl. You've got to be a little graceful, right?" Cisco teased._

 _Cadence gave him a look. "Being a girl doesn't mean you're automatically graceful," she pointed out._

 _"Oh, is that why you're such a klutz everywhere else?" Cisco asked._

 _"No, that's because I'm too busy being blinded by how much hair you have. Has Pantene called you yet?"_

 _Barry laughed loudly. Then the four were laughing and screeching as they continued to try and force Caitlin up onto the uneven bars while she continued to wiggle to get out of the way. Back and forth they pushed and pulled until Barry lost his balance and the four crashed to the ground. Their laughter increased as they wrestled amongst each other, then piled on top of Barry, finding him to be ticklish. His laughter turned high-pitched, tears rolling down his cheeks as he continued to laugh._

 _It was one of the nicest moments they had in a long while._

Cadence groaned as her eyes fluttered open. She started to move to get up then stopped when pain exploded in her head. It was the first thing she noticed, the stars exploding in front of her eyes. Cadence brought her hand up to the back of her head, feeling for a lump. There was no lump but there was dried blood. She had really been cracked on the back of the head but healed it quickly. However, if the blood was still there it had been a pretty recent hit. Cold seeped into her body and Cadence flinched when it finally hit her.

She sat back on her heels and ran her hands over her face. Nothing else, no other blows that had hit her in the face or head. Cadence closed her eyes tight and shook her head, shaking off the last bits of dizziness.

"Well, well, Sleeping Beauty's awake."

With a start, Cadence looked over to find Mick sitting across from her, legs crossed at the ankle, hands behind his head as if he were lounging on a beach chair. A large welt stuck out from his bald head, almost like a horn.

Cadence glanced at him and sat back. "I thought I was Princess."

Mick frowned. "Isn't Sleeping Beauty a princess? I don't know. I don't watch that Disney crap." He let out a long sigh and brought his hands down to rest on his stomach. "I'd get comfortable if I were you. It looks like we're not going anywhere anytime soon."

Cadence stood up and looked around the room they were stuck in. It was a small room, not much bigger than that of a single bed hotel room. There was nothing in the room that showed any hint to an outside—of what she wasn't quite sure—other than the door that clearly had brought them in. She could see the blood trail that had to have come from her head. It had to have been a hard hit if she were knocked out so easily. Especially with her new healing powers.

"What happened?" She demanded. "How'd we get here?"

Mick lifted an eyebrow. "You think I know?"

"You didn't bring me in?"

"Why would I bring you in here and sit here with you?" Mick snorted. "I'm not that smart. I don't know if you noticed but Snart's the one that who decides what we're doing. I go along with it for the beer and whatever it is we're stealing." He brought a hand up and rubbed his chest. "I could go for a beer right now."

Cadence shot him a dismissive glance and continued to look around the room. She tried to think back to what had happened. She had finished up her breakfast after Brady left, cleaned up the apartment a little bit, and had gotten dressed to go to work. Then…nothing. She couldn't remember anything after that. She couldn't remember if she left the apartment and then had gotten mugged or clubbed over the head, couldn't remember if she were in the apartment when she had suddenly lost consciousness. Either way, it was something that she couldn't quite figure out and that frustrated her more than anything.

"Stand back," She finally said. Mick watched with calm fascination as Cadence clenched her jaw, shaking her hands. And waited for a few seconds when nothing happened. "Are you trying to take a crap or something? What am I supposed to be watching?"

"Oh no," Cadence gasped. She took a step back and shook her hands once more. Nothing happened. "Why isn't this working?" She leaned back against the cool metallic wall behind her. Her eyes shifted back and forth. The room had to have been solidified with meta dampeners, why else would her powers suddenly stop working. She'd been hit hard before, but not enough so that she wouldn't be able to use her powers.

Then an even worse thought struck her.

If her friends knew where she was.

* * *

Barry leaned back against the wall of the building behind him and looked up and down the alley. When he was sure the coast was clear he reached up and pulled off his hood. A long, relieved sigh escaped his lips as the cool air reached him. Sweat trickled down from his hair to his cheeks to his chin. No one really knew how much it took for him to be The Flash and a very hot suit was one of them. Especially when he was dealing with so many things throughout the day.

"Cisco." Barry brought his hand up to his ear, pushing the side of his hood closer to his hear but not putting it back on. "What else have you got for me?"

"What else do I have for you?" Cisco snapped back. "What do I-Barry, you've been running around the entire city all morning. Even the evilest of the criminal masterminds are asleep. Will you _please_ take a break?"

"Because we can't afford to waste any more time. Barry needs to get better, faster, stronger, to prepare for Zoom," Harrys' voice came over the line. Barry pressed his lips together. The last thing he needed was for Harry and Cisco to start arguing again. It seemed that was the only thing they were good for at this point.

Not to mention Harry was right. Barry hated how right Harry was. Zoom managed to haunt him in his dreams and equally in real life, so much so it was making him sick. If there were going to stop Zoom he couldn't stop until he had to. Even if something as small as a bank robbery was what he was dealing with, then he needed to do it. Anything that had him running faster…

Barry took a deep breath, steeled himself for Cisco's response. "Sorry, Cisco, but Harry's right. If I'm going to get faster—"

"Please don't give him an even bigger ego than he already has," Cisco groaned. Barry couldn't help but grin to himself, he could practically see the smug look on Harry's face and the annoyed one on Cisco's. "Just because you're the one who has the fast legs doesn't mean you're doing everything by yourself. Do you know what it's like sitting back here and—"Cisco immediately cut himself and when he spoke again, Barry could hear the urgency in his tone. "We've got a runaway chemical truck, heading south on Kester."

"On it!" Barry replied.

In a flash, he pulled his hood back up and raced out of the alleyway. It didn't take him long to find the chemical truck and pulled himself inside. Barry got into the driver's seat of the truck and stamped his foot on the brake, groaning when he realized his foot went straight to the floor but the truck continued to barrel forward.

Crossing intersections and side streets, cars whizzed out of Barry's way save for the casualty of a car door that managed to get knocked off with Barry feebly crying 'sorry' as it went soaring through the air. He twisted the steering wheel back and forth, doing his best to keep it as straight as possible but felt the wheels start to skid as the truck moved out of control. His brain wracked with images of what could happen if he crashed. It was a chemical truck, if he hit anything at high enough speed, at the right angle…most of the city would be destroyed.

Frantically, Barry searched through the cabin of the truck and let out a gasp of surprise and relief when he found a car jack. Flipping it up in his hand, he shot out of the driver's seat and used the jack to loosen the bolts on the truck so the wheels fell off, making the truck slide to a quick and hasty stop.

"Boo-ya!" Cisco cried. "Nice going, Barry!"

"It was a little close," Barry reminded him, jogging away from the crash site. "But I think I did a good job." With that, Barry raced back to STAR Labs, placing his hands on his hips. He turned back to Cisco and Harry. "Usually, I can figure out the motive behind things like this but a chemical truck? Can't fathom it."

"Was there a driver inside?" Cisco asked.

"Who cares?" Harry asked. He continued to stare down at the notepad that rested on his lap. From Barry's vantage point he could see scribbles of equations but couldn't quite figure out what they were. "He stopped it and in good time. It won't be much longer until the next thing comes up so he needs to get ready."

"Maybe we should be investigating you instead of the whole 'Death to Metas' thing," Cisco dead-panned. "I totally get that you want to go home. But, dude, there are lives at stake here." Then he paused, bobbing his head back and forth. "Though I _am_ a little curious about that. Where was the driver and where was he going with that much chemicals in his truck?"

"Hopefully nowhere we really need to worry about," Barry said. He brought his hands up to his head and looked around the Cortex. "Where's Caitlin?"

"She and Jay are having their daily stroll along the Pipeline to feed the metas we have inside," Cisco explained. He and Barry glanced at Harry when Harry let to a low snort and muttered something under his breath, shaking his head. "Allergies?" Harry ignored him. "But speaking of the MRA we're still trying to get confirmation on what was going on with the CPS. Iris mentioned it to Joe and he's looking into things. Oh, by the way, don't you have to go there? You know, your _real_ job at the CCPD?"

Barry waved a hand. "I can get there later. I got a lot of work done yesterday and Captain Singh says I can come in when there's more for me to work on." Barry cleared his throat, scratched the back of his neck. "Or he just wants to get rid of me."

"I'm betting on the latter. That guy is more tightly wound than a grandfather clock."

"Yeah, speaking of which have you seen Cade around? Usually she comes to help me out but I haven't seen her. She hasn't been answer her phone, either." Barry had tried calling her between every one of his saves and went straight to voicemail each time. Part of him worried that she was mad at him for having lied so much. Though wanting her not to worry he didn't necessarily see as a _lie_ by any admission. But she hadn't said anything in the days since the Turtle had been put in the Pipeline.

He'd start to worry if it was for the nature of their jobs continuously making communication difficult. Talking about dinner plans wasn't easy when paperwork needed to be done and conversations inevitably turned to meta stuff.

"She's probably up to her elbows in guts or something," Cisco said. He thought about it for a moment then shuddered. "On paper, it sounds like a really cool job, but in real life it's disgusting."

"Can we get back to stopping Zoom?" Harry demanded.

Barry ran a hand up over his face. He could see Cisco was gearing up to start a fight once more. "Okay, maybe instead of worrying about my speed we should think about different ways to stop Zoom. Think outside the box, maybe? We haven't figured out how to close the breaches, maybe we should start there."

Harry jolted for a moment. As if lightning had suddenly struck him. "That's a good idea," he admitted. He said something else under his breath and started to scribble on his notepad once more. "That's a _very_ good idea."

"It's like Einstein's Riddle," Cisco pointed out. "It can't be done."

"I solved that when I was 10," Harry snapped.

Cisco clenched his teeth and lifted his hands as if he were strangling Harry's neck. Barry smiled to himself at Cisco's exasperation. Then Cisco lowered his hands to his lap and sucked in a deep breath through his nose. "No. Nope. You're not going to get it out of me this time. Mhm. No, sir. You're not going to make me lose my cool this time though I really, _really_ want to punch you in the face right now."

"And what would that do to help anything?" Barry asked.

"It'd make _me_ feel better, that's for sure." Cisco rolled his head back towards his computer as it started to beep rapidly. His eyebrows lowered and he leaned close to the screen. "Whoa, we got something moving fast. Too fast, looks like it may be—"

"—Zoom," Harry interrupted.

Barry looked at the two before racing out of the Cortex, leaving one of his strongest gusts of wind behind. He raced back and forth along Central City, running aimlessly until he saw a red lightning trail in front of him. It darted back and forth until it came back towards Barry, realizing the speedster was behind him. _Red? Zoom's trail is blue._ Barry thought. Then a sudden, horrifying thought entered his head and he screeched to a halt, sucking in a deep breath.

The other speedster stopped and Barry's eyes widened in surprise. His heart dropped to his feet and bounced back up into place. No. No way. It couldn't be. But the Reverse-Flash stood in front of him, slowly bringing himself up from his crouched position, red eyes boring into Barry's.

"Eobard Thawne," Barry gasped.

"You know who I am?" Eobard's eyes slowly stopped glowing. He took a step towards Barry, eyes shifting in confusion. Then his face cleared with recognition. He nodded to himself.

"You died!" Barry gasped.

Eobard's eyes closed. A low, malicious chuckle escaped his lips. He wiggled his finger in the air. "Good to know. And guess what Flash? I know what time period you're from." Barry took a step back. "So that means, very soon…you will die." With red lightning crackling around him, Eobard raced forward and lifted a fist, punching Barry in the face. He was too slow to stop him, receiving the punch and fell to the ground.

"Barry, what's going on?" Cisco's voice came to his ears.

"It's…it's the Reverse-Flash," Barry whispered.

There was a long silence. But Barry didn't care. He had to take Eobard down. With a jolt of electricity, he raced forward and slugged Eobard in the cheek. Eobard stumbled back then punched Barry. Then the two raced through the city, red and yellow lightning bolts shooting back and forth along the city. Punch after punch, kick after kick was traded. Barry flew through a window and rolled along the ground, crashing out the other side of the building. Then Eobard had him around the neck and threw him to the ground. Blood pounded in Barry's ears as he continued to fight Eobard, using as many of the recent tactics he learned in combat to strike him.

Still, Eobard managed to come out on top and strike Barry so hard in the face that he spun to the asphalt, landing hard. When he tried to get back up his arms were too weak, making him collapse once more. Finally, Barry managed to bring himself up, only to find Eobard had raced away. Barry gritted his teeth and raced to the Cortex, ripping off his hood as he did so.

Cisco and Harry were now joined by Jay and Caitlin, who appeared just as unnerved as the others. Barry paced back and forth, unable to help himself before spitting, He…he died! I _watched_ him die! He should've been erased from existence."

"Not necessarily," Harry spoke up. He thought for a moment before explaining, "It's possible he was in the speed force, protecting it like a bomb shelter. Keeping him and his timeline intact. It's known as a time remnant." Confused glances turned his way and he rolled his eyes. "Eobard Thawne is from the future so when you erased him from existence, it wasn't the same Thawne. This Thawne hasn't traveled back to kill him, it's the first time he's here."

"It explains why nothing's changed," Caitlin remarked.

"Or that he didn't know my name or that we met before." Barry shook his head. "That…that doesn't matter. I'm going to end this…him. In this time. Once and for all."

"Are you sure about that?" Snart strolled into the Cortex, his eyes stuck on Barry. His lips pulled back into a smirk. "Because it seems to be that you tend to be a little slow on the uptake about these kinds of things."

"What are you doing here?" Caitlin demanded.

Snart glanced at her. "I see you've come to have a frosty demeanor but this conversation has to do with me and Barry, in particular what's happened to Mick."

Barry's eyebrows came together. First the Reverse-Flash and now Mick? What did he have anything to do with Mick? "What do you mean? What happened to him?"

Snart lifted his hands, leaned back against the computer console that Barry stood in front of. Ignored, the glares that both Cisco and Caitlin shot his way. "We were minding our own business, knocking down some liquor stores—"

"—Liquor stores?" Cisco repeated. "Don't you have anything better to do than knock down liquor stores?"

"What can I say? When Mick has his vices…" Snart shrugged. "We were doing our thing when lo and behold, Mick's swept away by this icy cool gust of wind that, from my experience, only a speedster can make. Now, correct me if I'm wrong…" Snart pressed his finger to his temple then pointed at Barry. "We had a deal. We helped you with your metas, you didn't get in our way."

"We do have a deal," Barry said reluctantly. "I haven't done anything to Mick."

"Then we've got a problem. If it wasn't you who zipped in and took him then who did?" Snart's eyes traveled around the room as recognition slid over everyone's faces. "Looks like I've stumbled across something. And my prize would be…?"

"The Reverse-Flash," Barry whispered.

Snart's eyebrows rose. "And here I thought Zoom was the one who was tickling your fancy now."

"What would the Reverse-Flash want with Mick?" Caitlin asked. "That makes no sense." She shook her head. "If he can move that fast, if he's still faster than Barry, then why not just take him out in the first place?"

"That seems to be the million-dollar question," Snart said.

Barry didn't respond. A terrible thought came to mind. He hadn't been able to get into contact with Cadence all morning. And if Mick was missing to…it had to be a coincidence. What else could it be? This Reverse-Flash didn't know anything about him. He wouldn't know the connection he and Cadence had. So why would he want to take her. _It's just a coincidence, I'll call her and she'll pick up. She was probably in a meeting or something._ Barry whipped out his phone and punched in her speed dial number and put the phone to his ear.

It rang once, twice, three times.

And rang and rang.

Finally, it went to voicemail and Barry closed his eyes. He tilted his head back, removed his phone from his ear. It looked like everything was falling into place in the worst way. Barry turned back towards Snart, who nodded. "Looks like the little Fire Bug has been taken, too."

Cisco snapped his fingers. "Fire Bug! I should've thought of that." Caitlin glared and elbowed him in the side. "Which is, seriously, the worst time I could think of that. Yeah…"

"Where is she?" Barry snarled.

Snart gave him a funny look. "Flash…don't you think if I knew that I would've gone there first instead of coming to accuse you? Now, I may be a bit of an impatient man but I'm not unreasonable. Nor am I stupid."

"I'm sorry, who is this guy?" Jay asked.

"Leonard Snart," Barry said.

"Captain Cold," Caitlin said.

"One of the most annoying creatures on the face of the planet," Cisco said.

Snart waved his hand. "Oh, you're all too kind." He turned to Barry. "Now that we know who, what, where, and how, we need to figure out the when and why." His face screwed up in a comical expression of disdain. "Is this where we do that 'go team go' deal and have a team up?"

"What did you have in mind?" Barry asked.

"Don't you have that…thing where you can track the signatures from my gun or something?" Snart asked. He reached over and dropped his hand on the computer behind him, patting it gently. "Or however else you've managed to find me and Snart the last couple of times we've been in Central City. Can't you do that now?"

Caitlin tapped frantically at her keyboard. Then she shook her head. "I'm not getting anything at all over the city. In comparison, I can track Brady and while he's not exactly using his powers at the moment, all you do continue to put off energy of your powers. His still tracks him at school, yours is tracking you here at STAR Labs along with me and Cisco. I'm not getting anything from Cade."

"But you just said we're all able to put off a little bit of our powers," Cisco said. He lifted his hand and pointed towards Jay. "Which makes sense as to why we're not getting anything form him."

"Thanks for the reminder, Cisco," Jay said.

"You're welcome."

Harry smirked. Then he snapped his fingers. "It has to be a meta-dampener, just like the one that the Turtle used when he held her captive at the Policeman's Ball."

"You think the Reverse-Flash was working with the Turtle to get the meta-dampeners?" Barry asked, eyebrows rising.

Snart gave him a funny look. "That's one of the most self-centered things I've ever heard you say. You know, not everything's about you, Barry. As a matter of fact, a lot of the things that go on in Central City don't have to do with you but all of meta-kind in general." He rolled his eyes. "No, the meta dampener isn't connected between The Turtle, as you call him, and The Reverse-Flash. It's being peddled throughout the Network."

"The Network?" Caitlin and Cisco repeated.

"Cadence has mentioned it numerous times in terms of what chemicals and other compounds can be used to make a serum for Zoom to get slower," Harry explained. He ran a hand through his hair. "I never got the chance to follow up with her on that."

"You know about The Network?" Barry asked.

"Most of us criminals do. Rumor has it, that the Network is receiving these mechanisms from the government. Of course, that's not anything that has been proven but you know what they say about little birds." Snart flittered his fingers in the air. "There are those who are desperate enough to not be found out by the general population that are using The Network to receive pieces of jewelry and other forms of meta-dampeners to make themselves appear normal."

"And you think it's what's keeping Cade's powers from being tracked?" Barry asked. His mind raced. It made sense. The only way they had been able to track while in The Turtle's clutches had been because of their deducing of where The Turtle would have been hiding her. They had trouble tracking her down then, too, from her powers. And she _had_ said she couldn't use her powers when trying to break out of her restraints.

As soon as she was free she was abel to heal the injuries she received.

"So how are we going to find her?"

Snart raised a hand. "I _might_ have an idea. That is…if you're not going to get too gushy on me with this whole teammate attitude."

"Mhm, yeah, and why should we trust you?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, why do _you_ want to help us find Cadence?" Jay asked.

Snart brought up a hand and wiped it over his mouth, equally wiping away the smirk that had been ever present on his face. Then he reached up and ran his hand over his head before crossing his arms, looking the most vulnerable than any of them had ever seen. "Mick Rory may be a loose cannon to anyone who knows him but I owe him my life. He's my partner and I'm not going to turn my back on him." He leveled his gaze at Barry. "I think you have a lot of experience in that area."

Barry took a step back.

How many times had he and Cadence said that back and forth to each other. They were partners. Reverse-Flash or not he wasn't going to keep her locked up. If Eobard had taken them for any reason, then they had to figure out what it was and how to get them back. But if there were met dampeners…

"Their heat," Barry finally realized. "He's going to use their heat powers to make himself go faster. Without tachyons that's the only way it can be done. He must've figured that out, found out the two sources in the city…"

"Then that means he's been around longer than we thought," Caitlin whispered. "And watching us."

Barry took in a deep breath and looked firmly at Snart. "What's your plan?"

Snart started up his cold gun, the familiar whirring sound filling the air. "I'll tell you on the way."

"You know where they are?"

"There haven't been many places that I haven't broken into or out of that some shady people aren't able to figure out how to use for themselves. Like I said, I have an idea and it's going to be your quick feet that'll get us to check out each and every one until we find them."

* * *

 _Wham! Wham! Wham!_

Cadence continued to throw herself against the walls and door of the room. Each slam made her ricochet back to the other side before she steeled herself to start all over again. Finally, one hit against the door was strong enough for her to cry out in pain, grabbing her shoulder. She stumbled backwards, falling over Mick's legs to fall into his lap.

She scowled when Mick brought up his arms to catch her. An expression of pleasant surprise came to his face. "I always knew you'd fall for me. I mean, really, why stick with someone who can do _everything_ fast than stick with someone who can bring the heat?"

Eye twitching, Cadence brought up her hand and punched him hard in the face. She scrambled off his lap and Mick chuckled, bringing up a hand to rub the side of his face. Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth where his lip split. "Don't fucking touch me!" She hissed. " _Ever again!"_

"Princess really packs a wallop," Mick said. He continued to sit lazily on the ground. "It's not going to do anything to keep ramming yourself into the door like that. Don't you know how this works? You get kidnapped or put away in jail and wait to see what everyone wants with you. That's the point that you try and bum rush the door. And whoever this guy is that took us, I don't think he wants to deal with a fire bug and a guy that looks like me, so…"

Cadence hunched on the ground, bringing her hands up to rest on the side of her face. She pushed her hair back from her face, trying to ignore the sting in her shoulder. There had to be something she could do to get out of there. Even if there was nothing that could be done with her powers she wasn't one to give up that easily. Besides, she needed to stay alive long enough for her friends to, at least, figure out what happened to them. And, as much as she abhorred him, she couldn't let Mick die.

"He's got a pretty good security system going on around here," Mick continued. "It was a cake walk when we got that tech crap from your guys' hideout."

Cadence started. "That computer stolen from STAR Labs…"

Mick spread his hands. "That was the easier ones to get. Who knew the security in such a high-tech place was so bad? You might want to get that looked at." He sniffed loudly. "Goes for a pretty penny, too."

 _The meta-dampeners,_ Cadence realized. _It must be form the same things that we use at STAR Labs. Whoever he sold the computer to, they got the schematics from the Pipeline and are using it here._ Her eyebrows came together. But what did that mean, though? Who was the one they sold the computer to and who was the one that created the bunker. She tried her hardest to figure it out but found herself quickly distracted.

Mick continued to talk, almost to himself or to an imaginary voice than to her. His voice shifted back and forth in tone, almost like there were two versions of him that were talking. "I doubt it'd take too long for him to realize the mistake he's made once you get to him. There's always mistakes made. And it does nothing but cause grief and loss."

Cadence closed her eyes, a fresh wave of grief for her father coming over her. She curled her fingers into her palms, hard enough that her nails dug into her skin, sending stinging pain up her arms.

"I know about loss," Mick said. He crossed his legs the other way. "I lost my mother…my father…my sister all on the same night. A house fire. The thing is, I'm the one who set them all on fire. You see, I heard this little voice in the back of my mind telling me that if I were to make them gone, then I wouldn't have to suffer pain anymore."

Cadence looked at him through her hair. "Pain?" She repeated. A little alarm went off in the back of her mind.

A slow smile came to Mick's face. "Discipline, he called it. But either way you slice it, being knocked around like a rag doll isn't quite fun times." He laughed to himself. "If only the man knew what he was doing." His eyes shifted. "If only I knew what I was doing…what it'd mean for the rest of my life. How many people believe you accidentally killed your family when you've already been put on a list with the police. Excuse me for enjoying the way things burn. You'd think I said I wanted to beat their heads in with a baseball bat."

Mick cut himself off when there was a low thudding sound that reverberated from the hallway. Then slow footsteps came their way. Cadence got to her feet at the same time as Mick. But he loaded up his gun, it created a high-pitched squeal as it took on power, stepping in Cadence's way. He nudged her back with a gentle push of the heat gun and aimed it straight for the door.

The door pushed open and Cadence's eyes widened in shocked surprise. _The Reverse-Flash…_ the thought flittered across her head, her body moving before she could stop herself. It was the man that had caused so much pain to Barry for his entire life, somehow come back from the dead. She didn't need to think, just needed to act.

But whatever it was the room was reinforced by didn't affect him as he used his blinding speed to knock her to the ground. Mick rolled his eyes. "Do you not recognize a chivalrous gesture when you see one?" He demanded. Without waiting for a response, he shot a blast of fire towards the Reverse-Flash.

* * *

Snart stumbled as he felt Barry come to a stop. He turned to the side, pressing his hands to his knees. "I don't know how you manage to do this every day without throwing up. That must be a superpower."

Barry placed his hands on his hips, nodded towards Mercury Labs. "You sure they're being kept here?"

"I'm sure. Like I said, there haven't been many places I've broken in and out of that I haven't realized could be used as something else." Snart bobbed his head back and forth. "Case in point, this place seems to be the direct competition to STAR Labs, am I right?"

"Well…" Barry trailed off. He wasn't sure if it was a _direct_ competition, but close. Dr. Christina McGee had said she and Harrison used to be the ones who worked closely and against each other as their scientific studies went on. _And_ Mercury Labs had as many accolades under their belt as STAR Labs. Caitlin said she'd seen a lot of the improvements in technology while working there and Mercury Labs had a been targets of a few metahumans every now and then.

Snart continued. "I don't doubt this guy would try to find a place that would have the same sort of technology at his fingertips to do whatever it is he's trying to do. As you said, he wants to use their heat for his speed…"

"He wants to go home," Barry murmured. It was the only explanation as to why he hadn't been killed yet. Just like Harry wanted to go home. He understood the need for it, home is where the heart is and all that. But, he had some unfinished business with Eobard Thawne and intended to have a very important conversation with him.

"And so, if he's from the future as you guys say, he wouldn't be dumb enough to allow himself into your base of operations." Snart slung his cold gun over his shoulder. "And I sincerely doubt Mercury Labs is sitting back and letting STAR Labs do all of the metahuman research they can get their hands on."

Barry nodded. Snart made sense. He brought his hand up to the lightning bolt by his ear. "What have you got?"

"We're getting a reading from Eobard's powers," Caitlin said. "He's in there, somewhere."

"Would I ever lie to you, Flash?" Snart drawled.

Barry's lips curled back into a smile. Instead of replying, he reached out and grasped the hood of Snart's parka, his smile widening at the sudden choking sound Snart made before glaring at Barry. With that, Barry raced the two inside. He looked through the entirety of the laboratories before stopping when he heard what sounded like rapid vibrating. He recognized that sound anywhere. Snart started to ask what it was but Barry raced over, just in time to flatten himself against a back wall when a rush of flame shot in front of Eobard.

Eobard bent to the side moving out of the way of the flames and shot forward. He grabbed Mick by the throat and slung him around. Mick crashed into the wall behind him and slid to the floor. Cadence took the chance to take a running leap, striking Eobard in the chest. He stumbled back then turned and did the same to Cadence. She cried out, falling heavily to the ground.

Mick stood and pressed his heat gun flush into the side of Eobard's head. "Let's see what a melted head looks like. I didn't get a chance to see my father's up close."

Eobard smirked. "My, aren't we sick in the head."

"Don't flatter me, bub."

"Fine."

Eobard turned to attack as Mick pulled the trigger on the heat gun. Using his superspeed, Eobard ducked his head out of the way and brought up his hand to take on the fire blast. Barry could see red electricity crackle through Eobard's eyes as he took on the power. Barry gritted his teeth. No. This wasn't going to happen again.

Barry nodded at Snart then started running. Snart lifted his cold gun and shot off a blast, freezing Eobard's leg to the ground. Eobard growled in fury and turned Snart's way before he sent out another cold blast, striking him in the other leg and his waist. Eobard turned in time for Barry to send a strong punch to the side of the face. Snart finished the job, freezing Eobard up to his neck.

Cadence gazed at Barry in disbelief as she painfully pulled herself from the floor. "Geez, how do you always find me? I don't have GPS..."

"I never stop looking," Barry replied. He bobbed his head. "Though, I think I'm more likely to find you at the top of a tree, maybe…" He laughed. He held out his hand and Cadence clapped hers into his, allowing him to pull her to her feet and out of the doorway. The moment she was outside of the room, she felt her healing powers return and rolled her shoulder to test it.

The four turned to stand in front of Eobard who was still stuck in his icy tomb. He started to laugh; a low, hollow laugh before it was loud, using everything in Eobard's lungs. Finally, he calmed enough to look at Barry and say, "You really think you're fast enough to stop me?'

"We'll find out," Barry replied.

Eobard's eyes narrowed. His grin slid into a frown. His eyes glowed red. "Catch me if you can," he whispered in his demonic voice. Eobard rapidly vibrated until the ice melted and blasted off down the hall with Barry chasing after him.

Once again, they raced around the city, taking sharp turns and shortcuts as the seconds passed. Eobard's arms flung back and forth as he speeded ahead of Barry. Every few seconds Barry would reach out his hand to grab onto Eobard's shoulder. He was faster, he knew it, he could still feel the boost of Velocity 6 in his system. He was running faster. But to his dismay, Eobard looked over his shoulder, saluted towards Barry, and put on another burst of speed. Eobard was still faster.

Suddenly, Eobard veered off to the side, down another street. Barry kept racing forward, periodically watching as streets passed, seeing Eobard a little ahead of him. Then the thought struck him, the perfect way to take down Eobard. Barry turned on his heel and raced back up the street then took a sharp left. And continued to go straight. Then he took another left and another.

He ran as hard and fast as he could; blood pumping through his veins, forcing him to pump his arms and legs faster. "Come on," he whispered to himself. "Come on."

He saw a flicker of red lightning and put on an extra blast of speed. Lowering his shoulder, Barry leapt forward and felt his shoulder ram into Eobard's side. The two crashed into an alley wall and fell to the ground. This time, Barry immediately got to his feet and grabbed Eobard by the cowl of his suit and slugged him across the face. Eobard stared to fall and Barry pulled him up, punching him again. He hefted Eobard and threw him across the alley, sending rapid-fire punches into his gut with the use of his speed.

It was for his mother.

His father.

For him.

For all the pain that Eobard had caused upon his life.

And it felt good.

Barry grabbed Eobard and pulled him up once more. "You're not fast enough, Thawne," he hissed into Eobard's bleeding face. "I will never lose to you again. This way between us, it ends now." A lightning encased punch to the stomach this time.

Eobard fell.

Barry pulled back his fist.

"Barry, stop!" Cadence suddenly teleported at his side, chest heaving from her exertion to find him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Eobard slumped to the ground with Barry standing over him. "Don't kill him, just bring him in."

Barry nodded, but he gave one last punch for good measure.

This one knocked Eobard out.

* * *

 **A/N:** Yeah, Cade got caught twice and stuck in a similar position. But it was needed for a few reasons; one) I had this chapter planned out before _The Policeman's Ball_ was completely worked out. Two) It continues to bring forward the MRA plot. Three) it's the catalyst for the Rogues' redemption plot and, again, I had this chapter/Reverse-Flash plots figured out for a while. But I think this is one of my favorites to write out of this whole story apart from upcoming chapters I've worked out already, too. Namely some Earth-2 stuff. :)

Don't forget to check out my new one-shot _Barefoot Summer._

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you so much as usual. Your encouragement is always, always, ALWAYS appreciated.

 **Ethan:** Well, Henry's got to get through the fact that Barry's not just his son anymore. If he can, anyway. It can't be easy, he's been gone long enough that even Barry calls Joe dad and having to share that role now can't be easy for Henry since he already lost so much time. Iris could get in trouble, but on the show it's proven that she's done it enough that no one's the wiser about it. Look back into season 1 with Everyman and it shows she's done it before. And I don't think Cade's 'fairly' good looking considering her faceclaim is Kristin Kreuk, I think she's very attractive. Lol.

 **yummers:** And it's going to come to a head in the next chapter.

 **DarkHelm145:** Finally coming up to the Reverse-Flash thing you were wondering about. Hope you liked it.

 **Guest:** Thanks! I'm glad it worked out well.

 **WinterRain36:** Already responded to this in PM but thanks again for taking the time to review. I'll have the next part to _Buried Decadence_ up soon.

 **Spinquin142:** Yeah, I wish it was longer, too. They deserved to have some time they could enjoy. But more moments of that is coming soon, even if they're few and far between because it's getting into the back half of the season. Thank you, I really do like working on everyone's relationships and giving them characterization.

 **Babyj:** No, Team Flash don't know about Velocity 6 yet, but it's coming in the next one. A lot of stuff is. You're not wrong with it being a blow up. But it may work out differently than you think. ;)


	37. Earth's Journey

**.:37:.**

 _Earth's Journey_

* * *

Brady groaned as his cell phone buzzed again.

He didn't need to look at the screen to know it was the same alert he'd received before. He had gotten it as soon as everything started to go down and, as usual, he was missing everything. The Reverse-Flash had come back and Barry was going after him. What was he supposed to be as a hero if he couldn't help them out when the time came? His name was Shadowhunter, sure, but how much longer was he supposed to shadow his mom and Barry before he could go out on his own?

 _The last time didn't work out so well,_ the voice in the back of his head reminded him. But he _had_ managed to take down Metallo without having to do too much work, and as much as he was able to withstand his heavy hits and a short stay in the medical bay. There had to be something he could do to help.

"Again?" Leah asked kindly

Brady nodded. He pulled his backpack further up his back as they stepped off the bus and headed towards their school. "I get that they don't want me to get hurt, but I've helped out a lot. They always think about what I can do to help when we're coming up with plans and I can do it. But I keep getting left out, too."

"That's just because we're kids," Leah pointed out. "And they don't want us to get hurt." She brushed her hair back. "Think of it this way, who would be there to save the city if something happened to them and you weren't there to pick up the slack?"

Brady nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He reached out and gently pushed her shoulder. "What about you? How're your powers going? Have you given any thought to telling your mom and dad yet?"

Leah shrugged and shook her head. "No." She twisted her mouth to the side, lowered her gaze to the ground. "I'm too scared. They keep saying that they want to move, because of all the metas. I can't tell them I'm one too, if they're afraid of me."

"But you're their daughter, they wouldn't, like, kick you out over that."

Leah nodded. "Yeah, they would."

Brady sucked in a deep breath. He hoped things wouldn't turn out that way but…things with metas still weren't going well. His mom tried to keep it from him, he could tell form the way she would change the TV channel or lower her voice when talking to the others, if not sending him from the room entirely. But when getting ready for bed he'd ask her about it and she'd tell him a few things if not outright saying he'll understand when he was older.

How much older did he have to be?

"Well, we just need you to work on your powers more and, maybe, if they saw what you could do, they wouldn't be so scared. Then you could protect them." Brady then mimicked her expression, twisting his mouth to the side. He understood her worries. He wanted nothing more than to protect his mom and Barry and the city but was consistently put off to the wayside so that he 'stayed safe'. He was getting sick of hearing that. There was a lot of things he could do and all he needed to do was truly prove himself. Which he thought he already did. "What if we went to STAR Labs after school today, to get some more work done."

"Yeah, maybe," Leah agreed.

Brady smiled and patted her on the shoulder. Then he turned back towards the school, eyes darting around the new security measures of the school. Not only were there more cameras set up, but now they were starting to put up metal detectors at the front doors as well as code plates on each door into the school. Brady knew it wouldn't make a difference what they put on the school; if they were trying to find kid metas, they would find them. If there was anyone else who wanted to try and take down the school or anyone inside they'd find a way to get through the security.

They really didn't know who they were up against.

"Hey guys."

Brady looked over as Conner wiggled his way between Leah and Brady to walk along with them. "Hey." Brady smiled and reached his hands out to receive a high-five from his best friend. "I thought you weren't coming to school today."

"I didn't want to, but my mom made me," Conner explained. He reached up and grabbed the straps of his backpack with tight fists. "She said I was spending too much time at home and that I couldn't waste my education."

"My mom and dad want me to stay home," Leah said. It was an admission they'd heard many times from their classmates at school. It was whispered in the halls and in the lunchroom as the students talked about The Flash and what his identity was and how they may or may not have seen them. Then there were those who agreed with some of the adults, who thought that metahumans needed to be kicked out of the city.

"Because of the meta attacks?" Conner asked.

He turned and frowned at Brady when she nodded. Brady frowned back. He knew part of it was his fault. The more often he went out as Shadowhunter, the better chance of his identity being known. As far as he could tell, no one did, but it wouldn't be too hard to figure out. How many times could their school be attacked before people started to question it. _Especially_ when it only happened after he had gone back at to school when the Assassination Bureau released him.

Honestly, he didn't know how anyone didn't think to connect him to it. He worried every now and then, no matter how careful he was. It was going to get harder and harder to keep it all a secret if he didn't do his best to keep it separated. Not to mention all the cuts and bruises he managed to receive when fighting.

"What?" Leah asked. She stopped walking and planted her hands on her hips when the boys looked at each other. "What?" They still stayed silent. Finally, she stomped her foot on the ground, pouting. "I'm your friend, too, you can't leave me out like this."

"It's nothing other than…." Brady let out a heaving sigh. He was about to repeat the words that had continuously ben said to him and the irony was not lost on him. "We have to be very careful."

Conner and Leah both nodded. Then Conner pushed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I wanted to talk to Brady before class started if that's okay," he said to Leah. She smiled and nodded before walking into the school. Conner turned to Brady, licking his lips.

"So?" Brady prompted. "How's it going?"

Pressing his lips together, Conner shook his head. "Not very good," he replied. He brought his hands up to run through his hair. "My mom is going nuts with the idea of Oliver being back around. I don't think she expected him to _actually_ want to be there."

"So, he's been around?" Brady asked. He waited as Conner's eyes shifted back and forth, trying to figure out how he felt. He knew how he felt, excited and confused. Meeting Ryder for the first time, Brady was originally angry at his mother, for having kept it a secret for so long. Then grew to really like having Ryder around and was excited to see him every weekend. Getting to know him every day made it easier to understand his own mannerisms and personality when held against his mother's as well.

"Sort of," Conner said. He kicked at the ground. "Not as much as he could be, he's so busy working on his mayor campaign and everything. And mom doesn't really like that because she thinks it doesn't really show that he's committed to being here because he'd be in the public eye." He rolled his eyes. "She thinks if people find out who I am then it'd be used against him."

"Ohhhh." Brady knew nothing about politics other than what he heard his mom say every now and then and what he saw on the news. As it was, he was too busy paying attention to what Chief Paulson and Mayor Bellows was saying about metahumans. "Well, what do you think? Do you like him?" The warning bell rang and the two walked inside.

"I like him fine, I guess," Conner said. His pained expression reflected in the glass of the front door as they went inside and headed to their classroom. "He tried not to push too much. We just played with my action figures and everything. But…when I was trying to ask him about what he did for a job, since he's not the richest guy in Star City anymore, he wouldn't say anything. He's the Green Arrow, isn't he?"

Brady nodded in confirmation. No point in trying to keep it quiet. There were too many things that'd make sense of anyone who paid too close attention. Not to mention, Brady never kept anything about his work as Shadowhunter from him. Especially not when they'd been a target so many times before.

"I knew it," Conner said. His eyebrows rose for a moment. "I guess that's kind of cool," he said. "Except for the whole killing thing. And you got to get some tips from him to help with your sharpshooting." Sadness washed over his face as he lowered his head. "I wish I was a meta," he said. "Maybe then he'd be able to spend more time with me."

"But what about your mom? She'd be in a lot of danger, too."

Conner flipped his hair form his face and pressed his backpack to the hook that sat outside their classroom. "Yeah, I guess you're right." A zipper opened and a bag of cookies fell out on the ground. Face turning red, he quickly picked it up and put them back into his backpack. Brady smiled. "Um, my mom said I could bring some stuff for you guys."

"Okay," Brady replied. But he couldn't keep quiet for too long. "Do you like Leah?"

"Yeah, of course I like her," Conner said. "You do, too, she's our friend."

"No, do you _like_ -like her?"

Conner grimaced. "I guess? I dunno. How could you tell?"

"Because you look at her the same way my mom looks at her boyfriend. Kind of goofy." Brady laughed when Conner reached out and pushed him on the shoulder. He started to say something else then stopped when his phone went off again. Brady looked at the message and chewed his bottom lip, trying to decide what to do. Finally, he turned to Conner and said. "Do you want to go to STAR Labs?"

He quickly agreed then asked, "How are we supposed to get there without getting caught?"

"Did you forget about my powers that fast?"

"Okay, smart guy, how do you plan on using them without…?" He gestured wildly around the hallway where cameras were set up.

Brady smiled and impishly. "They can't have cameras in the bathroom."

* * *

Henry Allen pressed his lips together as he stood in front of Eobard's pod in the Pipeline. He studied the man for a long moment before looking over at Joe and Barry. "So, this is the man that…?"

"Killed mom?" Barry asked. Like his father, he kept his eyes on Eobard. He didn't dare look away in case he somehow managed to work his way out of his cell and traumatize his life all over again. Eobard continued to look back at them without a care in the world, legs crossed at the ankle. "Yeah, that's him."

"The same man that took over my likeness," Harrison added. He had a peculiar smile on his face, hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks. "I have to say it's so strange to see him here when all I ever knew of him was a disembodied voice in my head."

Joe shook his head as he gazed upon the man as well. Eobard looked up at the group that gawked at him and turned his head to the side, eyes shifting around the cell. As if there was anything to see. The scrutiny of the people who he didn't know from Adam and Eve must've been getting to him. Still, Barry couldn't help but feel nothing but unbridled anger for the man, even if it weren't the same one he had taken down before.

"And we're sure he can't…phase his way out of there?" Joe asked to be sure.

"No, he definitely cannot," Cisco said.

"Funny, I'm sure you've said the same thing about that revolving door you call a security system," Snart drawled from the back of the group. He rested against the back wall of the hallway, mimicking Eobard's stance with his legs crossed at the ankle. "I wouldn't trust it very much."

Caitlin glanced at Snart then placed her hand on Cisco's shoulder. "This is the same cell we used to hold Harrison Wells, er, Dr. Wells, I mean…"

"I thought it looked familiar," Harrison said.

"Barry, you need to get out of here," Harry said.

"No way." Barry shook his head. "No. I need to get some answers from him."

"It might be a good idea," Cadence said. She placed her hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing her thumb against his shoulder. Her hand dropped to her side when he jerked his arm away from her, starting to pace back and forth. "Barry."

"Slugger, I know you're upset but you need to calm down," Henry said. He reached out his hands and grasped his son's face, holding him still. Barry could see the tears that brimmed in his father's eyes and felt some start to spring up in his as well. "There's a lot going on right now, but you need to have a clear head about these things."

"And besides, the more he gets to know you, the worse the timeline will be." Harry reached out and closed Eobard's cell. "Because he's here, because we have him here, the timeline is already weakened. We don't want to damage it any further lest the consequence that'll come from it. He can't know you're The Flash and you need to keep it that way."

"But you already said his mother's going to die," Joe pointed out. His voice took on a desperate tone, looking around everyone in the room. "So, it won't matter what we do or don't do to him. And I have to admit, looking at the face of the man that we thought was dead as well as having hurt his mother…the idea of being permanently gone has its merit."

"Ramifications, anyone can mess with the timeline and anytime it is messed with its impossible to predict what those ramifications are going to be."

"Barry, you caught him," Jay reminded him. "As far as we know, that's a win."

"Him being alive isn't a win," Barry snapped. He backed away from his father, making his hands drop to his sides. "My dad being in jail for something he hasn't done isn't a win. Him having to watch her die right in front of him isn't a win. Nothing more than him being out of my life forever is a win." He clenched his hands into fists. "He deserves to die."

"And what's that going to do to you, Barry?" Cadence asked. He looked at her but didn't respond. "You were completely broken up over what happened to Ronnie and the others we've lost along the way and those weren't your fault. But Eobard, killing him…that's be _one hundred percent_ on you." Her eyebrows came together. "Do you really think you can live with that on your conscience?"

"For him? Yes."

"No," Henry said firmly. Now Barry whipped around to look at him in disbelief. The man that killed his wife was in their grasp and he wasn't feeling the same way to want him dead? It didn't make sense. "Barry, I know what happened to your mother was a tragedy and it never should've happened." Henry sucked in a deep breath. "But what you don't know about the night that happened is the same thing I never would've told you while you were visiting me in jail. But while I was waiting for trial and on trial there was a part of me that wondered if I really had killed her and I made up what I saw to come to terms with it. I sat in my cell wondering whether I had picked up the knife and stabbed her. I tried to rationalize why I did it." He took in a deep breath. "And through that time, I thought about how it felt to be a murderer, to have someone's death on my hands. It was different when it was one of my patients, there was a lot I could do and things ultimately failed. But with your mother, she was stabbed right through the heart with little to no conviction to do it. The thought that I'd done that haunted me for years. All until I heard you were going to do everything to prove that I hadn't killed your mother. But for that short period of time I was miserable with guilt, don't be like that, Barry. You're _not_ like that."

Barry gritted his teeth. "But I'm fast enough now. I can catch him, I _caught_ him. If it wasn't for Velocity 6—"

"Velocity 6?!" Caitlin, Harry, and Jay all repeated at the same time. Caitlin looked over at Jay as he stepped forward and stared hard at Barry.

Mick sat up straight from where he was leaning next to Snart, eyebrows rising. "This just got really interesting."

"Yeah, it might be a hot commodity for us to have," Snart said. He eyed the group up and down then added with a shrug, "And watching this rag-tag group of merry misfits self-implode is bound to bring some entertainment for us."

Mick nodded.

"When did you use Velocity 6?" Jay demanded.

Barry blinked and exchanged a glance with Cadence. "When I was going up against The Turtle. I wasn't going fast enough to get through his wave of kinetic energy and Brady shot me with the needle to get it into my system. I ran faster, I stopped The Turtle, and I stopped the Reverse-Flash. What's the big deal?"

"Exactly," Harry broke in. He pointed to Jay. "What's the big deal? There's nothing that's happened since then."

"We didn't know any of the side-effects that were going to happen," Caitlin broke in. She reached up and ran a hand through her hair. "I've watched my dad die from Multiple Sclerosis, I've seen him go from medication to medication to try and find what would help him. And every medication came with a new side-effect that made him hurt more and more until he finally passed away. We don't know what this is going to do with Barry."

"You were the one who helped manifest the drug in the first place," Harry reminded her. "I didn't do it myself. There's no shame in being equally proud and war of what you've created." His eyes shot over to Jay and he nodded. "Unless it's someone else's voice in your head that's keeping you from realizing your true potential."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jay demanded.

"It means, _Jay_ , that before you got your words into her head, Snow over here, was the one who ultimately helped me figure out what I was doing wrong with the serum. And now that we know it's a success you want to shy away from it, why?"

"Barry, you lied to us," Caitlin said.

Barry gave her a look. "I never lied to you."

"You didn't tell us about using Velocity-6, what if something happened?"

"Nothing happened, Caitlin. And it wasn't even something I planned. I didn't know it was there until Brady shot it into me. And it worked. I'm not going to turn my back on anything that would make it so that we can stop Zoom and everything that's surrounding it. Do you expect me to just sit back and take it?" Barry jabbed himself in the lightning emblem on his chest. "You know as well as I do that we've done nothing but work harder to get faster over the last couple of weeks and nothing's been working."

"But a drug?" Caitlin asked.

"What other choice was there to make, Cait?" Cadence asked diplomatically. "Nothing else we were doing to make him faster was working. I get that you're scared, but we can't have anything hold us back any further about it. Zoom is fast. He needs to get faster. Do you get that? At all? That responsibility, that sense of fear and anxiety is fucking scary, let alone when you have the means to stop it and you don't take it."

Caitlin brought her hands up and pressed them to the side of her face. She took in a deep breath. Clearly they weren't getting this. Maybe Cisco would. She turned to appeal to him then stopped, noticing the strange look on his face. Then her eyes lowered to the drips of blood that flowed out of his nose and around him mouth.

"Cisco?" She asked.

Cisco opened his mouth to respond but a groaning, gurgling came from his mouth. He leaned forward to grab the wall beside him, face immediately turning pale. His hair hung around his face in a sheet. He started to say something else but stopped when his eyes rolled back and his body started to rapidly shake back and forth.

"Cisco!" Joe shouted.

"He's seizing," Henry said. He hurried over to Cisco and started to hold his head still. His body continued to flop around like a fish, blood continuing to gush from his nose. "I need to hold him still, to keep him from injuring himself and then I can get a reading on his vitals." He lifted his gaze to Barry. "Get him to the Medical Bay."

"Right, yeah," Barry agreed. He hurried forward and grasped Cisco, pulling him to his feet before racing him to the medical bay. He laid Cisco down seconds before Cadence teleported beside him. She grabbed onto his wrist to check his pulse, eyes shifting back and forth as she did so. "Well?"

"Heart's beating abnormally high," she relayed. "Could easily be due to the increase of adrenaline, but…it's moving as fast as yours does. And for anyone that's not a speedster, that's not good." She moved aside as Henry, Joe, Harry, Harrison, and Caitlin all hurried into the medical bay with Snart and Mick slowly walking along behind them.

Cisco continued to shake harder and harder, his breaths now coming out in strangled gasps. Caitlin hurried to the computer as Henry leaned over him with a stethoscope and a flashlight. "Iris's aren't responding," Henry reported.

"He's experiencing an uncontrollable amount of electrical energy across his brain promoting a prolonged state of seizing," Caitlin reported, looking at the computer screen that immediately went to the sensor on the bed he was laying in.

"Can you stop it?" Barry demanded.

"I don't know."

"His seizing is increasing," Henry said. He removed his stethoscope and tossed it aside before pressing his hands down against Cisco's shoulders as hard as he could. Still, with an increase in his physiology from his powers, Cisco proved to be too strong. His body practically leapt from the examining bed no matter how hard Henry pressed against his shoulders. Harrison, Harry, Jay, and Joe grabbed his arms and legs, trying to hold him still.

"We need to sedate him," Harry cried.

"Caitlin, I need Benzodiazepine," Henry said. "Right now, as much as you can get."

"Too much will—"Caitlin cut herself off.

She couldn't bear to say the rest. Not when Cisco was the one who was hurt. If it was someone else, a random person who was her patient it was easier. She could have the feelings that a doctor would have to any patient, one of hospitality and a great bedside manner. But when it was people she cared about, that's when it got to be too hard.

"Right now, we need to make sure that we can control the seizures and save his brain function. I need you to listen to your instincts, not to what's making you scared." Henry leveled his kind yet serious gaze towards her. "You need to help Cisco, Caitlin."

Caitlin nodded and prepared a syringe with as much of the medication as she could muster. While doing so, Cadence moved to the top of Cisco's bed and placed her hands on either side of her head. She gasped in pain as electricity crackled around him and up her hands, but continued her hold on him. The machines around him didn't beep with as much intensity, letting her know her healing was starting to take effect, but not enough to help him completely.

Gritting her teeth, Cadence lifted her gaze towards Barry. "I know it's not the same, but I think I'm starting to get how much it hurt when you got struck by lightning, Tholly."

Barry managed the briefest of smiles before turning his attention back to his best friend.

"Caitlin! Now!"

"I got it." Caitlin hurried over to Henry and pushed his hand away, using a spot on Cisco's forearm to shoot the medication into his system. Slowly but surely, Cisco's body stopped jerking around and a relaxed sigh escaped him like that of a deflating balloon. Pressing her fingers to where she stuck him, Caitlin rubbed his skin in small circles, working the medication in. "Hang on, Cisco. You're going to be okay."

The group continued to wait, watching Cisco with baited breath. Finally, the tremors stopped and Cisco's weight pressed into the bed, muscles completely relaxing. His eyelids fluttered and his mouth relaxed. A collective sigh moved around the group. Cadence removed her hands from the sides of Cisco's head and the group jumped backwards, all exclaiming in surprise when Cisco's body seemed to liquify.

"Damn," Snart said.

"You don't see that every day," Mick agreed.

Cisco's eyes shot open and darted back and forth in terror. He looked down at his body and a strangled cry came out. Barry lifted his hand up to cover his mouth, his brain slowly registering what was happening. Cisco wasn't turning invisible, it was like when he was vibing but…his whole body was doing it. He was moving into a different plane of existence. "Oh my God, what the hell's happening to me?" His voice appeared to echo around them.

"What's happening to Cisco?" Brady asked, darting into the room with Conner and Leah at his heels. "Is he okay?"

"Brady, what are you doing here?" Cadence demanded.

"It's the timeline," Harry said, responding to Brady's question.

"What?" Barry and Cadence barked in unison.

"When you…when you captured Reverse-Flash we ruptured the timeline, Cisco is being affected by the changes to the timeline." He frantically waved his hands back and forth, stumbling over his words. "The changes to the past and to the future."

"And because Cisco can vibe between dimensions and use the powers to see things we can't see, his brain is affected, maybe even wired differently from ours so that he can create those interdimensional spaces to travel," Harrison added. "All stemming back to the Particle Accelerator explosion."

Harry nodded. "We need to restore the timeline. Barry, you need to get Reverse-Flash and send him back to the future as quickly possible."

"What?!" Barry's throat burned with the effort of his shoulder. No. Anything but that. They could figure out anything but that. He finally had the man in his grasp and he was _still_ getting away with everything? It wasn't fair. _It wasn't fair!_ "I just caught him and you want me to let him go?!"

"Barry, him being here is killing Cisco!" Harry shouted back. With that, Cadence moved back to Cisco's head and pressed her hands to his head. Lightning crackled up her hands once more, making her grit her teeth against it the pain and hold on tighter, her hands glowing as she did so.

"I can heal him as long as I can," she said. She lifted her gaze to Barry. "But if you need to get Thawne back to save him then that's what you need to do."

"Barry, if this is the way do help Cisco, you go to do it," Joe added. "You have to let Thawne go."

Barry shook his head. He took a step back, watching as Cisco's body slowly started to come back from its invisible state. He didn't want anything to happen to Cisco but…this was bigger than that. And yet Cisco was one of his best friends, bigger than anything else. Barry turned and caught his father's eye. Henry reached out and grabbed onto Barry's wrist.

"You have to do this, Barry," he said. "Your mother would want you to. Your mother wouldn't want you to continue to hold onto this hurt that you've harboring for years. We never raised you to be this way." Finally, the tears that had threatened to fall finally spilled over. "Don't let your hate and hurt make your decisions for you."

Barry nodded. Swallowed hard. The pain and anger washed through him in the strongest storm he'd ever had to battle. Everything swirled around him in the most confusion he'd ever experienced. The worst struggle he'd ever had. He had what he'd always wanted right in front of him and now he had to let it go.

"I-I can't run fast enough to get him there," he finally said. "Even with Velocty-6, I was barely able to catch him."

"Yes, you can," Harrison insisted. "Your speed, coupled with Thawne's can get you there. It'll catapult him through the time continuum."

"Not to mention," Harry said slowly. "I've got some of your speed."

"You…you what?" Caitlin demanded.

Jay rounded on him. "What do you mean you have some of his speed?"

"We don't have time to dwell on this," Henry said firmly. "Right now, you need to help Cisco. Barry, you need to send Thawne back."

Barry closed his eyes, pressed his fists to the side of his head. Too much was going on around him at once. Too many questions, not enough answers. "Alright," Barry finally decided. "Let's do it." He cried out as the beeping from Cisco's bed increased. "What's going on? Cade?"

"I'm trying," Cadence called back. "I'm trying to heal him but…" she shook her head, shaking knees threatening to pitch her to the ground. "I don't know, something's wrong."

Snart and Mick exchanged a look and the two stepped forward, elbowing the others out of the way. Snart twisted something on the side of his blaster and shot it towards Cisco. Mick did the same, but pointed his stream into Snart's halfway up.

"What are you doing?" Brady demanded. "You're going to hurt him!"

"Electricity runs off heat," Snart explained. "As much as Fire Bug over there thinks she's helping, I've watched your fights long enough to know that the connection there makes you stronger. Unfortunately, it's doing the same for what's happening to his brain. If the only way to end this all is to cool him down, so be it. The crossing of our streams cancelled out our gun but dialing up the output of the cold gun compared to what the heat gun is expelling will at least keep him from getting frostbite." Snart lifted his gaze over to Caitlin. "And I can't expect her to go and help anyone anyway. It'd go against everything you believe in right, help not hurt?"

Caitlin frowned, squeezing her hands into fists.

Jay licked his lips and nodded to Barry. "You need to get him back now."

Barry nodded.

* * *

Eobard looked around the Particle Accelerator once he was released from his cell. "It's not as good as the way I remember it on my Earth but…it'll do," he said. "For now. Before the inevitable anyway." He turned back to face Barry, face obscured by the hood of his Flash suit. "Too bad the Time Paradox has to end this so soon. I'd love to see what else we can do. Or what else I could do to you."

"Why do you hate me so much?" Barry asked.

"I didn't always hate you. I wanted to be you. I spent years figuring out how you came to be. Duplicated the reaction…and it worked. I became you. But then this ability to travel through time revealed the truth, my fate was to be your greatest enemy, I was never going to be the Flash. So, I became the reverse of everything you were. The more people you saved, the more people you loved, the more I had to take from you."

"That's why you killed my mother? That's why you ruined my life? Because you couldn't be me?"

" _I'M BETTER THAN YOU_! I'm the one thing you can't stop. You see, you've all messed with something you don't understand." Eobard's eyebrows shifted upwards. "I win again, Flash."

Barry's upper lip curled and he backed away from Eobard. He sucked in a deep breath to calm himself, to keep from punching Eobard so hard it'd kill him. To keep from strangling him to death, to release everything that had been stuck with him ever since he was a child. Instead, he moved back to Eobard's side. "Time to send you back to where you belong."

"We'll meet again soon, Flash."

"I know…and every time I'll be ready for you."

Barry and Eobard raced around the circular tube that was the pipeline, going faster and faster as the seconds passed. As they continued to run a white, circular globe started to open in front of them. Around and around they went until the spot opened wide enough to send another person through. Then Barry brought back his fist and punched Eobard as hard as he could in the back. Eobard lifted off his feet and shot through the air, falling through the open wormhole. Once his body passed through, Barry turned and raced back to the Cortex.

As soon as he arrived, Cisco's body stopped shaking, Snart and Mick pulled off their guns and Cadence brought her hands back from the side of Cisco's head, immediately crumpling to the floor. Brady hurried over to his mom. He knelt next to her as he studied her face. "I'm okay, bud," she said. "How's Cisco?"

She lifted her head when Cisco groaned. He didn't make any other moves after that. But the groan and the reduction of his seizing meant he was at least conscious. The heart monitor continued to beep steadily. He was still alive and that was all that mattered.

"Well, I'd say my work here is done," Snart said. He sniffed loudly, putting his gun over his shoulder. "You can't say we didn't do anything to help you." He patted Mick on the shoulder and with a toss of his head, he and Mick made their way from the Medical Bay.

Mick stopped, gently nudging Cadence with the toe of his boot as he passed by her. "Hey, Princess," he said. "As soon as things with Fleet Feet over there go in the crapper, give me a call." With that, he and Snart left STAR Labs.

All was quiet once more until Cisco groaned again. This time, he turned his head back and forth before his eyelids twitched. His lips parted and he took in a deep breath. He released it as easily then muttered, "My head feels like it's in a vice." Finally, his eyes blinked open and he looked around at all the worried faces that hovered above him. "What happened?"

"I think you vibed one too many dimensions," Harry said.

"Really?" Cisco asked.

"Really," Caitlin agreed.

Cisco brought his hands up to his hair, ran his fingers along his scalp. He groaned and stretched his arms over his head. "I haven't felt this sore since PE and I got a straight up F."

"C," Barry said.

"D+," Caitlin agreed.

"I got straight As," Cadence said. She looked up, noticing the faces looking back at her. "Come on, it's not that weird." She took Brady's outstretched hand and allowed herself to get pulled to her feet. She stood by the head of Cisco's bed and reached out, gently patting him on the arm. "But it just proves that I need to train you some more if you're in more pain from this than what I've put you through."

Cisco managed a small smile and nodded. "How'd you get it go stop?" He breathed.

"Well, it was a combination of a lot of things," Henry said. "There was the Benzodiazepine that we injected into you to make sure you didn't cause any more stress on your body, Cadence's healing powers, and the cooling effects from Snart and Mick. But in all effects of what it was that kept you from dying…Barry had to send him back to his time."

Cisco's eyebrows came together. He turned and looked towards Barry. "You let him go?" He whispered. "You…you had him right in front of you and you let him go?"

Barry slowly smiled. "I couldn't let him take another person I care about. I'm done…letting him have that control over my life." Cisco smiled and reached out his hand. Barry held his out and clasped it into Cisco's, holding it tightly in his own. Cisco didn't need to say anything. There wasn't enough 'thanks' they could all tell each other for it to make a difference.

They were family and they were always going to help save each other when the time came.

Jay, on the other hand, continued to glare at Harry. "The one thing that I'm still confused about is…what did you mean when you said you had his speed?" Harry's eyes widened for a moment, as if he had forgotten his admission. Then he started to smile, chuckling to himself.

"Don't you dare laugh," Joe added. He pointed a finger directly at Harry. "You've been on my shit list since you've gotten here and I couldn't quite put my finger on why I didn't trust you and you're slowly starting to make it make sense. What did you do?"

"It's just as I said," Harry said. "I took his speed. That's why he couldn't catch Zoom, why he couldn't get fast-enough to get the Reverse-Flash entirely. Velocity-6 did it. When you used it, it took away a part of your speed."

"And you helped him do that?" Jay asked Caitlin.

Her eyes widened. "What? No! I'd never do that, he never told me." She turned back to Harry. "You never told me it'd do that."

"Because when you created it, it couldn't," Harry explained. He kept his chin down, gaze just a hair below everyone's eyes.

"I helped him," Harrison explained.

Stunned silence filled the room. But it wasn't enough to quell the anger that was starting to seep from everyone. Anger from betrayal, anger from the notion that everything they'd done to stop everything that'd come their way had been for nothing. Barry repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists. His knees bobbed p and down, threatening to take him from the Cortex.

"It's ironic," he finally said. "You were the one who was trying to help me so much and now all I can do is ask you why, why you would do this?"

"For my daughter," Harry said. "I would do anything to save my daughter."

"Jesse," Caitlin murmured.

Barry's eyes shifted back and forth. He'd heard that before but where…? Oh, at the Christmas party. He had asked Harry if he wanted to join them and yet he said he wouldn't, preferring to celebrate if his daughter was there. But if Caitlin knew about her, too… "She's your daughter on your Earth," he said slowly.

Harry nodded, then nodded to Cadence. "That's why I couldn't stand to be around her, to look at her without thinking about it. Without thinking about her and what Zoom was doing to her. He's…he's had her captive ever since before I arrived on this Earth. I sent her to death to save Barry and I thought about how I could make it so I had both."

"Jesse is Cade's doppelganger," Caitlin explained.

"That's why you wanted me to get faster," Barry realized. "And then using Velocity-6, or whatever else it was that you created, you'd be able to make me faster, to get to Earth-2, and then take a part of my speed and give it to Zoom…like all of the other metas who were trying to kill me. If he had taken it then he would've thought it was all of my speed because it was stronger."

"Barry, he could've killed you," Joe reminded him.

"Anything out there could've killed me," Barry reminded him. "I'm still learning how to do my powers, anyone could take advantage of that. But the difference is…he had a good reason for it. His daughter was threatened. When it comes to family, when it comes to people we love, we're all vulnerable. He could've gotten away with it but he didn't, he told us. And now his daughter is going to die and we're okay with that? I can't just give up on her, I can't give up on an entire world that's full of people that are facing death because of Zoom. I may not be fast enough to be Zoom yet, but I'm not just going to close the breaches and forget about it. We have to help Harry and we have to get to Earth-2."

Silence moved around the room for a long moment.

"When?" Cisco finally asked.

"Tonight," Barry said.

"Tonight?" Caitlin repeated.

"Tonight," Cadence said firmly.

* * *

Barry rested his chin in his hand as he stared at the empty plate in front of him. An empty plate that could be his last meal before he traveled to another Earth. There were too many things to think about. Things that would keep him on his Earth and what was propelling him to go to another one. It was what was keeping his life separated, Barry Allen from The Flash.

Barry Allen though to stay on his Earth and to spend more time with his father, so both could understand what would help them move on. They had the man that killed the best part of their life right in their face but he got away. The boogeyman that had essentially haunted their family for years had manifested and disappeared all in one day. And all Henry had said when all was said and done was that Barry made the right decision. Not just for him, but for their family.

How was it the right decision?

He didn't think he'd ever known. He had the responsibility of being the 'man of the family' since his father was in prison. What did that mean now when he was still questioning every move he made? What did that mean if he went to the other Earth and managed to get himself killed? Then there wouldn't be anyone around to keep everyone in Central City safe. No one there to show that metahumans weren't evil and trying to take over the city. No one to be that beacon of hope they all needed.

That was The Flash part of him, the part that worried about everyone else, even an entire other Earth. That part was exhausting, but what equally drove him forward every day.

Finally, a hand waved in front of his face and Barry looked up to see Iris sitting by him, pulling her hand back. "Finally, space cadet. You looked like you were only moments away from completely blasting off into space."

"Space cadet," Barry murmured. "I haven't heard that one in a long time." He leaned back in his seat. "It's funny how much I wanted to go into space one day, to explore all of the galaxies and what was out there and now I'm going to go to another Earth." He chuckled to himself. "If I thought there was such a thing as another Earth, I think my head would've exploded back then."

"More or less than when we thought we saw an alien on the moon?" Iris teased. The two laughed. Iris reached out and grasped Barry's hand in hers. "I'm not sure how traveling between Earths works, but if it's anything like traveling into space, then you need to be careful."

"I'm always careful, Iris," Barry pointed out.

"You're careful in that 'Barry way' you always are," Iris pointed out. "That part I can trust. I mean, I've always known that part of you." She looked over her shoulder to Joe and Henry, who sat in the living room, talking quietly over a beer. Their dishes, stained with the rich red marinara sauce of Joe's lasagna continued to sit untouched amongst them. No one made a move to do it. It wasn't the time to worry about such trivial things. Iris turned back to him, tilting her head to the side. "But the Flash part I haven't known so long. I don't know if you're going to be here or you'll be off to Star City to take down the next threat that comes along. I don't know if you'll come back."

"I'm going to come back, Iris," Barry reassured her. He squeezed her hand in his. "There's so much here for me to come back to."

"How'd your dad take it?" Iris asked.

"The same way that yours did, I'd expect," Barry said. After his split decision to go, Henry had taken Barry aside and demanded to know what he was doing. Demanded to know how he could make a decision like that so lightly, surely he was letting his emotions take him over, despite that being one of his greatest values, that he felt thing so emotionally. "Only, I don't think Joe yelled as much."

"I've never heard Henry yell in my entire life," Iris denied.

"Then you're lucky," Barry said. "Because it's just as scary now as it was when I was younger." He rested his mouth in the palm of his hand. "I know everyone's really upset about this. But I can't just turn my back on everyone there.

"No one's upset about your decision, Barry." Iris leaned forward and looked Barry in the eye, with emotion swimming through hers. "No one could ever be upset with you for it. It's what makes you, _you_. It's everything that comes with it that's hard. The super speed, the time travelling, other Earths…and now being able to travel there?"

"Yeah, it's really hard to take in," Barry agreed.

"Just as long as you come back to us, Barry, that's all that matters."

"I'll come back, I promise."

And for the next hour Barry hung out with this family, with Joe and Iris and his father, speaking about everything that wasn't his venture across the multiverse. But it was then time to leave and he took them all to STAR Labs, directly down to the basement where the breach would take them directly to Earth-2.

"Is everyone here?" Barry asked. He looked around at all of his friends; Jay, Harry, Harrison, Tess, Joe, Henry, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Cadence, Ryder, and Brady all gathered around in the room, looking at the swirling blue vortex that was the gateway to the other world.

"Looks like it," Harry agreed. He slung a bag onto his back and nodded. "It's time to go."

"Now remember, Barry, you're not going to have a contact with us back here," Caitlin explained, taking a step forward. She nodded towards the vortex then looked at him seriously. "As long as you're over there we can only wait for a sign that you're coming back."

"You're going to see things over there that look familiar but they're _not,"_ Jay said, coming up on Caitlin's side. "Don't allow yourself to get sucked in emotionally. And good luck over there."

"Thanks." Barry nodded to him. "And if we're not back in 48 hours, that means that Zoom's got us. Then you need to close the breach."

"We're not going to do that, Barry," Caitlin insisted. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend's shoulders. "I'm sorry about everything, with Velocity-6 and…"

"Don't worry about it." Barry squeezed her back. "I know you meant well."

Caitlin nodded and backed away. Then she turned to Cisco who gave her a big hear hug, rocking the two back and forth. "You better be careful, too. I don't want to have to go in there after you just to tell you 'I told you so'." Cisco laughed, nodded, and hugged her, too.

"Well, we'll just see what happens," he said. He stepped back and looked at her for a long moment, something passing over his face before he cleared his throat. Caitlin looked at him curiously and he took another step back, producing a letter from his pocket. "Um, I…I have this, in case…so you can give it to my family and Dante…"

"I'll make sure they get it, Cisco, I promise."

Barry moved through Joe, Henry, and Iris hugs, too. He slapped Ryder a high-five and gave him a hug then moved to Cadence and Brady. "I promise I'll come back," he said to Cadence. "Don't worry about me."

"I won't," Cadence said. She lifted her chin and looked him in the eye. "Because I'm going with you."

"What? No, I can't let you do that," Barry said.

Cadence crossed her arms. "Well, it doesn't matter what you think because I'm going to do it anyway. If…if it's my doppelganger over there that's in trouble, I think I deserve the right to try and save myself…" Confusion swam through her eyes for a moment then was replaced with a determined fire. "I'm so done being the damsel in distress."

Barry laughed. "You're much more than that."

"And besides, what would you do over there without me?" She reached out and gently shoved him on the arm before straightening the collar of hi jacket. "Probably get yourself killed, I bet." She turned and smiled her thanks to Ryder. "And he said he'd take care of Brady while I'm gone."

"What about Central City?" Barry asked. "Without us around—"

"—We still have enough Velocity-6 to give to Jay if the time comes," Tess said. She clasped her hands together. "As well as having Caitlin have her own powers that she could use if the time comes."

"I can do it." Brady spoke up for the first time since he arrived at STAR Labs that morning with his friends. He received a stern speaking to form Cadence for skipping school despite his explanation of receiving the alerts of what turned out to be the Reverse-Flash and wanted to help. "I can watch the city while you're gone."

Barry shook his head then knelt to Brady's height to look him in the eye. "It's a really big job," he said. "Not that I don't think you can do it, but—"

"I can do it," Brady insisted. He licked his lips. "I know I'm a kid, but I'm not _just_ a kid. I've been shadowing you guys. I've gotten better. I can do this, I promise. You'll see when you get back."

"Okay, okay." Barry reached around and hugged Brady, allowing the young boy to rest his head on his shoulder as Brady hugged him back. "You're going to do a good job." He looked over at Caitlin who nodded then mouthed, 'you're welcome' to Cadence, who had mouthed 'thank you' to her for aiding in watching him.

Barry let go of Brady then let him turn and hug and kiss his mother. Finally, it was time to go. Barry looked around the room once more and noticed Caitlin inching her way over to him. She opened her arms wide and she, Barry, Cisco, and Cadence came together in a tight group hug. "Be careful," she murmured to them. She got nods in response then backed away once more, standing next to Jay as she reached out to take his hand. Jay took it and squeezed it firmly. She started to say something to Harry then stopped nodded.

Harry nodded back and moved towards the breach with Barry, Cadence, and Cisco. Barry reached out to grab the back of Cisco's shirt but stopped and looked at him in confusion when Cisco took a step back from him, one closer to Cadence. "No offense, dude, but after today, I think I'm going to be sticking with her for a bit."

Cadence laughed and looped her arm around Cisco's shoulders, squeezing him. "All you had to say was 'thank you', Cisco." She held out her free hand and Barry wrapped his around hers. Sparks flew between their hand and he smiled at her before looking straight into the breach in front of him. It continued to jump and dance around.

Barry sucked in a deep breath and concentrated on his power. Lightning shot through his eyes and he raced forward in a burst of speed. Blue light, the same shade of the breach, mixed and swirled around Barry as he continued to run forward as fast as his feet could take him. One hand held Cadence and Cisco, the other holding onto Harry.

Finally, there was a bright flash of light and Barry saw a gray, metallic wall appeared in front of him. He immediately skidded to a stop right before crashing into it. Sucking in a deep breath, Barry looked around the metallic surfaces around him. Harry didn't waste any time. As soon as he was let go, he walked out of the small room and up an enclosed flight of stairs.

Barry, Cisco, and Cadence immediately followed after him and all gasped in shock when they stepped out into the brightly lit lobby of Earth-2's STAR Labs. People milled back and forth, bobbing and weaving around each other and the podiums that held different technological advancements.

"Welcome to Earth-2," Harry remarked.

Cadence took a few steps further into the lobby and looked around. Someone opened a door to the lobby of the laboratory and grimaced, holding her hand up to shield her face. "I was skeptical at first, but now I know we're on a different Earth. It's wayy too bright here to be our Earth."

Barry and Cisco both laughed before getting sucked in by everything around them once more. Cisco even went so far as to walk to a wall that held a STAR Labs plaque and held his phone up in front of their faces to take a picture. When it came out, he frowned and looked it over. "All of that sunlight is already starting to mess with my selfie game. Cade, come take our picture."

"Sure, if you want it to be from about your neck down," Barry teased.

Cadence gave him the finger and caught the phone Cadence tossed his way. "You go to a different Eartha and you already got jokes?" She lifted the camera and angled it so that Barry and Cisco were both in frame before taking the picture.

"Ramon!" Harry snapped. "Not a sight-seeing tour."

"Easy for you to say, we want our grandkids to know we did cool stuff," Cisco defended himself.

Barry turned and looked at all of the faces of the people that stopped to shake Harry's hand. Henry Hewitt, the one on this Earth was certainly much more pleasant than the one they had on their Earth. Then there was someone who looked like Kyle Nimbus, and someone who looked like Rainbow Raider. All of them were as happy as ever as Harry took them to his office. He looked around as they went, gazing adoringly at all of the new piece of technology that were only mere ideas on their Earth, things he hadn't even dreamed of yet. And there it was, staring right in front of him.

On another pass around, he noticed Cadence dawdling behind him, the crease back in her forehead as she went. "Hey." Barry got her attention, reaching out to grab her hand. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just…" Cadence took in a deep breath. "I was thinking about this whole doppelganger thing, if Jesse is me…why is my name changed? Does that mean that I truly did stay with Harrison and Tess and not my mom and dad? Does Brady exist over here? I…it's hard to think that my life could be completely different over here and knowing that I'm targeted by Zoom…what if that's why he's been targeting me back on our Earth, too, the thing he said—"

"Whoa, whoa, Cade, you're starting to sound like me," Barry said, breaking into her rambling. He could feel her trembling under his grasp and pulled her to a stop, moving out of the way of STAR Labs employees. "I didn't…I didn't know you were so worried about this."

"Neither did I, not until we got here," Cadence admitted. She lowered her head. "Honestly, I…I sort of doubted that we'd make it here. That it was real. Because if it was, and I had a doppelganger, then everything I knew what changed." She sighed. "Maybe I should've taken Jay's advice to you and not try to get so emotionally attached."

"Listen to me." Using his thumb and forefinger, Barry forced Cadence's chin up to look her in the eye. "No matter what's changed over here, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, er, _this_ you. We're going to save Jesse and stop Zoom, okay?"

"Okay." Cadence nodded then accepted the kiss Barry gave her. "Let's get going before Harry yells at us for that, too."

Barry smiled and the two hurried to catch up to Harry and Cisco in Harry's office. Arriving, they immediately knew something was wrong as the two argued back and forth each other, Cisco's vibe glasses in his hands. Barry dropped Cadence's hand and stepped between the two.

"Whoa, what's going on?" He asked.

"I lost my powers," Cisco declared.

"He didn't lose his powers," Harry snapped seconds after.

"Then explain why these aren't working."

"Maybe it's operator error."

" _I_ designed it, it _can't_ be operator error."

Cadence made a face and held up her hand, a flame immediately burst around her. "I haven't lost my powers," she pointed out. "Why would you have lost yours?"

Cisco shrugged and looked around the side of his vibe glasses. "Oh, here it is, the wavelength trigger isn't responding. But that happens if the frequency is imbalance and that only happens because your Earth vibrates at a different frequency which means…"

"We're up a creek," Barry interrupted. He turned and dropped into a chair across from Harry's desk. He brought his hands over his face and sat silently. All until he heard his voice speaking. But…he wasn't saying anything. Barry lifted his head and looked at the wall behind Harry's desk that showed a news feed. First his eyes looked at the banner underneath, _Zoom Threat Reamins, Mayor Snart Extends Curfew,_ then he looked at the channel number, 52, and then at his own face, complete with glasses, speaking on the recent attacks by Zoom. "That's me!"

"Aww, and you look so cute, too," Cadence said. "I love the bowtie."

"And to think I thought that look was good in college," Barry said with a grimace. Cisco and Cadence both looked at him funny. "I was trying reinvent myself, I just…" he held up his hands. "The most important thing is that we know that I still work here as part of the CCPD and _that_ gives me an idea." He turned on his heel and raced from the office, combing back seconds later with his doppelganger in tow.

"What just happened?" Earth-2 Barry questioned. He shifted back and forth, trying to determine where he was. "How…how did I get here so fast?" He looked at Barry and his eyes widened in surprise. "How did…how am I…you're me." He then looked at everyone else in the room, his eyes first landing on Harry. "Harrison Wells. Oh my God, you're _the_ Harrison Wells and, uh, if you're Harry, that means I'm in STAR Labs, right?" Harry started to say something then stopped, cut off as Barry kept going. "I've always wanted to meet you. You're my idol. I have a copy of everything you've ever published."

"That's great." Harry gave a tight-lipped smile.

"Always great to meet a fan, right?" Cadence teased. Her eyebrows rose when Earth-2 Barry turned her way. His face immediately turned red and he cleared his throat, wiping his hands on the sides of his slacks. "Uh, hi?"

"You…you remember me?" Earth-2 Barry asked. "I mean, of course you remember me, it's just that the last time we came into contact you weren't so happy to see me. I mean, yeah, I managed to come across you at a very bad time. And I'm very sorry for that, but I did say that we could see each other again, and here you are." He walked forward and stuck out his hand. "I'm Barry. Wait, yeah, you already knew that, Cade, sorry." He brought his hand back as quickly as he brought it forward. "Oops, don't want to be burned again, right?" He let out nervous laughter and tried to cross his legs but tripped over his own feet, only keeping himself up by grabbing the bookshelf next to him.

"Cade?" Cisco repeated. "Now, I understand this whole Earth is screwy and everything, but he just called you Cade."

"I noticed," Cadence replied.

"Have you been sneaking to this Earth without telling us?"

"Cisco!"

Barry turned to Harry. "No, Cisco's right, why would he call her Cade and not Jesse?"

"Jesse?" Earth-2 Barry repeated. He brushed off his clothes with another laugh. "You mean Jesse Wells? No, I don't have a thing with Jesse Wells, that'd be so inappropriate, that'd be—"his words were cut off with a gurgle when Harrys tock a taser into his side, causing him to collapse to the floor. Cadence shrieked and jumped backwards in surprise.

"Wha—hey, what do you think you're doing?" Barry demanded.

"The same thing you were thinking," Harry replied. He nonchalantly turned his taser this way and that before blowing soot off the top. "But a lot faster. You're going to take his place, infiltrate the CCPD, and let us know what you figure out about Zoom and we'll go from there. While you're at it, Ramon, Cadence, and I will figure out what's going on with his vibe glasses."

"Uh-uh." Cisco waved his finger back and forth. "No, we're not going anywhere until you tell us why you decided to turn Barry into a shishkabob, okay?"

"Yeah, and why did he, I mean me, I mean _I_ call her Cadence and not Jesse?" Barry demanded.

"We're from a different Earth, Harry, not stupid," Cadence pointed out.

"I lied!" Harry finally shouted. He lowered his voice, but still refused to look at them. "I lied. I…Jesse isn't Cade's doppelganger. On this Earth…Jesse is Cadence's sister. I haven't seen Cadence… _my_ Cadence since she was born."

* * *

 **A/N:** So, the Rogues are redeemed and Mick is the same Mick as always. An entire chapter that was about Barry, too, how fun. Next one is about Cadence, as you'd all probably figured as well as the next one bringing in more of Jay and Zoom, I purposefully waited this long before doing it and I hope you guys enjoy what happens with them.

But now Earth-2, I bet you all didn't see that twist with Cade and Jesse coming. The reason it happened this way is because…I had both ideas; one that Cade existed on Earth-1 but not Earth-2 and vice-versa for Jesse because they were dopplegangers, but then I also though what would happen if she _did_ exist on Earth-2, so here's the whole explanation for it.

Please, if you haven't already check out my other one-shots _Say What You Need To Say_ and _Never A Dull Moment._

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** That was always the best part for me, seeing RF knocked out. Though my only issue with the ep was that he was there for a short period, despite knowing it was used to show Barry's humility.

 **DarkHelm145:** Sooo glad they turned out well. Snart and Mick are some of my favorites to write, but now they're done with this story for now. I hope their arc was good enough for them to go to Legends. Nope, RF can't disguise himself as other people, he's the one and only Eobard Thawne. Hope you enjoyed this one as well.

 **Ethan:** Brady's increase in maturity was done on purpose for the fact that his part gets bigger as the story goes on, but in general it's mostly seen at home. Most of the people around him see him as a little kid but it's more than that. Well, Mick's name for her is Princess but all in all for their grievances she's Fire Bug.

 **yummers:** Thanks!

 **PowerHero432:** So that answers your question about Brady and Conner and Leah. He's not too oblivious not to notice, he _does_ meddle in his own mother's love life from time to time. I guess I didn't make it too clear, the _real_ Natalie is done with the CPS report with Cadence and Brady. The _fake_ one is the one that needs to be questioned. Lol. Hope you enjoyed this one as well, as it has the teaser for what's all going to happen with Earth-2.

 **Spinquin142:** I hope all of it was to your liking.

 **Guest:** Hope Earth-2's start was to your liking.

 **Babyj:** I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think it really does show how he's growing up so I'm glad others appreciated it, too. J


	38. Storm

**.:38:.**

 _Storm_

* * *

Cadence took in a deep breath through her nose, continuing to stare at the photo that rested in her lap. The photo of Jesse that Harry had wordlessly given them before leaving his office after his stunning admission. He'd lied, twice, and each admission had done nothing more than make things a bit harder for them. He'd kept Jesse a secret, and while they all understood, it would've been easier to empathize with him if he had said it from the beginning. It would've been better to know what he truly wanted instead of accepting that they wouldn't understand.

How many more times would they be lied to or targeted? Harry had come out with everything after his admission, that he stole some of Barry's speed to give to Zoom so that he could save his daughter from the threat that was put over her. Somewhere on Earth-2 she was being held captive. And Barry had listened to everything Harry had to say and continued to hold fast to his notion that he was going to help her no matter what it was.

And Cadence had watched Barry as he made that decision. She could see from the way he crossed his arms, from the way his hands were clenched into fists and tucked under his elbows that he was trying his hardest not to let his emotions get in the way. He was and emotional and sensitive person and she loved that about him, all the same it made his emotions make decisions for him and to feel them on a spectacular level. She'd been on the receiving end of it when her betrayal of him to the Assassination Bureau had been revealed where he unleashed a torrent of anger to her.

Now, she saw how he'd grown as a person, as a hero, as a leader to want to help Harry despite how he had betrayed them as well and she greatly admired that.

But she still couldn't wrap her head around Jesse. It was weird at first; knowing, thinking she was going to be trying to save a version of herself that had been kidnapped. But to know it was someone on this Earth who may as well be her little sister, and that there actually _was_ a version of her on this Earth was throwing her head into a tailspin. It was the hardest part to wrap her head around. She saw Barry's doppelganger and knew how different he was on this Earth, she personally _knew_ Harrison's—her birth father's—doppelganger who was vastly different from him.

She already questioned what it meant for her when she found that Jesse was her doppelganger, but what about her _true_ doppelganger. _This Harrison hasn't seen this Cadence since she was born,_ Cadence thought. _I wonder if that was by choice._ Cadence could feel her emotions starting to come to the forefront again and did her best to push them away. Emotions weren't her thing; mental toughness and decisive action were.

So why was she getting so emotional over people she didn't even know?

Jesse Wells.

"Are you okay?"

Cadence looked up when she felt a hand moved over her hair then smiled at Barry as he walked by her, moving to sit at the end of the windowsill. He moved her feet aside and sat down, then brought them back to his lap. She thought about lying, saying she was okay, but knew he'd be able to see through it. Not just because of him knowing her, but because of his speed and perceptiveness.

So she told the truth. "Well," she said slowly. "Within about a day, I found out that Harry has been working with Zoom, Jesse is me, Jesse actually isn't me but my little sister on this Earth and I'm actually really hungry. So chances are something's going to come to a head soon." The two laughed at her little joke. Then she shook her head. "I don't know what to feel at this point. All I know is that I'm _so_ confused." She held up a finger. "Actually, confused is when I was trying to understand this 'new math'," she used air quotes, "that they're teaching Brady in school. It's no wonder he doesn't like it."

Barry laughed again. He gently ran his hand up and down her leg. The two were silent for a long moment and Barry said, "There was a time when I was little. Probably about five or six or so. And I constantly begged my mom and dad for a little brother or sister. As time went on I forgot about it and was fine with it just being me, but in the back of my mind I'd still want someone like that. And now I have Iris, she's like my sister."

Cadence started to smile. "Well, if that's the case, I think a part of your life is a bit questionable."

"Ha ha." Barry pinched her leg and Cadence squealed, pulling her legs back away from him to rub at the spot. "What about you? Did you ever want a brother or sister?"

"Yeah, I used to ask for one, too," Cadence said. "Before I knew that my parents couldn't have children I'd asked a lot. But they'd always change the subject so I'd forget about it. I stopped asking and didn't think about it after that."

"Think of it this way. Jesse is that sister that you wanted."

"Yeah, and if that's the case…that meant that the car accident that Harrison and Tess had gotten in, unless things are different on this Earth, she was pregnant and lost the baby."

The weight of her words crashed onto Cadence. Not just for the potential sibling she could've lost, but also because she knew how scary it was. At one point when Brady was almost two he had gotten very sick, to the point that he had to go to the hospital, which opened up another can of worms when it was found that she was in the process of emancipating herself and had been kicked out and…none of that mattered more than crying over her son who laid in a hospital bed with tubes up his nose and more medicine than she could ever imagine.

Barry nodded silently. Then he took in a deep breath and let it out, unsure of what to say next. It was a lose-lose situation as it was. Cadence turned back to Jesse's portrait and changed the subject. "Do you think she looks like me? I mean, there has to be an Asian somewhere in Harrison's or Tess's background to look the way I do."

"I think I see it in her eyes, maybe," Barry said.

"Yeah. No matter what, we're going to get her back," Cadence said. She turned and looked at her wrist, studying the face of her watch. "Speaking of, this Earth's Barry is probably going to wake up soon. You need to get going to the CCPD." She waited for Barry to say something but when she looked up at him, she found him staring at her. Something swam in his green eyes that she couldn't quite place. "What?"

"You have to stop relying on your strength to get you through everything," he said.

Cadence's eyebrows rose. "What?"

"I'm trying to talk to you. About what you're feeling about all of this and you keep changing the subject," Barry pointed out. He shifted closer to her, lowering his voice. Cadence could hear the emotion in his voice as he continued. "I know this is hurting you, Cade, and I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine."

"I'm trying not to make this about me. This is about everyone on Earth-2. We have to focus on Zoom and what his endgame is here."

"But it's not going to help if our minds are somewhere else." Barry got up from the windowsill and turned to face her. "We promised not to keep secrets from each other and I also don't want us to be distracted."

Cadence made a face, rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to be distracted. I'll do what I have to do."

"What you have to do is talk. About this, about anything else. Whatever you're feeling. Bottling it up isn't going to help." Barry took in a deep breath. "When my mom died I was like you at first. I didn't want to talk about anything but I really had no choice. With the police interrogations and the constant questions, the therapists…it took me a while until I could realize how much it helped. I'm trying to be supportive."

Cadence gave him a look, noticing the sudden emotion in his voice. "Have we had this argument before?" She couldn't remember if they had. But there was _something_ there, something in the way he was looking at her that felt familiar to him.

"No," he admitted. "Back in the other timeline, when I had run back to keep everyone from dying…we were fighting. You were going off on Felicity when she found out about Oliver being Conner's dad, because she was mad that he had lied to her despite him only just finding out about it. You were getting really mad and I was trying to talk you down and we fought and things got worse after that."

"It was when we died," Cadence realized.

Barry nodded. "Because we weren't working as the team we can always be. I'm trying to listen to you, Cade. To understand how you're feeling."

"Barry, you're trying to be a _hero._ Just like you always do." Cadence threw her hands into the air. "You can't be the hero in every situation that comes around. Life doesn't work like that!"

"I'm trying to help you."

"No, jackass, you're trying to _fix_ me!"

"I know you don't ever like to talk about these things-"

"Because I've never had the chance, Barry." She finally got it out. Finally admitted that inner turmoil that she could never completely admit. Not for lack of trying, not for fear, but because she didn't have the avenue to do so. Cadence brought up her hands, ran them through her hair. How ironic. The biggest and baddest metahuman didn't scare her. But the thought of having to put herself on display made her hands shake, made her feel like a little girl all over again. "Growing up I always did everything my mom and dad wanted me to do, took on all the pressure they put on me to be perfect, and I kept my mouth shut. No matter how upset or anxious I was feeling about anything. And then, as you know, I got pregnant and got kicked out and I had to grow up _fast_ to be there for Brady and I _still_ didn't have anyone to talk to about that sort of thing. Then everything with the Assassination Bureau and my dad… I've always had moments where I was powerless but I've always fought back by being strong."

Barry stepped forward and cupped her face in his hands. His eyes searched hers and she could see he was being sincere. "You don't have to be with me, that's what I'm saying. I'm your partner. I'm your boyfriend. I'm your _friend._ I'm here for you, no matter what. You're not alone anymore. You've got all the rest of us and we're nothing if we're not a team."

Cadence lowered her gaze and nodded. But she couldn't say anything. She wanted to, but there was so much that had just waterfalled to of her, bursting through the walls that she'd kept up over the years. A storm was brewing inside her. Her gaze shifted when Harry walked into the room and nodded towards him.

"You ready?" He asked. "It's not going to be much longer until this Barry wakes up and makes a scene."

Barry nodded. He dropped his hands away from Cadence's face and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. He walked over to Harry, who reminded him of what the plan was and Barry nodded back before racing out of STAR Labs. Harry watched him go, crossing his arms, chewing his lower lip. He stared off into space then turned towards Cadence when she walked to his side.

He looked down at her for a long moment then said, "I assume you'd like to know why I lied about everything, too," he said. A sarcastic tone crept into his voice. "Ramon has somehow managed to mention it every time he takes a break from trying to figure out what's going on with his glasses."

"Can you blame him?" Cadence asked. She knew what it was like to not be trusted, having stood on both sides. At this point she couldn't blame any of them for doing an extensive background check the next time they ran into someone else who wanted to help them.

"No. I think that's the worst part." Harry continued to look at her. "I haven't seen my Cadence since she was born, her parents moved her away shortly after the adoption. I had a harder time seeing you than Tess because…knowing my wife is dead it came easy to see her alive once more. I've had that time to spend with her. For my Cadence, having never seen her, gotten to know her, it was like—"

"—Seeing a ghost," Cadence murmured.

Harry nodded.

Cadence's mind whirred. They were on a different Earth. An Earth where everyone she knew and loved had a different life and were different people—thought Earth-2 Barry wasn't _that_ different from their Barry considering his excitement. But it still brought up the question that she couldn't push out of her mind no matter how hard she tried.

Did that mean her father was alive on this Earth?

 _Oh, my head is starting to hurt,_ Cadence thought. She looked up and ran her hands through her hair. "I need some air," She said.

"It's not safe out there," Harry said. "If Zoom finds you, what we're working on will all be over."

"Spoken like a true parent, Harry." Cadence reached up, started to pat him on the shoulder, but he took a step back, letting her hand fall to her side. She nodded, understanding why he did so. The ghost was haunting him now. An even better reason for her to get out of STAR Labs and get some air. Some time to figure things out. "I'll be fine. I can teleport back as soon as I need to. Even I don't think Zoom is fast enough to figure that out so fast."

Harry rolled his eyes, shook his head in disdain. But he still backed away, making room for her to leave. Cadence nodded her thanks and left. She teleported to cross-connecting streets where her apartment was on Earth-1. The only thing she found this time around was a dilapidated building. Even from the sidewalk she could see there were sleeping bags on the floor from the broken bottom windows. No one had truly lived there for years.

Now that she had _that_ figured out, she was stuck in a dead-end. There were too many things she wanted to figure out, but didn't know where to start. _If Earth-2 is moving on a different frequency, then our cell phones probably don't either,_ she thought. So calling her parents was out. Letting out a long breath, Cadence placed her hands on her hips and turned away to face the street. She shook her head.

How could everything look exactly the same; the way the street was set up, the street names, the looks of the buildings, but everything be so different? Cadence glanced at the time. It was still early, so that meant there was a good chance, that Jitters was open. She could start looking there. Cadence teleported once more, stopping when she looked at the outside of the building.

She blinked once, twice, three times before coming to terms with what was so off-putting to her. Once again, everything was different. It wasn't just for the way the citizens of Central City were dressed; the sort of 20s inspired attire was actually starting to grow on her. It was everything else that was different. Jitters was Jitterbug and instead of it being a coffee house, it looked like a jazz lounge and she could hear a smooth crooner singing from outside. A couple walked out, making the music swell in volume before the door closed once more.

Cadence went inside, looking around the room. The floor plan of Jitters was the same, but one wall had been turned into a stage that held a big band and…Joe West? He clutched a microphone and swooned into the microphone to the jazz music that was playing, smiling at everyone that passed. A fedora sat by his feet, filling up with tips as the seconds passed. Cadence eyed him as she walked by the stage.

He still looked the same as he did on their Earth.

She shook her head. No. She had to remember, they were on a different Earth, _everything_ was different. Keeping attention away from herself, Cadence sat down in one of the few empty chairs that were left. She crossed her leg at the knee and rested her hands in her lap. After a few seconds, her foot started to shake back and forth.

"I see I'm not the only one who has that habit," a voice said from beside her. "Let me guess, boy troubles? You look like the kind of girl that'd have many suitors falling at her feet." Cadence froze for a moment, confused as to where the voice was coming from. It sounded like it had come from her head but…she hadn't had those thoughts. Slowly, Cadence turned to face her doppelganger, who smiled back at her. If she were confused or surprised to see a mirror-image of herself, the doppelganger didn't show it. "With a face like that, I think I'm right," she added with a wink.

Cadence's mouth dropped open. For once in her life, she had nothing witty to say in response. Had nothing to say at all. Thankfully, her doppelganger turned as two people joined her in other seats. Cadence glanced at them in surprise. _Ronnie? Caitlin?_

It couldn't be. Ronnie didn't look any different save for the evil fire in his eyes and a smirk splayed on his lips. Caitlin was the one who looked different in all manners of the word. Her brown locks were now a stark blonde, almost completely white against her pale skin. Her eyes, instead of the warm chocolate brown were now an icy blue, matching the dark blue lipstick and navy blue leather clothes along with it.

She looked like Caitlin's exact opposite. The exact opposite of her warm and kind best friend.

"What took you so long?"

"Oh, come on, Burnout. We all know you would've waited here for us."

Burnout's eyes flashed over towards her companions. "Maybe, maybe not. I had something I needed to do." She crossed her legs at the knee, falling into the same stance Cadence was sitting in. A flicking sound filled the air and Cadence realized she was messing with a lighter in hand. She flicked it open with her thumb then closed it again with the palm of her free hand.

"Deathstorm, you know how sensitive she is about seeing her son." Cadence watched as this Earth's Caitlin shifted her eyes towards Burnout, her lips curling in the corner. While her eyes were on Burnout, she gently stroked Deathstorm's face, trailing her fingertips down his skin. "It's been…what? Ten years since you've seen him? How _is_ Ryder doing? It can't be easy to see him again since giving up Brady."

Cadence stared at this Caitlin in dismay, could feel her heart starting to hurt at the callous words of this version of her friend. Then her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened. Her entire body ran cold. The gravity of her words hit her. She gave up Brady. On this Earth, she gave up Brady. Ryder had him, had custody of him.

Burnout didn't respond to the question, though Cadence could sense her body temperature immediately rise at the questions that came her way. Instead, she sat up straight in her chair and asked, "How'd it go?"

Deathstorm smirked. "You'd know if you were there."

"And you know why I wasn't. My personal life aside, I had some other stuff I needed to deal with."

"Mm." Killer Frost's lips curled even further, her eyes flashed with mirth. "You mean with White Hot?" Burnout lifted a dangerous eyebrow and Caitlin's smile immediately turned into a pout. She leaned back in her seat, removing her hand from Deathstorm's face. "Boo. You're no fun. I thought we told each other everything. Anyway, things went fine. We got the money. But where do these people get off robbing Central City's Royal Bank? This town belongs to Zoom and those of us he deems worthy to enforce his will and they think they can get away with taking things from us?"

Burnout tsked and wagged her finger. "Too bad we always have to teach them that lesson. I mean, it's fun, but you think these morons would learn how to stay out of trouble by now. How much did you get?"

"Maybe we don't want to tell you," Killer Frost said.

Now Burnout smirked. "Aww, sweetie, you know I have ways to make you talk." With that she flipped open the flap of the lighter and a fireball danced and wiggled above its starter. The light reflected in her eyes and she smiled sweetly while Caitlin's frown deepened. "It must really _burn_ you up to know that I have that old over you."

Deathstorm held up his hand as it started to glow orange, embers spinning around his fingers. Burnout flicked her gaze over to him, eyes narrowing for a moment. Then she lowered her hand to her lap. "That's what I thought," Deathstorm gloated. "All talk and no action."

"Actually, I was more concerned with the whining I'd have to deal with when your dearly beloved over there attacked me for maiming you."

At her mention, Killer Frost leaned over and made a show of kissing Ronnie on the cheek, keeping her eyes on Burnout as she did so. Burnout mimed sticking a finger down her throat, the fake vomit threatening to turn into a real one when Deathstorm said to Killer Frost, 'What did I tell you about watching that behind?" with a flirtatious lift to his voice and replied, "I thought that was your job," and gave him a real kiss.

She smiled and wiped lipstick off his cheek with her thumb. "Good thing the only one I can kiss is the only one I want to."

"The second one," Burnout pointed out. "But he's the only one that wouldn't kill you if you tried."

Killer Frost rolled her eyes. "You can't _still_ be mad about that."

"It took hours for me to defrost my lips."

"You talk too much anyway."

Burnout smirked in response. Then her eyes shifted over to Deathstorm as he pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen. He nodded, lips pressing together in a firm line. "What's up?" She asked.

"Just got word that breachers came through," he said.

Killer Frost's eyes widened with glee. She did all but clap her hands together like a little school girl. "yYu know I _love_ to kill people from other earth's."

"Then today's your lucky day." Burnout spun in her seat and locked eyes with Cadence once more. This time Cadence could see her eyes turning a solid, scary shade of red. "Sweetie, you made a big mistake," she said.

Cadence glared back.

* * *

Barry stepped out of the elevator at the CCPD, adjusting the tie that sat around his neck. "Yeah, this si a fashion statement you're never bringing back," he murmured under his breath, trying to keep his bowtie straight. It continued to twist around, poking him in the chin. Then he turned his attention back to his surroundings.

The CCPD. Even on Earth-2 Barry got goosebumps when walking into his place of work. Officers, Detectives, and Inspectors walked around casually chatting to each other. He looked over at the front desk and his mouth dropped open in happy surprise when he spotted Eddie Thawne. Eddie looked at the papers in front of him and carefully filed them before looking down at the couple that came up to his desk. He listened, smiled, and nodded before sending them in the right direction.

Barry turned as there was a commotion and saw two police officers walking into the precinct with a man handcuffed between them. The man continued to twist back and forth, trying to break free. His lips were pulled back into a snarl as he went. Eddie looked over as the three entered.

"What've you got there?" He asked.

"Captain," Barry whispered, finally getting a look at the man's face. He would've laughed so hard had he not been trying to keep from having attention brought on him. Nevertheless, he walked forward to get a better look at the commotion.

"David Singh," the officer on the left said. He tightened his grip on Singh's arms. "He and his partner have finally slipped up when robbing a bank and we're bringing them in."

"We're all acting like this isn't going to happen again," Singh said in a lazy drawl.

"And we'll be excited to see it happen," Eddie said. He waved as the man was taken away and turned back the two other Detectives that walked up to them. Barry's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he spotted Iris and Deadshot.

"What's going on here?" Iris asked, crossing her arms.

"Just David Singh again," Eddie said.

"Was it another shootout?" Deadshot asked.

Iris laughed and patted Deadshot on the shoulder. "You wish. I don't know anyone else who's as bad of a shot as you are. But then again, I've seen a lot of things on the job." Her eyes then shifted to Eddie and she lifted her chin. "May I see you in my office, Mr. Thawne? There's something we need to discuss."

"Yes, right away Detective West," Eddie said. He moved out from behind his desk and started to follow Iris out from the lobby. Eddie's eyes landed on Barry and he clasped his hand on his shoulder. "Good to see you, Bare."

"Yeah…good to see you too, Eddie," Barry replied in awe. He felt Eddie's hand on his shoulder. Actually _felt_ it. He was really there. He was _alive._ It took a few seconds for Barry to hear Deadshot's snickering then he turned to face Deadshot. "What? What's so funny?" He asked.

"Those two are always going off like that," Deadshot explained. "Saying how they need to talk to each other when the whole precinct knows they're just hoping to get sometime alone to neck." He shook his head. "They're married for God's sake, they don't need to hide anything."

"Right. Yeah." Barry nodded. So Iris and Eddie were married on this Earth. His heart felt a stab of pain for the life Iris could've had if Eddie hadn't sacrificed himself. How happy they could've been. Even as they smiled at each other while trying to be professional, Barry could see and feel how much they loved each other.

"So, what about you?"

"Huh?"

Deadshot continued to look at him patiently. "What about you and your girl? You think she'd be interested at a job here at the CCPD?"

"Uh, I guess." Earth-2 Barry, embarrassingly enough, hadn't struck him as someone who had a girlfriend. Or maybe he was projecting his own insecurities into it. "I'll have to ask her. Uh, I'm going to head up to my office…?" he phrased it as a question, spinning around as if a neon sign were to pop up showing him where to go.

Deadshot looked at him as if he were crazy. "It's always in the same spot," he remarked.

Barry nodded again, then pressed his glasses up his nose. Not _his_ glasses, he reminded himself, but the glasses of Earth-2 Barry. God, he had no idea how the other man could see. Everything warped around him as he tried to step forward. If it weren't for his eyes rapidly moving things into focus for him, he was sure he'd walk into walls. Or, God forbid, trip up the steps on the way to his office like he did on the first day of work back on Earth-1.

"Why did you have to go and remember that, Barry?" He muttered, the image of the laughing faces coming back to haunt him. He hurried up to his office, spinning in a quick circle to make sure no one was around before using his superspeed to race through all the files and evidence sitting around.

No. Nothing that would have him track down Zoom.

He should've known it wouldn't be that easy.

With a sigh, Barry sat down at his desk and looked around the papers that were piled up. There had to be _something_ that would give him a step in the right direction. He picked up the stack of papers and glanced over his shoulder once more. There didn't need to be anyone else who knew about his powers or else they'd realize he wasn't supposed to be there. _I'm not the Flash here,_ he reminded himself. _I'm just plain old Barry Allen._

That was the hardest part of him to wrap his head around. What was it like to be 'plain old Barry Allen?' He hadn't been himself in a long time, sometimes not knowing where The Flash ended and began.

 _"Barry, you're trying to be a hero. Just like you always do." Cadence threw her hands into the air. "You can't be the hero in every situation that comes around. Life doesn't work like that!"_

Maybe she was right, maybe he was too busy being a hero that he didn't know how to truly be himself anymore. He knew she didn't mean it in a bad way, and was just getting very upset with the conversation, he _was_ pushing her to talk about things. Maybe he pushed her too hard. Nevertheless, being a hero was what he was used to. Even before powers, he could never sit back and just watch injustice happen. He only hoped she understood his efforts in helping her.

He pushed the thought out of his head, paying attention to what was in front of him. Using his superspeed he went over the pages a few times, hoping it'd stick in his short term and long-term memory a little longer than normal. So far it had nothing to do with Zoom _exactly_ but gave clues to the kinds of things he did. And they were all horrifying.

One was a woman who was on a date with her boyfriend as soon as there was a gust of wind, his head was turned around and body slumped to the side. As the witness said, she had the chance to blink before he was gone. If Zoom was _that_ fast then…

Barry's eyes trailed over to the phone that sat on his desk, eyes roving over the numbers. _Mom Work, Dad work, Mom and Dad, Eddie, Bruce, Hal, Diana._ The other numbers were blank, more likely for those that worked at the CCPD. He didn't recognize half of the names on the phone but the ones for his parents caught his breath. _Mom._ Barry reached out and carefully ran his finger across the name tag.

"Mom," he whispered.

"Well, you certainly took your time to call us back."

Startled, Barry whirled around, seconds away from attacking whomever had snuck up behind him. Then he stopped, blinking in surprise at his parents. Or, this Earth's parents. _Earth-2's_ Barry's parents. But…it was his mother standing in front of him, smiling a bemused smile as Barry continued to gape at them.

"Hey Slugger," Earth-2 Henry said. He walked over to his son and grabbed his shoulders, gently shaking him. "It looks like you've gotten a little frozen again." He laughed and gently patted his son on the cheek. "But you're okay, right? It's like your mother said, you haven't called us back in some time."

Barry finally blinked back into consciousness. "Yeah, I'm sorry," he whispered.

Earth-2 Nora smiled, clutching her purse in front of her. "Well, we wanted to say thank you for the anniversary tickets to Atlantis." She reached out her arm and looped it through Henry's, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. "Your dad and I always wanted to go."

Barry nodded. "I'm glad you liked them," he managed to croak. Tears came to his eyes as he watched his mother, watching her, studying her, taking in everything of her face so that he would never forget.

"Are you okay?" Nora walked forward and rested her hands on the sides of Barry's face in the gentle caress that only his mother could do. She smoothed the brimming tears away. "You sound kind of strange"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Barry took in a deep breath and steadied himself. "It's just…I was looking over case files. Some Zoom stuff…"

"Yes, yes, that menace that has been running through the city," Henry remarked. He shook his head, lowering his gaze. "There's been so many lives lost. But I Know you and the rest of the CCPD are working hard to keep the city safe for us."

"My beautiful boy is making us proud every day," Nora continued. She smiled as she studied Barry's face. "But you look like you haven't slept in a while. Maybe you need some time away for a while." Her eyes lit up and she removed her hands from Barry's face, moving to dig through her purse. "I know. Why don't I give you and Cadence the tickets to Atlantis? Make it a nice little romantic getaway."

Barry felt his face grow hot, his mind coming to the only conclusion considering how Earth-2 Barry had reacted to Cadence before. They _weren't_ dating but Barry had told everyone they were. Or maybe that they had a relationship at some point before. Nevertheless, he deflected his mother's suggestion. "No, no, I want you to use them. You and dad." He looked back and forth between them again. "I'm really glad to see you happy, mom."

"Aww." Nora squeezed Barry in a hug, which he eagerly returned. "I love you Barry."

"I love you, too, mom. Both of you." Barry's chest swelled with his deep breath and turned to go back to lunch, stopping once more when his mother said, "Great, now that we have that settled, let's go to lunch."

Barry looked at her in confusion then at his desk. He wanted to eat but…there was so much he needed to do to figure things out with Zoom first. But when was he ever going to get a chance to speak and spend time with his mother again?

Henry laughed again. "What's wrong, Slugger? You think we only wanted to come here to demand to know why you haven't called us back?" He and his wife exchanged a look. "That's very true, it was our original idea, but we haven't had lunch as a family in a while so we thought we'd treat our only son."

Barry grinned. Zoom could wait a little, and as it was, he may get some more information from others in the vicinity. "Let's go," he said.

Twenty minutes later the three arrived at Jitterbugs. That made Barry stop in his tracks and study the outside before ducking inside. The first thing that caught his attention was the big band music that was playing, immediately setting a cozy atmosphere for everyone inside. Then he noticed who was onstage and for probably the tenth time since arriving at Earth-2 that morning, his jaw dropped.

Joe was finishing up his music set, making everyone smile, clap and cheer for him. Barry stared at Joe before noticing his parents were no longer with him. He saw they were sitting at a table with Iris and Eddie and moved to join them.

"Hey Barry, glad to see you were on time this time," Iris said as Barry sat with them.

"Very funny," Barry replied. Of course he couldn't get past those jokes even on another Earth. It must be encoded in his DNA.

"He came with us this time, so we wouldn't let him," Nora said.

"Well, if there's anyone ever to wait for, it's definitely you, Mrs. Allen," Eddie said with a warm smile. He nodded to Henry then sat up straight in his seat, lifting his hand above his head. "Joe! Over here!" Joe stepped off the stage and walked to the group. Iris leaned over to give her father a hug and kiss while Eddie said, "That was a great number, Joe. Very rousing."

"Aw, you're just saying that," Joe replied, pulling at the lapels of his work vest. "It's true, but you're just saying that."

"Now why would I do that?"

"To get in good with my daughter."

"I'm already married to her, sir."

"And I couldn't ask for a better son-in-law."

Barry's eyebrows briefly before falling. Joe and Eddie had managed to get on good terms after some time of working together, but here it looked like they were complete best friends. Who knew he'd be so excited about Iris getting married? Then again, it was still taking some time for him to wrap his head around her being the Detective rather than Joe.

Not that he didn't think Iris could do it. _She had done well enough to get into the Police Academy before Joe made her stop,_ he thought. He remembered how crushed she was about it, though not letting Joe in on just how bad it made her. Instead, he and Iris had many late nights as they tried to figure out what she would do instead.

Instead, Barry leaned over and patted Joe on the arm saying, "So, you're a singer, Joe!"

Joe glared ruefully at Barry, pushing the speedster's hand off his arm. "It's Joseph to you and I see you're still and idiot."

Stung, Barry removed his hand. Beside him, Barry could see his mother and father exchange glances before Nora said, "Come on, Joe, you know Barry means well."

Joe's nostrils flared in disbelief. "He means well and he had the audacity to ask that I'm a singer?" A scoffing guffaw came from Joe's lips.

That stung even more. A storm of emotions was starting to brew inside Barry. A storm he wasn't sure he could wait out. "A-are you upset with me? Did I…did I do something to hurt you?" He asked. Joe's glare turned to land pointedly at him and Barry flinched. The last time he'd been struck by that glare had been when he was caught skipping school to go to a science conference in Gotham. "O-or do you just not like me?"

"Have you lost your mind?" Joe demanded. Iris clasped her hands over her face and Eddie shook his head. "Central City has a lunatic running around and you're asking what's going on with you? You're the most selfish person I've ever met and I'm a musician. All of us are selfish."

"With all due respect, Joe, Barry's been working really hard lately," Henry said, quickly coming to his son's defense. He spoke in a smooth, dulcet tone that showed friendliness though his eyes flashed with warning. "Trying to do everything he can to stop Zoom. Forgive him if he's worked so hard that his mind is on other things."

"Then I hope you forgive me if I think he takes his job way too damn seriously," Joe snapped back. "When was the last time he's come to visit you?"

 _What?_ Barry thought, looking back and forth between the two most important men in his life.

Henry shrugged. To anyone it would look like a careless, nonchalant move, but Barry had seen his father do it enough to know it was a warning. "He's my son, not yours."

"Then make sure he acts like it."

Barry opened his mouth to say something but was then stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Barry turned around and felt himself immediately relax when he saw Cadence was the one who grabbed him. Not just because he knew she was okay, but also because he always felt relaxed when he was around her.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey," She replied. Without acknowledging the others at the table, she took his wrist and dragged him a few steps away. "There's something you need to know—"

"—First," Barry interrupted. "I have something I need to tell you." Cadence bit her lip and waited. "I wanted to apologize for our fight earlier—"

"—I'm the one who needs to apologize, Tholly," Cadence interrupted him. "You were just trying to help me work through what was going on. And you were right, about everything. I do need to talk more about what I'm feeling all the time instead of keeping it bottled up. And, I'm sorry for calling you a jackass."

"I've been called worse things," Barry said.

Cadence smiled and stepped in, giving him a quick peck. "Barry…" She stopped when a sudden beeping sound filled the air. Barry and Cadence turned and saw Iris holding her wrist up to her face. Where a regular watch would be was a similar device shooting off red image waves. She pressed her lips together, looking at him curiously. "Have you noticed this running theme that we've got here?"

"How we're always interrupted?" Barry replied. "Yeah, I noticed that too." His eyes moved around the café, trying to figure out what the sound was. Judging by the looks of the people whose own devices started to beep, it couldn't be a good thing.

"It's the metahuman warning app," Iris said. She stood up and started to look around.

Barry's eyes widened and he exchanged another glance with Cadence, whose eyes widened as well before turning to face the front of the café where Killer Frost, Deathstorm, and Burnout were standing menacingly.

The storm had arrived.

* * *

"Brady? Have you been listening to a word I've said?"

Brady lowered his headphones from his ears and nodded. He sat up straight in the passenger seat of Ryder's car. "Yes. You were saying that I can't skip school anymore."

"Because?" Ryder prompted.

"Because mom would be mad at me?" Brady guessed. He hadn't been paying _that_ close attention. Instead, he was thinking of metahuman things, as what seemed to preoccupy his mind as of late. Ryder chuckled and shifted his blonde fringe from his blue eyes.

"I'm sure that's true, but no that's no tit, buddy. Try again," Ryder said.

Brady blew out his buff of air, blowing a raspberry. "Because I'd be mindlessly dwindling away my education?"

"Where'd you get that one?"

"YouTube."

"Gotcha." Ryder pulled up in front of the school and threw the car in park. He shifted in his seat to look at his son seriously. "You don't want to skip school just because you're missing out on an education. But because you're putting yourself in unnecessary danger. Not to mention that it's against the law for you not to be in school unless you were homeschooled and your mother and I could go to jail over it."

Brady grimaced. The last thing he wanted was for them to get into any kind of trouble because of him. "So homeschool me then," Brady insisted.

Ryder smiled. "Sorry, buddy, but with my line of work, I wouldn't have the time to do that. And neither would your mom."

Brady's eyes shifted for a second. Okay, this wasn't going as well as he thought it would. "Well, then, why can't Aunt Caitlin homeschool me? Or Harrison? Or Tess? They're all smart, they could do it." _And it'd keep me around STAR Labs more._

"I can't ask them to homeschool you like that, they'd need to be certified. The only person that could do it is Tess and she's already very busy trying tom make sure that you and the other metahumans can live safely in the city." Ryder reached out and ruffled his son's hair. "I know you're trying to prove that you can be a good hero. And from what I've seen, you're a _great_ hero. You just need some more time before you grow up to shoulder the burden yourself. You're a kid, you should be focused on having fun."

"But d—"Brady cut himself off, then said instead, "But Ryder, I'm _not_ just a little kid. I can do stuff to help."

Ryder looked at him for a long moment. Then he smiled mysteriously. "Then figure out a way that you can help in your school and go from there. I'm sure there's plenty of people that can use your sense of heroics." Brady looked back at him in confusion. Ryder unlocked the car doors and nodded towards the school. "Have a good day. And don't worry about your mom, she's going to be fine."

"I know she is," Brady said confidently. And he truly believed it, too. She was strong, but he was strong too, she taught him how to be. His body was stronger from his powers, form what she taught him, and from what Ryder taught him. _Wait a minute…_ A thought entered Brady's head and he smiled. "I have to get going. I'll see you later, Ryder."

"See ya, buddy."

Brady slid out of the car—reminded himself not to phase—and hurried over to Conner and Leah and they looked over something on her phone, heads pressed together. Brady grabbed their arms and dragged them away from the bench they were sitting on and as far away from the other students as they could without getting out of the teacher's view. Morning carpool 'security' had been amped up in light of recent events as well.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Conner asked, trying to keep himself from falling. He grabbed his backpack to keep it from falling down his shoulder.

"Yeah, you almost broke my phone" Leah complained.

"Forget your phone," Brady said impatiently. "I know what we can do to help."

"Help what?" Leah asked. She placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head, eyes widening. "How to keep from getting in trouble?"

"Yeah, I don't think we're going to be able to do that," Conner agreed. He looked at Brady then pointed to his face. "Especially with that look he has."

"You noticed it, too?"

Brady ignored the both of them. "I was talking to dad and he pointed something out to me. Our school keeps getting attacked."

"Duh," Leah said.

"And this city is filled with people who were here when the Particle Accelerator blew up," Brady said. He pointed to himself. "I was and Leah was."

"I was, too," Conner agreed.

"And the two of us became metahumans. There was Kyle from last year who was a meta who mom and Barry helped before he and his parents moved away. But with how many people who are in the city there has to be more kids that turned into metahumans because of it, right?" Brady looked back and forth between his friends, waiting for them to get it. When they didn't, he rolled his eyes and said, "If there are more kids who are metas then they have to be hiding, too. So what if we found them?"

"How are we going to do that?" Conner asked.

"Yeah, did you become some sort of a meta-detector?"

"Good one," Conner said.

Brady smiled. "No, I haven't.

"That'd be a cool power though," Conner declared. Then he frowned. "So say we figure out who the rest of these metas are? What are we going to do with them after that? We can't train them."

"Who says we can't?" Brady asked.

"We don't have the stuff to do that! We don't even have the stuff to force them to tell us that they _are_ metahumans. Well, if that Registration Act doesn't come out, anyway."

"Then we'll have to do the same thing," Leah said. "Make a list or something to figure it out. Or, make a secret code that only metahumans will know to get them to come to a meeting. Or have a secret group on Facebook or Twitter. Everyone in our class has a Facebook, remember? It's how we were all invited to Jacob's birthday party last year."

"Okay," Conner said. He looked to be warming up to the idea. "But what about the other metas? The bigger ones here in Central City? While Barry and your mom are gone, they might still attack."

"We're going to have to do it ourselves," Brady decided. "I'm tired of sitting around and waiting to be told what to do and wait for things to happen. So let's make them happen." He reached out and placed his hands on Conner's and Leah's shoulders, leaning his head close so that only they could hear him. "We're going to find other metahumans in this school and we're going to train them ourselves."

* * *

 **A/N:** So, what did you guys think so far? ;)

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 ** **I update this story every Wednesday. But follow us on twitter at DarkElements10 or tumblr at purple-and-red-ribbons for updates and sneak peaks as the story goes on and status updates in case I can't upload on time.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Unfortunately, things people don't understand tend to scare others and they'd rather not deal with it than accept it. So that's very reminiscent of today's times I think. It's all of the work to keep their citizens as safe as possible with Zoom and other metahumans running around, better safe than sorry, even if it were at a school. But their school had been attacked a lot, so…As for Cadence's freakout over Earth-2, it's two things to be excited at the idea of what going to another Earth would be like and actually being there knowing things could be vastly different. I think it'd give anyone a panic attack. Even a little one.

 **luna:** Well, in the next chapter it'll come to a head so we'll see what happens next.

 **DarkHelm145:** Yeah, I'm not sure anyone thought it was coming so I'm glad it worked for it's purpose

 **PowerHero432:** Conner and Leah are just so innocent, I love writing them together. Though they're so young I can't do _too_ much with them, but it's still fun. I thought of them being twins, but figured it was a bad idea considering it seemed that Jesse was only about 20 years old or so and I didn't want to age her up. Hope you liked this Earth-2 part.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you! Hope you liked this one as well. Your comments keep me going.

 **yummers:** Thanks, more in the next chapter.

 **Guest:** This one should hold your attention until the next one, plenty of Earth-2 things and more changes with it coming in the next one.


	39. Burn

**.:39:.**

 _Burn_

* * *

"Have you got anything yet?"

Brady looked up from the paper that sat on the table beside him then shook his head had Conner. He picked up his lunch bag and looked through it before taking out his apple. Conner grabbed it from his hand, replacing it with his own orange before taking a bite. "Not yet. I haven't heard anyone talking about their powers or anything. Then again, I don't know how many people would."

"You do," Leah pointed out from beside him.

"Yeah, but to you guys. I don't go up to anyone else and talk about it. I'm the weirdo of the school, remember?" Brady pointed out.

And that was all because he had missed so much school at the beginning of the last year. He had no idea what his mom had said to keep the school from asking questions about his days missed when he was with the Assassination Bureau. But it was enough that other students made a clear path away from him.

Or, the more realistic option being that they all made friends while he was gone. And it wasn't like any of them _hated_ him. But it was starting to be too much of a coincidence that he was around whenever meta things happened to go on. He was starting to understand the whole keeping it a secret thing. The last thing he ever needed was for people to continue to freak out over absolutely nothing. Just that morning he'd heard his classroom teacher saying there may be new rules added to their recess schedule as well.

Which only made Brady think they were starting to freak out over nothing. So far only Grodd had attacked and that was just because of his wanting revenge against him and Conner. There hadn't truly been anything since then. Still, how many times could Flash and Flare prove that everything was okay before people started to get it.

Brady finished his orange and started in on his sandwich. "But there is this…meta watch thing that Harry has from his Earth. It detects metas when you put it near them. Maybe we could use that?"

"How are you going to get it?" Leah asked, frowning.

Brady shrugged. "I could check his office, I don't think he brought it with him when they went to Earth-2."

"How are you going to get it?" Leah repeated.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until after school. We don't have soccer practice so we could just go to STAR Labs after and then get it then."

"What about before then?" Conner asked.

"I don't know, I guess we'll just have to wait." That made Brady's frown deepen. He wasn't an impatient person but when it came to things like this, waiting just made things worse. Like with Zoom. Zoom was consistently bringing over metas from Earth-2 and they had to continue to take them out. If they had dealt with Zoom when he first came around, maybe they wouldn't be in the currently situation. Zoom's want to fill the city with fear was just working out better than any of them could've anticipated.

"Well, what if any of these guys end up being a three bar?" Conner asked. Brady and Leah exchanged a glance before simultaneously asking, "A what?" Conner looked at them in confusion, as if it were supposed to be obvious. "A three bar." Brady continued to stare and Conner reached out, grabbing his piece of paper that held scribbles of plans to get in contact with other metas. He grabbed the pencil that sat beside it and started to draw out a crude diagram. "I think of it, like putting metahumans in a ranking system based on their power and skill. Zoom would probably be a five bar. The Reverse-Flash is probably a five bar, too. Then Barry and your mom are four bars…or maybe Barry is a three-and-a-half since your mom had her powers longer. You're a two bar. And Leah is a one bar."

"Because I haven't really been working on my powers at all," Leah agreed. She tucked her hair behind her ears. "So, by ranking all of these guys, then we'll have an idea of things that we can take down."

" _And_ so we can keep track of the metas in here," Conner agreed. He rubbed his hands on the legs of his jeans. "So, what do you think?"

"I think it's something Oliver would do," Brady said honestly. Actually, it was probably _exactly_ what Oliver would do if he hadn't already thought of a way to take down those notes. Caitlin could probably find some use of it, too along with her grant research on metahumans. Yeah, that could really come in handy. "Great job!" He reached out his hand and the two high-fived, adding a fist bump at the end.

"So what are we supposed to do until we get this…metahuman watch thing?" Leah asked.

"Act like everything is normal, I guess," Conner said.

Brady nodded but didn't respond. His mind was whirring with too many variables. There would be enough of his classmates he'd be around for their play rehearsal, he could start listening around then. But if they were like Leah, people were going to be as quiet as possible. And what about Kyle? The boy had light powers he couldn't control and Brady had to help stop him. He had moved away after that, or as they were told. But the teachers had to have had it known somewhere that he was a metahuman…and maybe they were the ones who knew if there were more…

"Guys," he said slowly. "Do you think the teachers know who're metas?" Then another thought struck him. "Do you think any of _them_ are metas?" He didn't wait for their response, eyes widening. "Then they're in trouble, too."

"Okay, but how are we going to figure out any of them are? They're teachers!" Conner pointed out.

"Maybe the nurse would know," Brady pointed out. "Or the Principal? There has to be someone in the school who knows who's a metahuman because of all of the stupid security we have going on here." He quickly made up his mind and stood up. "I'm going to go see."

Conner looked equally stricken and excited at the coming venture they were about to go on. "How are you going to get in there without people seeing you?"

Brady gave him a look. "Do you not listen when I talk about my powers? I can make myself invisible, remember?" Well, not _exactly_ invisible, he was still there. But so long that he didn't move too much people were able to look over him as he blended into his surroundings. "We can check their records or whatever to know for sure."

Leah and Conner both slowly stopped chewing as his words hit them. Without waiting for an answer, Brady got up from his seat and gathered his trash to throw away in the trash bins. He heard Conner and Leah hurrying to move after him. "We're going to get caught," Leah said as they gathered around the trash can.

"We're not going to get caught," Brady said confidently. "If we do this fast, we can get back before lunch ends." At least he hoped things would work out that well. If anything, they were going to get answers and that was the most important thing. Just so long as they didn't get suspended again—or expelled. Brady looked over his shoulder at the noisy lunchroom. It looked like no one was looking their way. His gaze flicked to the corners of the room—they hadn't set up any cameras in there yet. That was good.

Taking in a deep breath, he grabbed his friend's wrists and concentrated on his powers, sliding them down through the floor. They came back up outside the doors of the cafeteria and started to run down the quiet hallways. Everyone should be at lunch so they didn't expect there to be anyone who'd stop them. First, Brady directed them to the nurse's office. Conner peered around the corner to check if the coat was clear while Leah leaned forward to look through the glass on the door. She leaned back then nodded at Brady, letting him know there was no one inside. She tried the door handle first, finding it locked.

Brady grabbed the back of Conner's shirt and pulled him back around the corner then took Leah's elbow before dragging them through the door and into the office. Conner let out a low gasping sound when he passed through the door, then pressed his hands to his chest. "That always feels so weird."

"You get used to it," Brady said. He went over to the filling cabinet and opened the drawer. His eyes scanned the rows of folders then frowned. Something his mom said ran through his head. Something about HIPPA or HIPPO or something. _It can't be more important than this,_ he reminded himself and started to look through the folders.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked, noticing he took out three different folders in rapid succession.

"I'm comparing our files," Brady said. He dropped the three to the floor and opened them, tilting the inside papers close together. "To see if it says anything different about it." He tilted his head to the side, eyes landing on their blood test. "I didn't know my blood type was O negative."

"That means you can give blood to anyone," Conner pointed out. He the noticed Leah wasn't with them and noticed her continuously standing at the door, peering out the window. Her hand was up to her mouth, chewing at her fingernails. "Leah, are you going to come see?"

"No, I'm going to keep lookout," she said.

Brady heard the nerves in her voice. "The teachers are all at lunch."

"What if the nurse comes back early? If we get caught, we might be expelled. I kind of want to make it to the sixth grade."

"Well, from what you tell us, you're not going to make it to the sixth grade here anyway." Leah glared at Brady while Conner laughed. But she turned away from the door and dropped to her knees next to the boys. She picked up her file and looked it over. "Everything looks fine here."

"Mine too," Conner agreed.

Brady frowned as he looked over his. Everything seemed fine on his medical chart; it had his allergies to strawberries, dust, and mold, had down all the shots that he had needed, and mentioned the times he'd broken bones. But there were other parts that looked like added notes; one of which stating 'may be suffering from anxiety, keeps to himself a lot, keep watch of him.' As far as he knew, he never suffered from anxiety. Boredom, maybe, but not anxiety.

"Why would that be added to my file?" He asked.

Conner shrugged. "Maybe because of the time you were gone from school?"

"Or maybe it's from the times that you 'disappeared'." Leah used air quotes around the words. "When we were going to check some of the strange stuff going on."

"Then why would it only be on mine and not yours?"

"I don't know."

Brady pressed his lips together. He made a humming sound then got up to return the files. "Well, this didn't say anything about metas anyway. We'll have to check the principal's office." He carefully put everything back in its place and closed the drawer. "Let's go." He turned back then stopped, hearing footsteps heading towards the door.

Leah dashed over and peered out. She gasped and whirled around. "The nurse and the principal are coming this way."

"Standing in front of the window probably isn't a good idea," Conner said helpfully. Leah glared and punched him hard on the arm, making Conner take a step back, practically hiding behind his best friend as he rubbed his arm. "I was just saying."

"Shh!" Brady put a finger to his lips. The footsteps had stopped. He crept closer to the door and opened it, poking his head out. Conner and Leah leaned around him, sticking their heads out as well. They caught the tail-end of the conversation.

"So there haven't been any other oddities?" Principal Jensen asked.

"Not that I've received," Nurse McMahon replied. She let out what sounded like a quiet sigh. "I've had parents calling me time and time again demanding to know if there's anything within their child's medical reports that would indicate if they're a metahuman and—"

"I know that. But this is far above me. This is what the superintendent and the Board of Trustees want. They need to be sure that this school is the safest place for their children. Even those whose children are metahumans. It's not just our school, it's all the schools in the city."

"This is going against the medical laws in place—"

"—We don't have a choice. Even if only for peace of mind, the staff need to know so that the proper measures can be put in place. Now, can you please do that? If not, then I'd understand if you were to resign."

Nurse McMahon nodded. She turned to her office and went inside. She paused at the door, noticing the handle turned freely. She could've sworn she'd locked the door before leaving for her lunch break. Slowly, she looked around the room.

There was no one there.

* * *

Caitlin leaned back from her microscope and rubbed her eyes. It was no wonder her mother insisted at some point that she get glasses. There were only so many times she could make her eyes focus on the smallest organisms before she went cross-eyed. Caitlin smiled a little. If Cisco were there, he would've teased her about a very Freudian slip of the tongue that she managed to make every now and then, only growing more flustered the more he laughed.

She didn't realize how quiet it would be without the others around. Much quieter than she was used to. She was used to a lot of talking, a lot of laughing, and the sound of construction going on all over. Whether or not Barry was working on the Cosmic Treadmill or he and Cadence were sparring, or even when she and Cisco were watching their morning shows there was a lot more going on. Harrison popped in every now and then but he didn't say much.

Well, not since she asked him the question they all needed to know the answer to. "Why did you help him? Why did you help Harry take Barry's speed for Zoom?"

And Harrison looked at her with his clear blue eyes and said, "If it were Ronnie that was captured like that, would you do anything to help him? Even if it meant betraying a friend, hoping they'd understand?" Caitlin thought about it for a minute. "Take that pain and fear of their death being on your hands…and change it to being your son or daughter."

That was what struck Caitlin the hardest. Not because she didn't think that way about Ronnie but because no one knew how much the young couple wanted to start a family. Caitlin had seen other women at STAR Labs have ample time of maternity leave as well as the paternity leave that Harrison offered and was a little envious. She'd always wanted to have children, part of the reason to spite her mother, wanting to be a better parent than she'd ever been. She hadn't known how much she thought of her biological clock ticking until she became engaged to Ronnie. Rather than her brain sticking on the wedding preparations, she immediately thought of the future and how badly she wanted to have a family of her own.

Knowing that wasn't going to happen now…even _trying_ to imagine what her life would've been like with a child and having them taken away…she had no idea how Joe, Henry, Harrison, Tess, Harry, or Cadence managed to do it. She'd be a nervous wreck nearly every day. In that aspect, she understood why Harrison would jump to do it. But, she wasn't quite sure if there was another part of the puzzle that wasn't being explained.

"How're things going with Mayor Bellows?" She asked him.

Harrison gave a pain expression at that point and it was everything Caitlin needed to know. It seemed like everything around them was slowly falling apart. Even her work on Jay's blood and cells weren't giving her much information compared to Barry's that she was looking at, at the same time.

Caitlin brought her hands up to rub her eyes when she felt hands land on her shoulders. Caitlin smiled and leaned back to smile at Jay. He smiled back before leaning in to give her a peck. Caitlin reached up her hand and placed it on Jay's neck, holding him to her, making the kiss last a little longer. She needed the time to focus on something good rather than what was troubling her.

"What's the matter?" Jay asked. "You look a little stressed."

"I'm just looking through your cells again," Caitlin explained. "And through Barry's as well. It's strange. Yours seem to be…" she swallowed hard. "Seem to be getting worse. But Barry's is the same as it's ever been." She twisted around to face him completely, draping her arm over her chair. "I don't get it. I'd expected there to be something even different with Barry's cells. They move a little faster but…"

Jay shrugged, moving to sit next to her. "Well, there's a lot of reasons why that would be possible," he said slowly. Almost sadly. "Age, stress factors, environmental factors…"

"You've been on this Earth for a while now, Jay," Caitlin gently reminded him. "It's like your home. I don't think the environment would be a viable factor."

"Okay, I can see that."

"And your age shouldn't mean anything either. You've been a speedster longer, you've had more time to work with it. If anything, the Speed Force should be helping you more than it's hurting. I mean…" Caitlin shook her head. It was starting to become difficult to keep everything straight. So many facts and figures swirled through her head as she tried to figure out what it was that would keep Jay alive and Barry right on track with his speed. "I guess I don't know."

Jay smirked towards her, hearing the shortness of her voice. "You've never had to said you didn't know something before have you?"

"It doesn't happen very often, no," Caitlin said. She ran a hand through her hair. "I've even thought…what if we found your doppelganger here on this Earth. But I haven't found a Jay Garrick anywhere around here?"

"There's a reason for that." Jay licked his lips. He took in a deep breath that made his chest swell in a way that Caitlin couldn't help but watch, her eyes flicking over his body. "I've looked and I've found this man, but on this Earth, he's not named Jay Garrick. His name is Hunter Zoloman. He…he was fostered and adopted by the Zolomans."

Caitlin sat up straight, excitement immediately filling her. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go find him!" But Jay shaking his head made her shoulders slump in defeat. "Why don't you want to find him again? Jay, this could _save_ you!"

Jay reached out and took her hand in his. He ran his thumb over her skin, squeezed her hand tightly enough so that their palms pressed together. He was silent for a moment, voice low as he confessed, "My DNA was mutated when I became a speedster." If possible, Caitlin's heart sank even further. "And the only way to reverse what's happening to me now is if I get my speed back."

Got it.

Just another setback for them to work through.

Caitlin nodded, giving his hand a gentle squeeze this time. She was going to figure this out. She had to.

"You guys!" Joe's voice caught Caitlin's attention and she whirled around in her seat to find him striding quickly into the office. "We've got a problem."

Caitlin waited for a small, "We always have a problem," under Cisco's breath or some other sort of snide comment that the two shared every now and then. But found herself missing him even more when she didn't hear anything. Instead, she noticed Joe's stricken glance and asked, "Joe is everything okay?"

"No, there's a lot that's going on right now!" Joe shot back. He reached out and grabbed the remote that would turn on the TV in front of them. The screen flickered to life and Caitlin watched as the metahuman on screen raced back and forth, causing tremors everywhere he went.

"Another meta?" Caitlin asked. Behind her, Jay let out a long sigh, bringing his hands up to cover his face. Caitlin wanted to go over to comfort him but found herself unable to move, rooted to the spot in fear of what was happening all around them. This was going to be harder than she thought.

Joe nodded. "I take it you know this man," Joe said to Jay. When Jay nodded his agreement, Joe's face screwed up. "You'd think there'd be at least _one day_ where things can go normally around here."

"His name is Adam Fells," Jay explained. He stood up and paced closer to the screen. Caitlin stood up and followed him. She squinted her eyes, scanning the face of the man that worked hard to discern him from anyone else they may know. She hadn't seen that man in her entire life. "On our Earth, he calls himself Geomancer."

"So, he's a doppelganger?" Joe asked. His question came out slow. It was obvious he was starting to become more accustomed to everything that had to do with Earth-2. Though it'd take a while for an entire other world full of people identical on his being out there.

"Yes. He died on my Earth, so he must be the real deal here."

As soon as the words left his lips, a light tremor moved through the building. Caitlin wobbled on her heels, throwing her hand out to catch herself along the wall beside her. It lasted for a few long minutes, threatening to make her fall to her knees. Caitlin looked up, seeing Joe and Jay had done the same thing, crouching low around what they could reach to keep themselves up.

"Okay, so this Geomancer guy," Joe said. "How are we going to stop him? Without Barry?"

"We're going to have to think of something," Caitlin said.

Joe looked at her funny. "Caitlin, we don't have a Flash here. We don't have a _Flare_ here. You've barely started to use your powers and Jay doesn't have any. There has to be something else we can do to take him down. And if we're going to figure it out, it has to be done fast."

 _Oh yeah, that's not too much pressure,_ Caitlin thought. She started to feel herself tremble. She thought she could handle this, handle everything that had to do with holding down the fort while Barry was gone. She made the promise she could do it but… _What if I can't?_ Her mind turned back to her work, back to Velocity-6. Her line of sight must've given her away for Jay shook his head.

"Caitlin, no," he said firmly.

Caitlin gazed back at him, almost sadly. Could he see that she was trying to help? That all she wanted out of life was to help in any way possible? "Jay, we need to—"

Jay held up his hand, slowly getting back to his feet. Once he was standing, his eyes were only on her. "Caitlin, I like when you look at me with warmth and pride. But if there's a chance that it stops, then I want you to hear it from me. I had my powers as the Flash but it wasn't enough for me. I wasn't fast _enough,_ I never was. So I tried to increase my powers…and I did that."

"So you've taken velocity 6 before?" Joe realized. If he were miffed about Jay only paying attention to Caitlin, he didn't show it. There was something that needed to be figured out and things were slowly working to get there.

"Yes, but there were…some unforeseen side-effects," Jay admitted.

 _Unforeseen side effects?_ Caitlin swirled those words through her head time and time again. Unforeseen…that made sense. Of course! "That's why you didn't want Barry to take it," Caitlin realized. "Zoom didn't steal your speed. Velocity-6 is killing you."

Jay nodded. "I wasn't lying when I said that stuff is dangerous."

Then Caitlin flashed to Brady and how he had given Barry Velocity-6. She tried to think about whether anyone had told him why they were fighting over it. But no one had. She remembered him saying that no one was talking about it and no one was doing anything so he decided to give it to Barry. She couldn't blame him, he was doing what he thought was helping and now…Caitlin could never think about telling Brady the truth about Barry.

It'd crush him.

"So, is it going to kill him?" Joe asked. Caitlin could hear the anguish in his voice. The idea of knowing there was something hurting his son and not being able to do anything about it…they'd been in that situation many times before. But it couldn't get easier any time.

"I don't know," Jay said. "I don't know what it's going to do to him, it may affect Speedsters differently. But he's taken it and we'll have to watch him carefully."

"How can we watch him when he's over there on Earth-2?" Joe exploded. He smacked the wall with his palm, making Caitlin jump. She'd never seen Joe so angry and helpless. She felt the exact same. Caitlin looked down at her hands, saw the light blue glow that started to appear around her hands as her powers started to activate a little. After a few seconds, it started to peter out. Just like always. What were they going to do if even she couldn't defend herself? "He's working hard to save _your_ Earth. A Earth full of people he doesn't know, and you can't do the same for him?"

"We'll think of something, Joe," Caitlin pleaded. "He'll be fine and they'll all come back. But in the meantime," she licked her lips. "We'll need to figure things out with Jay, so that way when Barry _does_ come back we can save him, too." She then turned to Jay and looked at him seriously. "You have someone you didn't have before. Me. And we're going to figure this out. Both of you. I promise."

Jay and Joe looked at each other for a moment then nodded.

Caitlin felt her shoulders slump as she relaxed. She then tensed once more when she heard rapid footsteps heading their way and looked over at Harrison and Tess entered. Harrison's strides were so long that he practically dragged Tess behind him as they flew around the corner.

"What's going on?" Joe asked them.

"Nothing good, Detective," Tess said. Her blue eyes shone with worry as she placed her hands on her hips. "I just got back from a meeting with Mayor Bellows. I've managed to hold back his push to have the Metahuman Registration Act to rally forward."

"How's that a bad thing?" Jay asked. His eyes shifted back and forth. "That sounds like a win to me."

Caitlin nodded in agreement. Anything that would give them more time to figure out what the Metahuman Registration Act was going to be was good for them. The more information they had, the more they could counteract it before abolishing the Act all together.

Harrison looked Joe in the eye. "Mayor Bellows agreed to give more time on the Registration Act, yes. But he also made it so that Chief Paulson is now the leader of the Metahuman Task Force." Shock registered on Joe's face before he turned away, shaking his head. But Harrison wasn't' done yet. "And more security measures for the entire city are going to be put in place. Pretty soon, this isn't going to be the same Central City we know and love."

* * *

Barry continued to gape at Burnout, Killer Frost, and Deathstorm. The familiar faces of those he knew and loved standing in front of him, looking like they wanted nothing more than to kill him. Deathstorm's eyes shone with a furious fire, lips pulled back in a smirk. Killer Frost stood at his side, arms crossed over her chest, hip cocked to the side as her silvery-blue eyes shifted over the crowd. Burnout stood at the end, the expression on her face more apathetic than the other two but Barry could see her determination as well.

Silence boomed around Jitterbugs, amplifying Killer Frost's boots hitting the ground as she stepped forward. "So," she drawler. Reaching to a manicured finger, which Barry could see was painted the same navy blue as her lipstick. Which one of you is not like the others? Which one of you doesn't belong?" She cocked an eyebrow, waiting for someone to say something. She got silence in reply. "Show of hands? Come on, don't be shy."

It took Barry a couple of seconds before realizing how much of a ploy it was. It was hard to keep his mind straight when he was looking at some of his best friends. His heart hurt, seeing how they were on this Earth. How different, how… _destroyed_ they'd become. How they weren't anything of the life he knew.

Killer Frost's eyes shifted to Barry and her smile widened. Barry felt Cadence's grasp on his arm tighten. "What about you? She asked. "Do you have something you want to tell me?"

The words barely came to Barry's lips as he whispered, "No." He could see his parents…his Earth-2 parents cowering behind him.

"No?" Killer Frost pouted. She even looked a little disappointed. With a slow shake of her head, Killer Frost swirled her hips around, hands pressing to her waist as she cooed to Deathstorm, "Baby, no one's talking to me."

"What if I make them scream?" Deathstorm's eyes lit up. His fingers twitched at his sides, as if he were only seconds away from launching a full-scale attack. Barry was sure it truly was about to happen. "I think that'd make some of them talk, right?"

There was a flurry of movement behind Barry and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Earth-2 Iris and Earth-2 Eddie get to their feet, both pulling out guns as they did so. "CCPD!" They barked in unison.

Earth-2 Eddie's eyes shot back and forth over the faces of the instigators standing in front of him. "Everyone get out of here," he called to the innocent men and women that stood and crouched around Jitterbugs. They immediately got to their feet and started to run out of Jitterbugs. Barry wasn't sure if his Earth-2 parents left, he couldn't see them in the stampede.

"You're under arrest," Earth-2 Iris said to Killer Frost, Deathstorm, and Burnout.

Deathstorm grinned and took a step back. He dropped his hands to the sides and motioned with his hands. "Ladies first." Killer Frost exchanged his glance and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

It was then Barry felt the grasp on his arm tighten even further. So tight that his skin burned. And burned. A gasp of pain escaped Barry's lips and he looked over to find Cadence grin evilly as she moved to stand in front of him. Embers floated around her and her eyes took on a lizard-esque look. The beautiful, sweet face he knew and loved instantly morphed to one he didn't recognize all because of her eyes. Barry literally saw her eyes shift before the pain came to be too unbearable. He looked down at his wrist, seeing she had burned through the sleeve of his tweed jacket and dress shirt to his skin. It smoked and bubbled under her palm.

It wasn't Cadence.

"It sucks, doesn't it?" Burnout murmured. She tilted her head to the side and continued to look into Barry's eyes. "Not knowing which way is up? Not knowing who truly is beside you. It's remarkable the kind of information you get from your doppelganger. But what sucks even worse-" In a flash of movement, Burnout punched Barry hard in the chest, sending him flying back against the back wall of Jitterbugs. He fell to the ground, upturning a table with glassware as he did so, it all crashing to the ground. "The Barry on this Earth isn't as dumb as you."

Burnout gave him a dismissive glance and turned back to Cadence, who stood still by Killer Frost's side. Barry couldn't see, from his vantage point, what kept her from moving to help him, from saying anything. Killer Frost kept her eye on the breacher, keeping her power directed towards her. They'd given her a taste of what they could do and once they got the information from her about her portal hopping, it came too easy to weed out the other one.

Barry got back to his feet, keeping his eyes on the group. Killer Frost held up her free hand and started to shoot it towards the audience. She stopped once Barry said her name, "Caitlin."

Killer Frost's eyes shifted back and forth for a moment. Then her lips parted and she said, "I haven't heard that name in a long time."

"But that's your name, isn't it?" Cadence finally spoke up. She shifted her eyes over towards Barry, eyebrows lowering in silent apology. Barry nodded back. He got it. She wouldn't have sat back and watched what was going on if she didn't think it'd hurt him in some way. Then she looked at Killer Frost once more. "Your real name. I know you, Caity. _We_ know you."

"Don't do this, Caitlin," Barry said. "Ronnie wouldn't want you to."

Killer Frost's head turned back and forth as Barry and Cadence tried to plead with her. She snorted while Deathstorm looked a little uncomfortable, his name being mentioned as well. "If you knew me at all, you'd know I hate the name Caitlin." She gritted her teeth. "I'm Killer Frost." With that, she shot out her arms and sent large icicles towards her and Barry.

Cadence reacted and sent fire back to Killer Frost. Deathstorm got in the way and pushed Killer Frost out of the way. Holding up his hand, he absorbed the fire and tossed it back to her. Cadence shifted back out of the way, the fire scorching the wall behind her. She turned back to Deathstrom, whose eyes turned white and fire encircled his palms, the device on his chest immediately coming alive with his power. Burnout teleported back out of the way; instead of her teleportation being of smoke, hers were of pure flame that started from her feet and wrapped around her body before she moved to the stage of Jitterbug. She sat down at the piano and started to pluck at the keys, a frantic melody swirling around them.

Barry superspeeded forward, crashing into Killer Frost's front when she wasn't paying attention. She flew back and crashed into the wall. Deathstorm growled, seeing the love of his life knocked down and turned in his direction. Gun blasts reached his ears and Barry flinched away, seeing Iris and Eddie shoot towards him. Deathstorm retaliated with a blast of flame. Barry quickly pulled Earth-2 Eddie and Iris out of the way. He whipped around to see the flame moving directly towards Earth-2 Joe. At the least second, Earth-2 Henry leapt over and grabbed onto Joe, hoping to pull him out of the way. But he didn't move fast enough.

Barry watched as Joe and Henry both were smacked by the flame, and fell to the ground. "Dad!" Iris screamed.

"Henry!" Earth-2 Nora added, the two racing over to the men.

Barry gaped, looking at his Earth-2 father lay on the ground, his head in his wife's lap as she gently stroked his cheek. Joe lay on his side as well, Iris crying over him. Their wounds looked bad, but nothing life threatening.

"Hey!" Killer Frost barked. Barry twisted his head over to Burnout, who continued to play the piano as if nothing was happening around her. "We could use a little help over here."

"Sorry," Burnout drawled. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder with one hand. "You know I work for Breathtaker, not for Zoom."

"Zoom's not going to like—"

"Zoom can kiss my ass. Breathtaker is the one I answer to and I've already done his bidding." Burnout lifted her head and gently swayed back and forth to her music. She played a few notes longer before slamming her fists on the keys, the sinister notes hanging in the air. "But then again, he didn't say anything about not having some fun."

Barry turned and found Cadence's eye after she managed to knock Deathstorm away from her once more. She blew her hair back from her face and nodded toward Barry, immediately knowing what he was saying. At the same time, Barry surged forward and grabbed onto Killer Frost and Burnout, racing them from the club while Cadence took hold of Deathstorm and raced them out of Jitterbugs and to the other side of the plaza that stretched in front of it.

"A speedster and a fire meta," Deathstorm said. "How fun."

Killer Frost grinned. "I've been dying to kill The Flash."

"We don't want to hurt you," Barry said, holding up his hand.

"Trust me." Killer Frost's smile widened even further. Her eyes shone with her next words that came out in a low hiss. "You won't." She threw icicles towards Barry and Cadence but they quickly moved out of the way. Killer Frost frowned and turned back to Deathstorm. "Kill him!"

Deathstorm immediately shot up into the air, his body becoming encompassed in flames as he did so. Streams of fire curled from arms down to his hands, arching through the air towards Barry. Barry darted back and forth, using the shrubs, benches, and statues around to block himself form the attacks. Barry then raced off the steps and away from the plaza with Deathstorm following behind him.

Killer Frost turned to watch as they streaked away, their trails disappearing amongst the lights of the k, clenching her hands into fists. "God, this is making me so hot," she said seductively.

"How about you cool off then?" At Cadence's voice, Killer Frost turned around in time for Cadence to jump onto a bench, then jump high into the air. She teleported in front of Killer Frost, doing a flip to kick her in the chest. Killer Frost flew backwards and splashed into the fountain, sending water in all directions. She sputtered, siting up, pushing her stringy hair back from her face as she glared.

Burnout laughed. "Ha! You totally deserved that one!"

"Shut up!" Killer Frost roared back.

Burnout shrugged and turned back to Cadence. Cadence held her hands at her sides, flames appearing over her arms. Burnout did the same, her flames so dark they were almost black. The two stared at each other for a long moment before going in to attack each other. And that's where the trouble started. With the metahumans being the same person form two different Earths, their fight patterns were the same. Every time Cadence lifted a hand to give her other arm power in a punch, Burnout would do the same. Their fists connected and a loud cracking sound filled the air.

Cadence and Burnout cried out in pain at the same time. All their strength had been thrown into their punches and when they collided, their hands immediately broke against the force. Gasping, Cadence held her wrist and watched Burnout as she healed. It didn't look like the punch affected her as much in the pain department. Cadence watched Burnout's hand heal as quickly as hers, but painful grimace didn't last as long as Cadence's.

 _I'll have to do something else,_ Cadence realized. They knew everything about each other, but how…it was then she realized. When Burnout had turned and realized she was a breacher, let alone her doppelganger, she reacted in a way Cadence hadn't expected. Burnout held out her hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Cadence looked back at her suspiciously then Burnout reached out her hand and grabbed it firmly, giving her no choice to back away. Then it was like Cadence was looking at a computer download, but she could see it in her head; watching Burnout's life. She saw everything that Burnout had gone through; when she was born and adopted to her parents, how her life started out the same way; all of the pressure that was put on her to be the best at everything, her relationship with Ryder, becoming pregnant. And that's where everything different. Burnout's shame from her parents became too great to bear, she relinquished custody of Brady over to Ryder, who parents on this Earth didn't send him away but refused to let him see Cadence, and she left to Central City.

As soon as she arrived in Central City on her own, she immediately became recruited by the Assassination Bureau and very quickly made her way up through the ranks working beneath Breathtaker. The biggest change, however, was her life in Central City. She had no place to live and continuously bounced from shelter to park bench to park bench to shelter as long as they'd keep her. That life had made her hard, and her attitude changed to become as hardened.

Cadence finally managed the strength to pull her hand away from Burnout's. She glanced at her face, noticing it had a sad, almost wistful expression for a moment. Then it cleared when Killer Frost placed her hands on Burnout's shoulders and asked. "Well? Did you get it?"

"I got everything," Burnout replied. She reached up a hand and placed it to the side of Killer Frost's head, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Then she turned and nodded across Jitterbugs where Barry had just sat down with the other Earth-2 counterparts of their friends.

Burnout knew everything about Cadence and Cadence knew everything about Burnout. There were too many factors that were going to make it hard for them to get the upper hand on each other. And that's what soon had them teleporting across the city, grabbing each other and knocking them into nearby buildings. Burnout grabbed Cadence's arm and spun in a quick circle, throwing Cadence up into the air. Then she teleported after her and slammed hard into her chest.

"Ugh!" The wind was knocked out of Cadence's mouth as she crashed on top of a parked car. She could hear the sound of glass shattering out the windows, the metal structure immediately bending under the force of the added weight. She started to turn to her side before Burnout slammed into her once more, making the sides of the car fold up around her like a taco shell.

Cadence could feel glass scratching her cheeks as she continued to get pushed down. Burnout pressed her hand against Cadence's cheek, pushing her down further. "Not so hot, are you?" Burnout teased.

Cadence's eyes flickered with unbridled fury. She wasn't going to be defeated that easily. Cadence shifted her legs and rolled her body backwards. Lifting her legs, she wrapped her ankles around Burnout's mid-section and rolled backwards. When she was at the right peak, Cadence let go of her grasp and Burnout went flying. Cadence flipped backwards and landed on her feet. Then she turned and grabbed the car, hefted it up over her head, and flung it around in a whipping motion to Burnout.

It caught her in the back, sending her forward. Cadence pounced on her afterwards, grabbing her by the hair and wrenching her head back. Burnout reached up, trying to scratch Cadence so that she removed her grasp, but Cadence did a series of butterfly twists, gaining momentum so that she could throw Burnout through the front of an office building. Glass exploded around her and she rolled across the ground.

Cadence followed her, grabbing onto Burnout's front and ran forward, driving her into the wall behind her. Burnout's head smacked against the wall before it gave way, allowing the two to continue running through the next wall behind her. Burnout glared and held out her hands. She flicked her wrists, small fire balls crashing into desks, plants, and computers around them as they ran by.

The first explosion caught Cadence off-guard, making her flinch. But the ones that occurred in rapid succession made her click to the fact that Burnout was creating mini-bombs with anything her fire touched. Something Cadence hadn't been able to do yet. If she concentrated hard enough, she could manipulate something into an explosion, but an immediate one?

Burnout grinned up at Cadence, the glow from each of their fire auras making her face appear demonic. She grabbed onto Cadence's wrist and teleported the two. The world swirled around Cadence seconds before a hard slap of water hit her. Sitting up with a gasp of air, Cadence realized Burnout had landed hem back at the fountain they had been in before. But now Burnout knelt over her, her hands wrapped around Cadence's neck as she started to squeeze.

"Finally," Killer Frost said as she stomped over. "You move too slow."

"Coming from you, that's a laugh." Burnout shot back.

Killer Frost's eyebrows twitched, her lips curling. She looked down at Cadence, who started to choke, trying to push Burnout off her. The fire meta-human's hands wrapped around her neck, her strength evident as she continued to squeeze harder and harder. Killer Frost stood next to Burnout, wrapping her arm around her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek, leaving a blue lipstick print.

"Oh, but what a way to go," Killer Frost sighed. Then she giggled to herself before bringing up her hands.

Cadence saw a flash of blue before the temperature of the water immediately plummeted. It struck her body rapidly, pins and needles were feathers compared to the sharp knives Cadence felt stabbing her body. She struggled to twist back and forth, trying to break free, holding her breath as long as she could. Her lungs already burned and the need to suck in air became great too fast. Her body's movements started to slow.

Her mind was blank. She could hardly think about the pain, about her near death, about making her body work. Her friends and family filled her head. The faces of everyone she was working hard to help. Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Brady, her mother, her father, Harrison, Tess, Ryder, Harry, Ronnie, Jax, Professor Stein, Oliver, Thea, Laurel…even some of the people she hadn't thought of in years and others she hadn't realized touched her life so much. She couldn't let them down.

Cadence closed her eyes.

"I think we got her," Killer Frost trilled. The surface of the fountain water was already freezing over, creeping up to where Burnout was holding Cadence underwater.

She started to smile back then stopped, frowning. Something was wrong. Killer Frost frowned, realizing something wasn't right either. She stopped sending ice forward then glared, figuring out what it was. All her ice was melting as rapidly as she was sending it forward. With how fast the ice melted, a cloud of steam continued to roll around them.

"What is she doing?" Killer Frost demanded.

"I don't know!" Burnout snapped back. She continued to squeeze hard, her arms shaking with effort. But the air around them continued to thicken with steam. As it thickened, a shadowy figure caught her eye. Killer Frost must've noticed it too for she took a step back. The shadowy figure continued to move towards them, the air shimmering around it.

"Baby?" Killer Frost called.

Burnout looked back and forth from the breacher she held underwater to the figure continuing to come their way. Abruptly, fire shot towards her and Killer Frost, making both leap backwards to avoid getting hit. Burnout retaliated, her eyes widening when she saw it was Cadence that was attacking them. "That's not possible," she murmured. Eyes lowering, she saw Cadence still in the water.

At that moment, Cadence's eyes snapped open in a complete orange-red glow seconds before the water erupted in a geyser in front of them. Burnout and Killer Frost looked up to see Cadence sliding towards them on a wave of flames. Burnout looked towards the other Cadence once more who disappeared in seconds. She looked back to Cadence just as, with a scream of effort, she thrust the wave of fire to Burnout and Killer Frost, striking them both and launching them from the fountain, turning head over heels as they fell.

Cadence landed on her knees on the ground, shivering with water droplets splattering to the ground below her. A light chuckle escaped her lips, she hadn't thought that would work. She hadn't known she could do it. A mirage. Just like one would see in the desert.

 _Swoosh._

Cadence looked up as her hair blew out of her face, finding Deathstorm landing on the ground next to Killer Frost, immediately picking her up into his arms. Then she looked over as Barry knelt by her side, rapidly moving his hands over her arms to aid in warming her up.

Deathstorm glared over at them. "This ain't over, breacher," he called before flying away. Burnout looked at the two, looking at Barry a moment longer before teleporting herself.

"Are you okay?" Barry asked Cadence once they were gone.

Cadence nodded. "I'm fine, don't worry about me. I can handle myself." She smiled and the two hugged. The moment they stepped away from each other, a million things happened at once. A van screeched to a halt at the sidewalk and the doors opened, Cisco and Harry both barreling out at the same time. Harry held what appeared to be a massive rifle around his shoulders as he did so.

"Hey, are you two okay?" Cisco called as he hurried over.

"Killer Frost and Deathstorm got away!" Harry growled.

Cisco rolled his eyes. "This wouldn't have happened if you would've helped me with my goggles," he said. "Oh, and if you would've driven faster." Harry ignored Cisco's statements, continuing his rant.

"They know you're here. They know you now. Both of you. This was a surgical mission to find Zoom's lair, rescue Jesse, and get out. We were _not_ supposed to be involved!" His words were directed towards Barry, each one spitting out rapid-fire.

Barry turned back and started to say something but stopped. A gust of wind cut him off and Cadence, Cisco, and Harry took a step back, nearly knocked over. Electricity shot around the plaza in quick bursts, an invisible force knocking Barry silly back and forth across the concrete. The bursts were so bright, so fast, that the three had to shield their faces. When they could see, they saw Zoom standing before them, blue electricity crackling off his body.

"No!" Cisco shouted.

Zoom's clawed hand wrapped around Barry's throat, making the speedster's face turn red with his effort to retrieve air. His free hand pointed to the group. "Don't follow me!" He rasped before racing from sight.

"BARRY!" Cadence started to move after them but Cisco wrapped his arms around her, holding her still. He pulled her back against him as they looked in dismay where Barry had just been.

There was no point in chasing after them, they had no idea where Zoom was taking him.

* * *

Barry groaned, falling to the ground after being heaved into a cell. Pain exploded around his body as he laid on the ground. The throttling that Zoom had done to him was going to heal slowly, he could already tell. Barry looked over at his cell, four glass walls that enclosed around him, nothing more. From what he could see in the dim light, they were in an abandoned mine of some sort.

His eyes shifted around, fear clutching his heart as he did so. Zoom had him somewhere, his friends didn't know where he was. He didn't know what was going to happen. It was then a sniffling sound reached his ears. Barry followed the sound and looked over to find a lone figure in their own cell, arms wrapped around their knees. Barry squinted hard, trying to see who it was.

Finally, when she moved her hand across her cheek, Barry recognized her.

"Jesse?"

* * *

Captain Singh shook his head, lifting his hand to drop to his desk as he said, "I don't know what else to tell you, Joe. Chief Paulson is the lead of our precinct, he's the one that decides what goes on in here. If he wants to be the lead of the task force, then that's what he's going to do."

Joe ran his hands over his face then pressed his hands against Captain Singh's desk and leaned towards him. "He wants to run the task force into a direction I would never see it going," Joe insisted. "I want these guys to become citizens again, just like all of the others that are sent to prison."

"And how many of them do you know ended up back in jail only a few days, weeks later? Sometimes they get arrested the same day they're sent out. You know there are those that can't survive anywhere but prison. And to put powers on top of that?"

"David, you can't be serious."

Captain Singh looked at Joe for a long moment. Then he got up from his seat and walked to the door of his office. He poked his head out, glancing at Patty as she sat at her desk going over some files, before closing it once more. He took in a deep breath and said, "Joe, we've been friends for years. You know I've got your back on this. But he's my boss, just as he is yours. There's always been things I've had to keep my mouth shut on that I don't personally agree with. Some decisions I've had to make myself. But this is my job and my life, just like I'm sure it's the same for you."

Joe nodded, understanding everything that Captain Singh was saying. But to know that his task force was being taken over, and being taken in a different direction—he'd heard some of the ideas for it; to increase security and patrols in the city? That was going to scare people more than help them. "Captain, no disrespect, but…did you try to fight back about this?"

Captain Singh gave him a smile. "It's like I said, Joe, we've been working together for a long time and I've got your back, just as much as you've got mine. I tried to speak with him about it, tried to talk him out of it, even trying to at least get a meeting with the three of us, but it wasn't happening. Joe, I know you're very serious about this task force, maybe even for reasons I'll never understand." At this he gave Joe a meaningful look but continued before Joe could question it. "Maybe even for reasons I do, but right now we have no choice but to follow him. If he sees what you do out there, we might be able to change his mind."

 _Change his mind?_ Joe's eyebrows came together. He looked over at Captain Singh. The man was a few years younger than him but the two had been in the same class at the police academy. Had raised through the ranks together. But while Captain Singh wanted to continue to go higher, Joe loved his place being a detective. And yet they still spoke to each other like equals when off-shift and respected each other when on-shift. If there was anyone Joe knew he could get an honest answer out of, it was Captain Singh. Still, he never knew the man's stance on metahumans.

"Captain…you're for the metas?" He asked hesitantly.

Captain Singh crossed his arms, sticking his hands in his armpits. "Joe, as a gay man I've had to keep my orientation a secret for a long time. A long, _long_ time. Enough so that I was constantly afraid of never being able to be myself. I had to play a role for myself as the 'straight guy', the 'perfect son', the one who was going to follow in my family's footsteps to be a policeman. The men I dated, I dated in secret. When I got caught, I was beaten, threatened, and made to fear for my life. And for a long time, I did. But I was never happy. Once I came out, once I could date freely, met my fiancé, I felt like I was on top of the world and that people could understand how I wasn't a threat to their lifestyle. I feel the same way with metahumans. Just because they ended up someway doesn't mean they're inherently evil and I truly believe that they're all good at heart."

Joe nodded as he listened to Captain Singh's words. He felt nothing but pride for his friend. Pride that he could push his own plight into his work to advocate for others. Even if it meant there were some setbacks every now and then. Maybe he could do the same, and have faith that everything would work out. Even if Barry were on Earth-2. Joe held out his hand and Captain Singh slapped his hand into it before the two came together in a man-hug, slapping each other on the back.

Then Joe took a step back. He took a deep breath and decided to change the subject. "Speaking of metas, what are we going to do about Fells. He wasn't exactly a prize citizen before becoming a meta. "Adam Fells, not exactly a prize citizen before becoming a meta. A string of robberies, aggravated assaults…"

"Well, if he thinks he's going to use my city as a deathmatch with The Flash, he has another thing coming," Captain Singh said. "For better or worse considering Chief Paulson's ideas with them."

Joe was about to ask him to clarify when a violent tremor shook the building. The windows and walls rattled. The floor rolled under Joe's feet, threatening to knock him to the ground. Captain Singh grasped his desk and held on as tightly as he could. Joe flung himself against the wall behind him and used his leg muscles to hold himself up.

Finally, the rocking stopped. Joe pushed himself off the wall and turned to Captain Singh. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good," Captain Singh replied. He hurried to his computer as an alarm went off. "But Fells was spotted. At the corner of Pasco and 4th."

"I'm on it," Joe said, heading toward the door.

"I'm coming with you," Captain Singh agreed. Joe looked at him in surprise and Captain Singh said, "Metahuman or not, I'm not going to let him wreck my city." Joe nodded and the two left Captain Singh's office. Picking up Patty with them, they hurried down to the fleet of squad cars that sat in the parking lot. They climbed inside and hurried to Fells's last location.

They knew they arrived when the ground in front of them started to crack open, along with a sudden trembling that rocked the car back and forth. "Look out!" Patty cried, as chunks of concrete of a nearby building started to fall. Captain Singh pulled the car to a stop and they all ran out.

"CCPD, freeze!" Joe shouted as the three climbed from the car, guns drawn. Adam Fells aka Geomancer, smiled at them, his face hidden behind a pair of bug-eyed goggles. He turned to face them completely, his black and gray suit gliding along with his movements. "It's over, Fells."

"No offense to your boys in blue, Captain," Geomancer said, lowering himself into a deep bow. He straightened and rubbed his nose. "But I'm waiting for the boy in red."

"You better hope the flash doesn't show," Patty said. She tightened her grasp on her own gun. "For your own sake." She exchanged a glance with Captain Singh, who had his own shotgun pointed towards Fells.

"That's where you're wrong." Fells wagged his finger back and forth like a ticking clock. "I've been causing trembles for hours and I haven't seen him. I think he's gone." He brought a hand up to tap his chin. "What is it they say in boxing? Let's get ready to rumble." With that, Geomancer raised his hands and slapped them to the ground.

This tremor immediately knocked Joe, Captain Singh, and Patty off their feet and onto the ground. The windows of the nearby police cars cracked and shattered. The resulting shockwaves continued to run around the street, shaking the nearby buildings. Joe looked up, seeing them start to sway back and forth. Thankfully, it didn't look like they were going to fall. Joe's teeth rattled in his head as the ground continued to shake beneath him.

Captain Singh rolled over onto his stomach, working hard to steady himself. He squeezed his eye shut to aim his gun towards the metahuman. He took aim and fired a few rounds. But his aim proved to be shaky from Geomancer's tremors. Bullets shot around him, making Geomancer laugh and take a step back, removing his hands from the ground.

The shaking stopped but Geomancer wasn't finished with them. He slowly started to walk towards them, the malicious smile on his face continuing to widen. "How about a little headbanger?"

A revving engine increased in sound and seconds later, Geomancer was lifted off his feet and flung to the ground. Joe looked over as Brady's ATV skidded to a stop with Brady, Conner, and Leah sitting on the back. Brady, dressed in his Shadowhunter suit, along with Conner and Leah, who were dressed in black climbed off the ATV.

"What the hell," Joe murmured.

Leah lifted her hands overhead. Geomancer was lifted off his feet and swung across the street, slamming into a car again. He got up and turned to face them with a snarl. "You brats don't know what you're doing."

"That's what you think," Brady replied. He pulled out his yo-yo. He pressed his thumb into the sides, making the knives shoot out of the side. Then he threw it towards Geomancer, wrapping it around his arms, pinning them to his sides. Brady pulled hard, the line starting to retract and drag back towards him. Geomancer growled as he was dragged across the ground.

Once he got close enough, Leah lifted her hands and brought them down once more. Geomancer slammed further into the ground as if invisible fists pounded him to the ground. Brady handed the end of the yo-yo to Conner and started to run towards Geomancer. Geomancer, with his hands still free, slapped them to the ground, creating another tremor. As Brady ran towards Geomancer, Leah went to help him, by pulling him off the ground so that the tremor didn't affect him.

But she lifted too hard too soon, and also had her concentration broken by Geomancer for Brady went flying through the air before crashing to the ground. Leah and Conner both cringed as Brady quickly scrambled back to his feet. He glared over his shoulder at her and Leah shrugged sheepishly in reply.

"We can't let them do this," Joe said.

"I know," Patty replied. "But I can barely stay on my feet the longer this guy is connected to the ground."

Joe sucked in a deep breath, trying to figure out what to do. He pulled out his phone and started to message Caitlin and Jay. They probably knew what was going on, but if they were going to get help, they had to do it fast.

Brady phased through the ground and came back up in front of Geomancer, punching him hard in the face. Geomancer's head swung to the side and Brady followed it up with a punch in the opposite direction. Geomancer coughed, spitting up blood. He swallowed hard and growled, "You think just because you're a kid that I'm not going to hurt you?"

"Can't hurt me if you can't touch me," Brady taunted back. Geomancer stood up and flexed his arms. He did this twice, straining against the taught line of the yo-yo and finally snapped it free. Brady frowned, taking a step back. Geomancer started to swing wide, trying to strike Brady upside the head and neck. His motions became more frenzied when his arms swung straight through Brady.

But instead of this deterring him, Geomancer used it to his advantage. "Fine, it's your funeral." He punched the ground hard. Brady started to phase through it, but found that he couldn't do so, it was shaking too much. Fear suddenly struck through Brady before he was grabbed by the shoulders and thrown through the air. He crashed to the ground next to Conner and Leah, who quickly moved to his side to see if he was okay. Geomancer then turned and windmilled his arms, gaining power. Then he crashed his hands to the ground.

This time there was so much force behind his attack that the windows of the nearby buildings immediately imploded and rained down around them. The front side of the building next to them cracked before crumbling down towards the street. Brady looked up when he saw the face of the building coming down towards him. Leah whipped around and held up her hands. The rocks around them stopped falling. But only for a moment. Brady could see the sheer effort on her face, her hands rapidly shaking.

Then they gave out and the rocks started to fall once more. Brady ran forward and shoved his friends as hard as he could before curling into a ball, protecting his head the best he could. He could hear his friends' screams—maybe his own screams as well—mixed amongst the powerful booms as the rock and concrete hit the ground. Brady kept his eyes shut until the sound faltered. He blinked open his eyes, dust immediately getting to them as the clouds started to falter. Coughing, Brady moved his head up, pushing a few rocks away.

 _Okay, my head's okay,_ he thought. His mom had told him enough times what head trauma could do to someone. Then he moved his arms, wiggled his fingers. They were okay, too. Then he tried moving his legs and nearly passed out from the pain. He looked down to find a huge slab of concrete pinning his legs down. Gasping, Brady wiggled his toes, relief coming to him when he found he could do so. He just couldn't move.

But what about his friends?

"Leah?" Brady called. He didn't get a response. Painfully, he twisted around, trying to find his friend. He gasped, seeing her lying on the ground, eyes closed. He couldn't quite see if she was breathing. "Leah?" He raised his voice. "Leah!"

"Brady?" Brady could hear Conner's voice to his right. He tried to find him, but couldn't turn the other way without twisting his leg too far. The concrete was too heavy around him. "Brady, are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Brady replied.

"Can you get us out of here?"

"Um." Brady moved his hands to the concrete that lay on top of him. "Maybe. I'll try." He pushed with all his might to get it to move. But it wouldn't budge. Then he tried to phase through it but found he didn't have the energy to get through it. "Come on." Brady sucked in another deep breath and tried to extend his arms once more. His wrists shook but he couldn't find the strength in himself to move it. After a few more tries, Brady started to scream with effort. "Come on! Come on!"

For the next few minutes he continued to push as hard as he could. Finally, his arms gave out and he brought his hands up to cover his face. A thick lump rose in his throat, tears coming to his eyes. His nose started to run. His eyes stung and as he closed them, tears rolled down his cheeks. "Come on, Brady," he whispered. "You can do this."

"Brady?" He heard Caitlin's voice in his ear. "Brady, are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Brady replied. "I'm okay, Aunt Caitlin. I'm not sure about Leah, she's not saying anything. Conner's okay, but…he's kind of quiet now." He took another breath. "We just wanted to help." It was the truth, they wanted to help. Now he knew, truthfully, how dangerous everything was. But that didn't mean he wasn't still going to help. He was going to take down Geomancer whatever it took.

"I know, Brady, I know. It's okay. I've got help coming to you, but you need to hold on, alright?" The motherly tone that Caitlin took on suddenly made a wave of emotions shoot through his body. Brady sucked in a deep breath as he cried, lower lip trembling. He brought his hands up to wipe away at his eyes.

"I want my mom," he finally cried.

"I know you do," Caitlin said. "But she's working hard to come back to you. To help you. She wouldn't have left things here for us to handle if she didn't think we could do it. If she didn't think _you_ could do it. You have to try, Brady. Okay?"

Brady nodded. "O-okay." He continued to sniffle, wiping at his eyes and nose. His breaths came in short burst, almost to the point of hyperventilating. "Okay."

Brady swallowed hard, pressed his hands up against the concrete and pushed with all his might.

* * *

 **A/N:** I skipped Barry's part of the fight on purpose as the next chapter has more to do with him. I loved writing this one—especially Cadence's fight, Captain Singh's admission, and Brady's fight—so I hope it came across well. Let me know what you think.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **For those wondering **our stories are updated every week (generally the same day) at the least. So this'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

* * *

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Yes, it's Common Core math. I just said they 'went to neck' to show that they were on a different Earth more. Especially since it had a more 20s feel in the show rather than a modern one. You can also see it how Earth-2 Barry says 'he got fresh with you' on the show to Earth-2 Iris.

 **DarkHelm145:** Joe's dislike will be seen in the next chapter. It's something that I thought could've been done differently if they really wanted Earth-2 to be as 'bizarre' to Barry as possible. But it does, sort of, tie in to what's going on on Earth-1.

 **PowerHero432:** I hope you liked the fight in this one, I'm sure you were anxiously waiting for it. And you were actually write about Burnout, you just guessed it a chapter before I posted. So, without spoilers, I couldn't confirm or deny your statement. And, yep, his initiative sure did backfire this time.

 **Guest:** I'm really anxious to know what you thought of this one since you couldn't wait.

 **yummers:** Please let me know what you thought of it.

 **Josephguy217:** Yes, Burnout is Earth-2 Cadence. Though I'm actually a bit surprised no one's made that connection to another part of the series yet. (Aka, my big neon sign hint, lol). Like I said in my PM, I try to make their relationship as realistic as possible and it's something they have to learn from each other; Bary is very emotionally open and Cadence is emotionally closed until she feels it's time to say something, so I feel they need to learn from each other to find a good balance. Their relationship and how it grows is always something I enjoy writing so I'm glad others enjoy reading it, too.

 **spinquin142:** Haven't entirely decided the ultimate look of Brady's Earth-2 counterpart, but it'll be good.

 **babyj:** Thank you so much. Hope you continued to enjoy my changes.


	40. Heroes

**.:40:.**

 _Heroes_

* * *

Brady grunted in pain as he continued to push against the rocks in front of him. Finally, he heard footsteps heading his way and looked up, shrinking in fear when he saw Geomancer walking towards them. Geomancer grinned and continued his slow steps towards the kids that continued to lay quietly on the ground.

"Well, I've done some bad things before, but I don't think I've ever done as bad as this," Geomancer remarked. But he didn't appear too concerned as he raised his hands. "But let it be known that I'm always willing to try anything once."

Brady gasped and closed his eyes, waiting for the pain. But it didn't come. There was a sudden gust of wind that knocked Geomancer over. Twisting his head around, Brady strained to see a figure in a suit and a metal helmet standing in front of Geomancer. Brady's eyes widened in surprise, getting a good look at the face.

"Jay?" He whispered.

"I heard you were looking for the flash," Jay said to Geomancer, arms crossed over his chest. Geomancer growled and punched at the ground. A large crack appeared in the ground, tremors vibrating all around. Jay picked up his helmet and rapidly punched it with his newly enhanced speed, causing the shockwaves from the hits to strike Geomancer, sending him sprawling backwards on the ground.

Brady felt the rocks shift around him and a pocket opened near his legs. He shifted his leg to the side and poked it out from the concrete slab beside him. He heard another rustling sound and looked over to see Conner wiggling his way out from the rocks. Blood spilled down the side of his head but he otherwise looked unharmed. Conner coughed out a cloud of dust and pushed his hair back from his face.

"Conner," Brady said.

Conner looked at him before hurrying over. He looked over the concrete slab that held him down then grabbed onto a corner of it. Brady twisted onto his side, giving himself more leverage and with Conner's help, starting to move the concrete block. Finally, Conner backed away, pulling back his stinging hands, and Brady pushed the rest of it off him. Finally, when he was free, Brady grabbed Conner's outstretched hand and was hauled to his feet. Then the two turned their sights onto Leah, who opened her eyes and started to move. Brady looked her over for a second then grabbed a corner of concrete that was lifted higher.

Gritting his teeth, Brady grabbed onto the rock and pushed it away from Leah. He and Conner grabbed her arms and lifted her up. "Are you okay?" Brady asked. "Leah!

Leah closed her eyes for a moment then shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said. She brought a hand up to rub at a lump that formed on her forehead. "I'm fine."

"Is that Jay?" Conner asked. With that, he, Leah, and Brady all spun around to find Jay and Geomancer standing apart from each other. Brady nodded.

Geomancer started to send another tremor but Jay ran towards him. He moved fast at first, so much so that Brady only saw lightning. Then he saw Jay clearly…slowing down. Brady winced when Jay seemed to trip over his feel and crashed to the ground. Geomancer grabbed Jay by the head, knocking off his helmet and held Jay in a tight grasp, fingers diffing into his skin.

"You know what a Richter scale can do to a city?" Geomancer growled. "Imagine what it'll do to your skull."

Leah removed her hands from Brady and Conner and with a cry of effort, lifted them over her head. Two concrete slabs lifted from the ground and shot towards Geomancer. He turned and punched his fist through them, letting go of Jay to do so. Then there were the sounds of gunshots and Brady, Leah, and Conner looked over to see Joe, Patty, and Captain Singh all with their guns pointed at Geomancer.

Geomancer turned and ran.

"He's getting away!" Patty shouted.

"You two go after him, I'll check on this guy," Joe said to Captain Singh and Patty. They nodded and hurried over to their cop car and got in before speeding away.

Brady grabbed his friends and the three hurried in a limp over to Joe and Jay. "Jay," Brady grabbed onto his arm and tried to lift him up, then stopped, realizing all of the energy had left him.

"Jay, are you hurt?" Joe asked. He gently moved Brady out of the way and grabbed onto Jay's hand, helping him up off the ground.

"Only my pride and my body," Jay replied.

"That's so cool," Conner said. "That you got your powers back." It was then Joe noticed the three kids starting up at him and he sucked in a deep breath. Conner immediately frowned. "That just stopped being cool," he muttered.

"What were you three thinking going out there like that?" Joe demanded. Brady chewed his lower lip and looked at the ground. "Why would you think you could go and fight Geomancer like that? Do you not understand the—"

"—Joe," Jay interrupted. "Don't you think we should be getting back to STAR Labs before people start to ask some questions."

"That's probably a good idea," Joe agreed. He started to turn away then paused, seeing a car sitting at the end of the street. He peered towards it for a moment, then his eyes widened when he saw Wally sitting behind the wheel, staring at them in shock. "Wally?" Joe breathed.

Wally leaned forward and started his car, peeling away with screeching tires. Joe shook his head, running his hand over his face. There wasn't time to figure things out with him, with what was going on with Francine, they needed to get back to STAR Labs.

A few minutes later, they were all back with Caitlin forcing Joe into a seat to tend to him after tending to—and yelling at—Brady, Leah and Conner. Jay winced as Caitlin ran an alcohol wipe across a scrape on his cheek. He pulled away and Caitlin shook her head.

"Sorry, did I say this might sting?" She asked.

"Not to me, but I heard you say it to each of them before you yelled at them so…" Jay smiled a little as Caitlin looked over at the young pre-teens. Brady looked at the floor while Conner and Leah both looked away, all three curled in on themselves, having been beaten down by her reprimands. "Yeah, it pretty much hurt." He lifted a hand. "But don't worry, I've felt a lot worse. I'm a Speedster remember. Thanks to you."

"Yeah, and something tells me that that it's going to be harder than ever," Caitlin said. "Velocity-6 to Velocity-7 was pretty easy, but now going up to 8?" She shook her head, continuing to bandage Jay. "I'll figure things out but…we don't have much time to do it."

"That seems to be our problems for everything now," Joe pointed out. He stretched his arms above his head and rested his hands on top. "There've been scores of people who've been sent to the hospital, Captain Singh and Patty included. We can't do this much longer without Barry."

"I know, Joe," Caitlin said.

"And we can't have them thinking they can go running off like they _are_ Barry," Joe added, motioning to the kids. "They're putting themselves in more danger than they—"

"I _know!"_ Brady snapped, his voice echoing around the Cortex. "I know, okay?! You don't have to keep rubbing it in!" He got up from the step he was sitting on and stormed from the cortex. He didn't make it too far before he heard Caitlin's footsteps hurrying behind him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop, moving in front of him so that she could knelt to his height. "You don't have to say anything, Aunt Caitlin, I already know what I did was wrong."

"Yes, but for the right reasons," Caitlin said. She smoothed her hair back from her forehead. "You've got that heroic bug that you can't keep down. That's very admirable, but you can't go running out there like Barry—"

"—I wasn't trying to be Barry," Brady interrupted. Caitlin gave him a look and Brady twisted his mouth to the side. "Maybe a little, but I was trying to be my mom. She runs out into battle to help people all the time and can do stuff. I just wanted to do the same thing and all I do is get in trouble. I'm too strong to sit back and do nothing, but I'm too young to help."

"That's just because you have some more time until your powers are really ready for you to put yourself out there like that," Caitlin insisted. "But you'll get there. And, your powers are more defense based."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, how do you plan on taking down someone when you can phase a punch through their head?" Brady twisted his mouth to the side as he thought about it. "But that doesn't mean that you're not going to be a great hero for the city. You just need a lot more practice and to listen when Barry and Cadence or one of the rest of us says to stay put or to just shadow them."

"I was scared, Aunt Caitlin."

""Yeah? Why do you think Joe and I yelled at you like that?" Caitlin shot back. She shook her head. "A healthy dose of fear can be a good thing every now and then."

"My mom must be really healthy then," Brady remarked, making Caitlin smile. Then Brady looked away, making Caitlin gently ask, "What?" He took in a deep breath and asked, "If you're scared, then why don't you use your powers to help?"

* * *

"Cisco, I'm telling you the truth," Cadence said. Frustration tinged her voice as she looked at Cisco, watching him pace back and forth in front of her. He had his arms crossed like a petulant child, shaking his head every time she said so. "Killer Frost is Caitlin."

"No, she's not!" Cisco snapped.

"Do you think I'd make this up?" Cadence snapped back. "Why in the world would I make up that one of our best friends is a psychotic killer?"

"For kicks? You have a funny sense of humor, Cade."

"Coming from the guy who tries his hardest to name every metahuman in the known universe with a clever nickname?"

Cisco puffed up his cheeks and pointed at her. "Hey, my naming them is something that really helps the team!" Then his eyes shifted then begrudgingly added, "They have great names though."

"Are you two done?" Harry snapped. He had been silent, listening to Cisco and Cadence bicker with each other since they'd gotten back to STAR Labs. He slammed his gun down onto the table behind him, emphasizing his frustration of the situation. "Are you done bickering? Because it needs to stop and it needs to stop right now! Yes, Cisco, the Caitlin from this Earth is Killer Frost as the Ronnie from this earth is Deathstorm, okay? Deal with it!"

Despite the situation, Cisco and Cadence couldn't help but stick their tongues out at each other. Harry glared at the two of them and roughed his hands through his hair, making the strands stand straight up. Complete with the crazy look in his eyes and he certainly had the mad scientist stereotype down.

"You all need to get back home," Harry said. That immediately made Cisco and Cadence immediately cease their mean-mugging to each other and turn to him in surprise. "And you need to go now. Deathstorm and Killer Frost know about you and they're not going to stop until they kill you."

"Uh, that's nothing new," Cadence pointed out.

"Yeah, we've had people trying to kill us for, what, two years now?" Cisco asked. "And besides, we can't leave yet. Barry's been kidnapped by Zoom, okay? I don't know if you've noticed. But he's gone. We're not leaving here until we get him back."

"And we're leaving until we get Jesse back either," Cadence added. "Remember, that was the whole point of coming here."

Harry then rounded on her. "There's too many things that've happened. Our cover has been compromised. We need to make sure, now, that Zoom doesn't kill you, too. There's too many people that are in the way now. I can handle getting Jesse myself."

Cadence glared back at him. "Who cares if Zoom knows we're here now? He's been able to go back to our Earth so many times, he probably knows everything we're going to do before we do it. He probably already, fucking knows we're here! We're not leaving anyone here. We're going to help Barry and Jesse."

"And Caitlin," Cisco agreed.

Harry then rounded his gaze to Cisco. He and Cadence could see the emotion running through his eyes though Harry did his best to hold it in. "These people here are not the ones that you know back on your Earth. _Everything_ is different here. The people…they're your reflections. Burnout is not Cadence and Cadence is not Burnout. As far as you're concerned, they don't exist! It's not long until Jesse's dead and that's on you!"

Cisco bristled in annoyance. "Jesse still has time," he said. "If Barry's alive, he still has time. If Cadence can teleport, she still has time. If I can do my breach hopping thing, she still has time. All the people here haven't been taken down yet. There's still a lot we can do to save them. We get it, Jesse is your daughter, you want to do anything you can to get her back safely. But if what you're saying is true, then she's Cadence's family, too. And from what I know of Cadence is that she's willing to do anything for her family, much like you are. And I'd do anything for Caitlin and Ronnie."

Harry grabbed his hair. "Do you not get it?" He demanded. "This Caitlin isn't _your_ Caitlin!"

"But she's yours," Cisco said. That made Harry stop in his tracks, his hands immediately dropping to his sides. "I mean, not like _that_ ," he quickly corrected himself. "But on this Earth, she's the Caitlin you know. She may not work in STAR Lab here, she may have a different life here that none of us can understand how she turned into Killer Frost. But you know _our_ Caitlin, and you know she's still somewhere in there." Cisco took a step towards Harry, who continued to eye him silently. "That's why you've been so nice to her since you got here," he reasoned. "Because you knew what happened to her over here. All along you knew about Killer Frost and didn't have the heart to tell her."

Harry licked his lips but didn't reply.

"Just like you knew about Cadence on this Earth," Cisco added. "You knew she turned into Burnout, knew that there was no way you could really save her. And that's why it was so hard for you to look at our Cadence when you got to our Earth."

Cisco took another step to Harry and reached out his hands, placing them on Harry's shoulders. Harry didn't move to shake him off. "Cade and I, we're not going anywhere. There are enough people here that need our help and Barry wouldn't want us to leave. We _can't_ leave. So even if we have to do this without you, we're going to do it, okay?" He looked at Cadence and she nodded in agreement.

Harry finally nodded back and Cisco dropped his hands from the man's shoulders. "Fine," Harry said quietly. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

 _Of course, he can't go a second without having to have the last word,_ Cisco thought with a roll of his eyes. He turned back to Cadence, who crossed her arms, face screwed up deep in thought. "What?" He asked her. "What's going on?"

"I'm thinking of how we're going to be able to find Killer Frost and Zoom," Cadence said after a minute. "If she's working with him, and Deathstrom too, as it seems that they can't do anything apart from each other, then they'd be the best bet to figure out where Zoom is hiding."

"Yeah," Cisco agreed. "But I can't vibe them. I'd have to have one of their possessions, or touch their hand or something. Even if I was trying to find Burnout, I wouldn't be able to use you to find her." He thought for a moment, maybe that wasn't entirely true. "The frequencies on this Earth are different so chances are that even we'd vibrate at a different frequency."

"No, no, I mean…" Cadence's eyebrows narrowed. "When I was with Burnout, she did this thing where she grabbed my hand and it was like she was reading me."

"Reading you?" Cisco repeated.

Harry's head whipped over towards Cadence. "What do you mean?" He demanded. "What did it feel like?"

"Like she was reading my mind," Cadence said. Her eyes lowered as she thought back to it. "But, not just my mind, but my life. Everything I've ever been through. She was seeing what'd happened to me. Getting as much information from me as she could. That's how she knew about Barry's and my relationship with each other and how to act like me when trying to confuse him. But at the same time, I read her. I saw everything she'd been through; how she gave up Brady to Ryder, how she lived on the streets, how she works with the Assassination Bureau."

"Still?" Cisco asked. He brought a hand up to his mouth when Cadence nodded, knowing all the guilt his friend felt for having working with them, for having murdered people to stay alive. "On this Earth, is he working with Zoom?"

"More like they're working _around_ each other," Harry explained. "Breathtaker and the Assassination Burau are very powerful beings, metas. Zoom knows that there's not much he can do against them. Just like they know there's not much they can do against Zoom. No, their destruction of each other would be very bad." He cleared his throat. "As for her reading your mind, when you travel to a different Earth and touch your doppelganger, you get the chance to experience their entire life."

"Sort of like a mind meld?" Cisco asked.

"Exactly," Harry explained. "It gives you insight to each other's lives and see what could have been in a way similar to making you your whole self."

"And every person on other Earths can do this with their doppelganger?" Cisco asked. Harry nodded and Cisco rubbed his chin. "I'll have to remember that for later."

"Does Breathtaker want the same thing here that he did on our Earth?" Cadence asked.

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "I try to stay away from Breathtaker as much as I stay away from Zoom. All I can do is make sure that there are enough people who have the metahuman warning app so that they can get away from the places of attack before they arrive."

"Anyway, my point is that I was able to get as much information from Burnout as she was able to get from me," Cadence explained. "So, maybe we'd be able to do the same with the Barry from here?"

"What do you—" Then Cisco stopped, his eyes widening in horror. Earth-2 Barry! He'd completely forgotten about him. One look at Harry's expression made him realize that Harry'd forgotten about him, too.

Cadence paused, looking back and forth between the two before her eyes widened. "You didn't let him go?" She asked.

"I forgot," Cisco defended himself. "And besides, it's not like he's been banging to get out of here." Suddenly there was a low banging sound from an adjoining room accompanied by the sound of muffled yelling. At that, Cisco's eyes widened. All at once, the three turned and sprinted to where the sound of yelling was coming from.

Cisco threw open the door to the time vault and Harry pushed him out of the way, moving to a hidden door and opened it. Cadence gasped in surprise and slight horror when she saw Earth-2 Barry sitting on the floor with his hands bound behind his back, ankles bound together, and a gag in his mouth. She then turned to Cisco with the same wide-eyed expression as Harry moved to untie him.

"What?" Cisco asked. "I was just trying to figure out what was going on with my goggles. Harry here was the one who decided to work on his knot tying skills from the boy scouts."

"I was in the army, actually," Harry corrected him.

"Well, that explains the military like persona and his need for guns," Cadence dead-panned. She moved over to Earth-2 Barry's side as Harry finally untied him. "Hey, are you okay?" She gently touched his arm, looked into his face. It was the same face that she knew and loved and yet was also very aware it wasn't the same man. This one was from a completely different Earth, but seeing his face up close like that, the _identical_ one was so hard, knowing Barry was somewhere held up with Zoom.

Just as hard and gut-wrenchingly painful it was to see Caitlin having turned from the sweet woman she knew to a cold, heartless killer.

"Dr. Wells, this is very disappointing," Earth-2 Barry sputtered as soon as he was free. He shoved Harry's hands away from him and got to his feet, brushing imaginary specks of dust off his clothes. "You should be ashamed. You can't lock people up like this. How long have I been in here?"

"Barely a day," Harry replied.

"A couple of hours, maybe," Cisco agreed.

"Barely a day? _BARELY A DAY? A couple of hours?_!?" Earth-2 Barry pointed towards the ground, nearly going so far as to stomp the ground with his foot as he glared at the people around him. "I demand to know what is going on, this instant!"

"Do you want the long story or the short one?" Harry shot back.

Earth-2 Barry glared at him then around at the others. His eyes landed on Cadence and his expression softened just slightly, though anger still flashed through his eyes. "And you, I knew you made some pretty bad decisions in your life, but I never expected you to—"

Cadence held up her hands. "I'm not who you think I am," She said quickly. "I'm Cadence, yes, but I'm not this Earth's Cadence. Not the one you know. The one you know is named Burnout."

Barry looked at her warily. "Yes, she's gone by Burnout for some time now. How did you…you're not her?"

"Yeah, that's a very long story we need to go through," Cisco interrupted. He shot a glance to Cadence, who looked back at him then looked away. "Right now, you need to get out of here." As soon as the words escaped his lips, a loud, blaring alarm went off, making everyone slap their hands over their ears. _Figures, stuff like this always happens when something important needs to be said,_ he thought.

"What's that sound?" Earth-2 Barry whimpered, slapping his hands over his ears. Cisco had to push down the urge to burst out laughing. The Barry that was his best friend was certainly nothing short of a hero. He would run into a burning building to save anyone inside without a second of thought. This Barry, however, seemed to be afraid of his own shadow.

Harry, on the other hand, instead of falling back, turned towards the sound that seemed to be coming towards them. He thought for a moment then shook his head. "It's Zoom," he explained. "He's here looking for me. For us."

Over the sound of the alarm, Barry heard Harry's explanation and his eyes widened even further. If possible. Cisco was surprised they hadn't completely popped out and rolled along the floor by that point. "Zoom? Why would zoom be after us?"

"He's not after 'us', he's after me," Zoom said quickly. He held up his hand as Barry continued to ask rapid-fire questions. Cisco and Cadence both reached out their hands and slapped them over Barry's mouth as Harry rushed to the front of the room and placed his hand along the wall. He made a few movements the others couldn't see before backing up along with them.

"We're going to need a different place to hide," Harry explained. "But for now, we should be fine."

Earth-2 continued to whimper behind Cisco's and Cadence's hands, his squeaks becoming even more high-pitched when Zoom appeared in the time vault in front of them. Cadence glanced at Cisco, who nodded and she teleported herself and Earth-2 Barry out of the time vault. Cisco held his breath as Zoom stood in the middle of the room and looked towards them. _Yes, the whole don't move and they don't see you thing is true!_ He thought. Then he noticed Harry with his hand resting on the wall on a panel and his shoulders slumped. Of course, he'd be making a fake wall that hid them, it'd be too easy if things worked out in any other cool way.

Finally, Zoom raced out of the time vault and Cisco leaned back against the wall, letting out a sigh of relief. Harry made the same movement and dropped his hand from the panel. "Fake wall," he explained.

"Yeah, I think I got that, Harry."

"But it's not going to work on Zoom twice, we need to get out of here and find a better place to go." Harry looked over his shoulder then did a double-take when he realized that Cadence and Earth-2 Barry were no longer behind him. Then, they appeared once more when Cadence teleported back. She removed her hand from Earth-2 Barry's mouth and nodded over to Harry who nodded back. "Let's get going."

"No!" Earth-2 Barry snapped. His voice was so forceful that the others looked at him in surprise. "We're not going anywhere until you three explain _everything_ that's been happening here. _Why_ is Zoom after you and _why_ have you kept me locked up like a common prisoner? There are _laws_ against this, you know!"

Cisco ran a hand through his hair and explained everything. He explained how they were from another Earth and what had been happening with Zoom. He explained everything that had gone on while they had taken Earth-2 Barry hostage. And Earth-2 Barry listened to the whole story, his antagonism lessening as the second passed. It wasn't until they mentioned his family that he started to become a little upset.

"So, on your Earth…I'm a hero?" He asked. He got nods in reply. "But…my mom d-"his breath caught in his throat. "My mom died?"

"Yes, but she's alive on this Earth," Cadence reminded him. "Your mom is still alive."

"But she's still dead on another one," Barry shot back. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth, ran it through his hair. A small smile came to his face. "And over there, Joe and Iris took me in?" He let out a hollow laugh. "They actually wanted me around?"

"So…they don't here?" Cisco let out a low humming sound. That was the one thing out of this whole Earth-2 business that threw him off more than he'd ever thought it would. Joe and Iris were Barry's family and had become part of Team Flash's family as well. It was strange to think how that would've happened.

"Iris and I are friends now, mostly through our work with the CCPD," Barry explained. "But…our dads don't really get along. They never have. They got into a massive fight against over a business venture they were going to do years ago. Joe hates me, which I guess is sort of my fault because, at one point in high school, Iris and I tried dating and I did something stupid."

"You cheated on her?" Harry asked sarcastically. It was clear from his tone of voice that he had no patience for teenage drama.

Barry grimaced. "Not…exactly, though I can understand how others thought I would."

"Let me guess, Becky Cooper, right?" Cadence nodded when Barry's grimace increased. "I thought so."

"Joe's hated me since then, Iris is his only daughter and…" Barry trailed off into silence. He turned away, running his hands through his hair. He didn't speak for a long while and Cisco didn't blame him. There was a lot for him to wrap his head around. Mostly being that Joe was a singer and not part of the CCPD and that no one had run into him yet. His own curiosity about his life was really starting to get to him. "But I'm a hero? I'm The Flash? I always thought I was meant for bigger things than being a CSI but…" He turned to Cadence, a familiar smile coming to his face. "I guess I have to explain somethings to you guys as well, to make this…whole thing make more sense. You said something about touching her and being able to—"

"—To mind meld," Cisco inputted.

"Right, to mind-meld. I assume you saw the life she had living on the streets?" Cadence nodded, making Barry sigh. "I first ran into…" he made a face. "Burnout shortly after I started working at the CCPD. I realized I'd seen her around Jitterbugs a lot, but that it didn't look lie she had anywhere to go. She was cagey but admitted she was living on the streets but wouldn't tell me why. Since then I'd been trying my hardest to get her off the streets and into a better place to live, tried to get her a job. Imagine my surprise when I found out that not only was she a metahuman, but also working with the Assassination Bureau."

"But you still tried to help her," Cadence said.

Earth-2 Barry nodded. "I still tried to help her.

"You fell in love with her, didn't you?"

He smiled a small smile. "Was it that obvious?"

"Well, with the way you reacted to _this_ Cadence," Cisco pointed out.

Now Earth-2 Barry blushed. "I may have told some people in my life that we were together. But it was only because they saw us together so much as I was trying to help her and I didn't know what else to say that wouldn't upset her and have her pull away. Even then there are people who know what I'm doing and continuously say I'm crazy and wasting my time. But I always believed in helping people the best I could, even if they tried to turn me away." He cleared his throat and looked at the three. "Zoom can't be tracked," he explained. "The only ones that would be able to would be are Killer Frost, Deathstorm, and Burnout, mostly due to the signatures of their powers. Killer Frost is the easiest."

"Why?" Cadence asked.

"Her cold signatures are easier to track compared to hotter ones," Cisco realized. "Sudden changes in temperature that drop like that…much harder to explain than ones that rise in temperature. That could be car fires, forest fires, explosion…"

"Yeah, we get it," Harry interrupted.

"I have meta-data on Killer Frost that's specific to her, considering all of the crime scenes she'd been in," Earth-2 Barry said. "I just have to run it through my system and we can find her."

"Why find her when I'm right here?" Killer Frost asked as she, Deathstorm, and Burnout walked up behind them.

Cisco looked at the three and snorted at Harry's and Earth-2's stunned expressions. "And you said _we_ had bad security."

* * *

"Jesse?" Barry repeated. Jesse looked at him, tears falling down her cheeks. She looked at him in confusion, eyebrows coming together as she looked him up and down, trying to figure out what it was that was familiar to him. "Jesse!" Barry coughed, feeling his ribs sting with pain. They were healing slower than they should've; Zoom must've done a number on him. "I'm here with your dad, we'll get you out, I promise."

There was a sudden crackling of electricity and Barry's head jerked backwards when he found Zoom standing in front of his prison, eyes boring back into his eyes. Barry swallowed hard and forced himself to look into Zoom's eyes. He wasn't going to be intimidated by him anymore. He was going to save Jesse and Earth-2 and he wasn't going to be done until Zoom was gone. Buried underground with no way to come back to life.

"It's not wise to make promises you can't keep, Flash," Zoom rasped. "Especially in your condition. Look around, look where you are. This will be the last place you'll ever see. And I'll take great pride in seeing you taken down."

With that, Zoom raced away once more. Barry pushed away his fear and turned back to Jesse, who had cowered in fear with a scream when Zoom arrived once more. "Jesse, I promise you, I'm going to get you out. Your dad, I promise your dad I would."

Jesse shook her head. She ran a hand through her hair and turned away from him, wrapping her arms around her legs once more. Barry let out a low sigh and took a step back. He scanned the four walls of his cell before bringing back a fist to punch at the wall. The glass that kept him inside didn't move, as a matter of fact, it was hardly like Barry had even touched it. He backed up a few steps and ran forward again, punching it once more.

Still, it held firm. Okay, so sheer strength wasn't going to get him out. He should've known. Zoom was much too smart to make it that what was going to encompass his prisoners was going to be something that could just be punched down. Barry ran his hands along the glass, his head moving a mile a minute, trying to figure out what it was that they could do to get them out.

"It's not going to work," Jesse finally said. Barry turned to her. She kept her back to him but her voice was stronger, she'd stopped crying. "I've been in here long enough to know. You're not going to get out of this thing. Not unless you've got the powers for it. Do you know how to make glass disappear?" Finally, she turned back to face him, placing her hands on the glass, pressing hard. "I've thought of weak spots, focusing pressure on one spot in the glass, digging a concrete block out of the floor." She chuckled to herself. "I've even thought of, somehow, trying to rig myself an explosive when he takes me in and out of this thing but…"

Barry smiled to himself. She definitely was Harry's daughter in the way she spoke about trying her escape. Not many other people would work their way to get out, instead they'd have been shell-shocked and wondered what was going to happen next. Her tears had to have been from slowly losing faith in it all. There was only so long you could be held somewhere before you started to crack? With Barry's head, and the speed he moved through things, he'd probably go through the ringer that much faster.

It was then Barry noticed the rhythmic knocking sound that'd happened since he arrived in the cell. He looked around and found another cell across from him with a man inside, sitting on the floor, knocking lazily on the glass. Jesse glared towards the man. "Just stop it!" She snapped. Then she looked back at Barry, who looked at her in confusion. "He's been doing this since he got here."

"Jesse, I think he's trying to help us," Barry explained.

"How is knocking on the glass going to help us?" Jesse demanded. "We're the only ones who can help ourselves now? No one else is coming."

Barry shook his head. "No, that's not true. Your dad and my friends are going to help us. They would never sit back and watch things happen. They make things happen and they're not going to let anything happen to us."

Jesse snorted. "You have a lot of faith in a man who only cares about himself."

"That's not true."

"What do you know about him, Barry?" Jesse demanded. "Did you know the guy? I've known him my whole life. My dad is selfish and doesn't make decisions for anyone else, he makes them for himself." Jesse licked her lips. "Did you know I have a sister? An older sister?" Barry lowered his gaze. He did know that. "Did you know that I only found out about her a year ago and that all this time I always thought there was something missing in my life. Not just my mom, who died a long time ago. But something else and now I know that she's been out there. Oh, but here's the kicker, when I asked my dad about it he said he was none of my business. Imagine my surprise when I find out that she's one of the metas the police is constantly after."

Barry pressed his lips together. This wasn't entirely his business. But all the same, he'd said he'd helped Jesse and he would do everything he could to do that. "I know he's made some mistakes," Barry finally murmured. "Just like everyone in life has done. But everything he's done since I met him was to save you. _You._ He's made some bad decisions in his life, but I don't know anyone who hasn't. But I still have faith in your dad because I know what he can do. He's a part of my team back on my Earth and he's saved my life more than he's hurt it. Your dad hasn't given up on you, Jesse. Don't give up on him."

"Believe what you want," Jesse said. "But Zoom is only keeping us alive so that he can kill us when the time is right. My dad's not going to be there in enough time. He never is."

"Jesse, Harry only just told us about you," Barry broke in, practically snarling at her. He felt that badly about the whole situation. He didn't know how she felt, not exactly, but it was still a crappy situation o be put in. She was kidnapped and held for ransom, terrorized all because of who her father was. Not to mention all the choices he'd made as she grew up, choices she couldn't understand.

Barry knew how hard life could be in that aspect. He wasn't entirely religious by any means, but he'd certainly had many times where he called out to some higher being, demanding to know why everything was happening to him and why. And how it wasn't fair. That same voice was now crying out in the back of his head but he pushed it away. His own doubts aside, he needed to be strong for Jesse. Needed to get her to see.

"Jesse, he said the only person in life that's smarter than him is you, and I can see it," Barry said.

Jesse's face finally softened. She reached up her hand and continued to run her fingers over the glass. Finally, she let out a quiet, "He said that?"

Barry felt himself start to smile. He knew that'd get her. Praise was something everyone yearned for and Barry knew it was all Jesse needed to hear. Harry hadn't told them so much about their relationship before Barry went to figure out about Zoom's whereabouts but he'd told them enough so that Barry knew of how much he cared for Jesse and how proud he was of her. And he'd looked at Cadence's face, seeing how upset it was making her, knowing that she could've had that same relationship with Harrison if he and Tess hadn't given her up. That's what made Earth-2 so trippy for everyone, seeing what their lives could've been if things hadn't happened the way they had.

"If true," Barry insisted. "And I know if we work together, we can figure out a way to get out of here. What do you say?" He nodded over to the man. "The thing is, I think he's trying to signal something to us, but I can't tell for sure. Maybe you can figure it out."

Jesse nodded, finally starting to smile. "Okay," she said. "Well, it's not Morse code he's doing, he doesn't go past five knocks without pausing." She thought for a moment, closing her eyes. "My dad said something about it once. Umm…it's something that Prisoner of War do," she said.

Barry blinked in surprise and was about to question that connection before the answer hit him. "It's a 5x5 tap code. They use it similarly to Morse code but it spells out letters. C and K make the same sound so it takes a letter out of the equation."

The man in the cell started to knock louder and more frantically, as if excited about everything that was going on. He nodded, his face hidden behind a metal mask, but Barry could still feel the excitement radiating off him. He held up a finger and waited. Barry looked at Jesse, who nodded in response, and he started tapping once more. Barry listened hard, trying to figure out what it was that was being spelled. It came in a rhythm over and over. It must've been short letters that were being spelled out.

But what was it?

"J!" Barry looked at Jesse, noticing the bright smile on her face at her outburst. "The first letter is a Jay!" He noticed the dust she had been scratching into, showing off the counts to figure out what was being spelled. Her smile turned to a frown as she concentrated on what else was being spelled out. It took a few more rounds, maybe twenty more minutes for him to figure out the second letter 'A' and then another half hour for the last one 'Y'. The man's knocking had become so frantic and excited that they all blended together in his frustration to be understood.

But now they had it.

Jay

"Jay," Barry repeated. The man nodded faster. "Yes, Jay's okay. We know who he is, he's on our Earth. He's okay!" But the man shook his head and started to knock again. "What? I-I'm sorry, I can't—"

"—We can't understand you!" Jesse pressed.

There was another gust of wind and Barry felt a hard hand against his chest, throwing him back against the glass behind him. He crashed into it and fell to the ground. Zoom stood over him, curling his fingers into his palm. "Don't talk to them again," Zoom growled to the man, keeping his eyes on Barry.

Barry glared back him with as much fury as he could muster. Oh, how he hated the speedster and everything he'd done to displace his life. "You must be getting desperate," Barry said. Zoom cocked his head and continued to watch Barry. "Desperate to keep everything together when it's all falling apart. You know it's only a matter of time until I figure out how to get out of here and you can't stand it."

Zoom didn't respond. Instead, he lifted his hand and wrapped it around Barry's throat. With his airways immediately cut off, Barry brought up his hand and tried to pry Zoom's hands off him. He could feel the power Zoom exhibited in his clutches, feeling his fingers tremble with the effort to keep a clench around him. Zoom lifted Barry up off the ground, his eyes continuing to burn into Barry's before he flung him aside.

Barry cried out as he crashed into another glass wall and fell to the ground. Choking, he sucked in a deep breath, bringing a hand up to rub the skin on his neck. It instantly healed, but he could still feel the burn of Zoom's hand around him. Barry spat on the ground and turned to look up at Zoom, glaring at him so fiercely that Barry could hardly see.

"I'm going to get out of here," Barry rasped. "I'm going to stop you." He slowly got back to his feet. "And I'm going to destroy you." Zoom tilted his head the other way, the mask of his suit continuously blowing in and out as he breathed deeply, watching Barry. "I'm going to watch as you lay on the ground begging for mercy, wanting to take back everything you've ever done to me and everyone else you've ever terrorized. You're going to pay for everything that you've ever done."

"All I need from you is your speed, Flash," Zoom said. "I only need you to be barely alive for me to get it." Zoom took in a deep breath, his eyes flashing with so much anger and hatred that Barry felt a hint of fear run through him despite how tough he was trying to be. "Let's see how long you can last."

Zoom grabbed Barry by the next once more and threw him as hard as he could. Barry crashed with so much force he as sure that he would've gone through it had it not been reinforced. Zoom grabbed him against before he could hit the ground. Then a punch. Barry's head whipped to the side, then back the other way as he was punched on the other side of his face. Blow after blow rained on his body with blood flying from his mouth and landing in droplets to drip down the glass. Zoom continued to throttle Barry while in the prison. He was thrown back and forth repeatedly, punched, kicked, and slammed the moment Barry came close to him. Barry stumbled to his feet and took a swing towards Zoom. Zoom knocked his arm out of the way and punched Barry hard in the stomach. In a large expulsion of air, Barry doubled over, giving Zoom the opportunity to knee him in the face.

Barry felt and heard his nose crack before he was thrown once more. Blood splattered down the front of his shirt before Zoom grabbed his arm and threw him face first into the glass. Barry screamed in pain, falling to the ground, but still he got up. He looked at Jesse, seeing her scream at Zoom to stop attacking him, but couldn't hear. Blood pounded in his ringing ears and still Barry got back to his feet. He leaned back against the glass behind him and looked at Zoom defiantly.

Zoom looked back at him, pointed directly at his heart, and phased out of the glass before racing from the hideout.

"Barry?" Jesse cried. "Barry, are you okay?"

He was okay, he was better than okay. He was already healing and things were certainly going to get better for them. "Zoom just told me how to get out of here," he said. "I'm great." He held up his hand and pressed it against the glass. Concentrating hard, Barry started to phase.

Again.

Again.

Again.

And again for an hour, he worked tirelessly, trying to phase out through the glass. Finally, he backed away, bringing his hands up to his hair, grabbing at it and pulling hard at eth strands. "I should be going more than fast enough," he muttered. "I don't get it."

"Maybe you're resonating at a different frequency?" Jesse suggested.

A proverbial lightbulb appeared over Barry's head. That was it, just like Cisco's goggles not working. He was from a different Earth, he had to be going at a different frequency. He had to move at the same frequency as Earth-2 to be able to get out of the cage. "Jesse, you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for," Barry said. She smiled. Barry lowered himself down into a crouch and concentrated hard.

He thought about his family and friends, all of them, everyone he'd ever met in his life, and concentrated. He felt their love flowing through him and he opened his eyes, lightning flashing through them. Then he shot forward and shot through the glass wall. Barry stumbled forward, stretching out his hands to keep from crashing into the glass prison before him. The man in the mask nodded at Barry, and he could practically see the grin on his face.

Barry gasped in surprise then turned to Jesse, who grinned back at him.

"Barry!"

Barry whirled around as he heard his name called, seconds before Cadence crashed into him from running so far. She wrapped her arms around his neck and Barry hugged her back, closing his eyes as he reveled in her warmth and her safety. He brought his hand up to her hair, feeling her shake.

"You're okay," She finally said.

"So are you," he replied.

"It takes a lot more than a speedster to take me down," she replied before leaning back to give him a long kiss.

"So do I get to interrupt or is this a invite only sort of thing?" Cisco asked, before shoving Cadence aside to give Barry a hug as well. "Well, I mean, I don't swing that way, but you get the idea." Barry laughed and slapped Cisco on the back, relief washing over him.

"How'd you get here?" Barry asked.

"Us? How'd you get out?" Cisco shot back. "We were supposed to be rescuing you, remember?" Cisco then looked over his shoulder and nodded to the group behind him. Barry stiffened when he saw Killer Frost, Deathstorm, and Burnout standing behind them.

"It's a long story," Cisco explained.

 _"You didn't knock," Cadence growled, seeing the Earth-2 counterparts standing in front of her. She held out her hands, flames immediately swirling up her arms. Burnout tilted her head and did the same, immediately increasing the temperature in the room._

 _Sweat dotted Cisco's forehead and he quickly drew his arm across his forehead to wipe them away. He blinked rapidly as stinging drops hit his eyes. Okay, there had to be something else they could do without burning them all into a crisp._

 _"How rude of us," Killer Frost said. She brought a finger up to her lips. "I hope you're not to upset." She then dropped her hand and placed her hands on her hips. "Don't know if you've noticed, but your security system is down."_

 _"Zoom's electrical field," Harry realized. He leveled his gun at the three. "What do you want?"_

 _Cisco, on the other hand, gaped at the three. Now that he was seeing them right in front of him, it was hard not to let the memories of his actual friends run through his head. He looked back and forth between Burnout to Cadence then his gaze shifted to Killer Frost and Deathstorm. Deathstorm must've noticed his look for he turned his head his way and his eyes narrowed in confusion._

 _"Ronnie?" Cisco asked. The word barely came to his lips. This was the guy who used to be his best friend, worked with him at STAR Labs, who did nothing but stare back at him with undisguised annoyance. Deathstorm shrugged his shoulders as if asking 'what of it?'. "I-is Martin Stein in there?"_

 _A malicious smirk came to Ronnie's lips. "I haven't let him out in years," he admitted. Cisco's heart dropped to his feet at the admission. "He doesn't talk much anymore. Neither are you if you don't get out of here."_

 _"I still can't believe you work for zoom," Cisco said._

 _"Actually," Reverb said as he walked out from behind the group and over to Cisco. "They work for me." He pulled off his goggles and Cisco's eyes widened in surprise at his own doppelganger staring back at him. "And I work for zoom." He slapped his goggles into his palm, keeping his eyes locked onto Cisco's._

 _"Reverb, glad you could join us," Burnout said._

 _"Reverb?" Cisco questioned, raising his eyebrows._

 _"It's better than Vibe," Reverb pointed out. He looked Cisco up and down then said with a disgust dripping his voice, "Then again, it's better than Francisco, am I right?" Cisco couldn't help but mentally agree. He'd never truly liked his name, but he'd at least gotten over it as time went on. "You see, I knew you were going to be here before you got here, Cisco. I knew all of you were going to be here, I don't know how they'll end up but my friends here have made an interesting point to me."_

 _"What kind of point?" Earth-2 Barry demanded._

 _Burnout looked at him, almost as if only realizing for the first time he was there. Her face softened a little bit, almost as if shame had replaced everything that had been there before. Earth-2 Barry looked like he was about to say something then stopped, looking away from her._

 _"That maybe things could be different," Reverb pointed out._

 _"Different how?" Harry demanded._

 _"What if zoom wasn't running the show anymore?" Reverb asked._

 _"What if we were in charge?" Killer Frost asked._

 _"What if we were the ones calling the shots and deciding what happens in this city," Deathstorm added._

 _"We could be Gods," Reverb finished after casting an annoyed glance at his companions._

 _"What do we have to do with it?" Cadence asked._

 _"Welllll," Reverb held the word out, letting his tongue run along his teeth before settling into place in his mouth. He took a step forward and clasped his hands behind his back. "I could either shatter your entire nervous system without breaking a sweat or you could listen to our proposition."_

"What?" Barry looked over at the doppelgangers. "You helped them?" His eyes narrowed at the group as Harry pushed him out of the way, racing over to free Jesse from her cage.

Harry grabbed onto her tightly, kissing the side of her head as Jesse grasped him, tears sliding down her cheeks. "It's okay," Harry whispered to her. "It's okay, Jesse. I'm here." Harry continued to kiss her. "I'm here. I'm here. Come on, let's get you out of here." He grabbed onto the chain that held her wrist to the floor and started to pull. "No, no, that's not going to work."

"Then just leave me here," Jesse whimpered.

"No," Harry replied. "No, we can…" Harry stood up and turned towards Burnout, who watched them curiously. "Burnout, I need…" he sucked in a deep breath. "Your sister needs your help." Jesse's head whipped around to look at Burnout while Burnout looked back at Jesse.

The silence stretched between them for a long moment. "You're real," Jesse finally breathed.

Burnout's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You know who I am?" She asked.

Jesse nodded, tears coming to her eyes once more. "For about a…a year now," Jesse said. Then she turned back to Harry. "I was…I was so mad at you. I—" she reached up and wiped away the tears from her eyes. "Dad, I'm so."

"No, it's alright," Harry replied.

"Oh, let's just get this love fest over with!" Killer Frost rolled her eyes and walked over to Jesse. She shoved Harry out of the way and grabbed onto the chain that held Jesse to the ground. Within seconds it was brittle with ice that Killer Frost set up on it, then she broke it over her knee. Now completely free, Jesse wrapped her arms tightly around her father.

Barry nodded at the two then nodded at Earth-2 Barry. Earth-2 Barry, now wearing his glasses and his own clothes, nodded back and stepped forward to stand in front of him. "It's like looking into a mirror," Barry remarked, making his doppelganger laugh.

"Yeah, but, I can see the differences already," Earth-2 Barry replied. "You've done a lot more than I would've done…helping everyone on this Earth. I heard you're a hero on your own."

"And you think you're not a hero?" Barry asked. "You helped get them all here."

"Well, that was nothing more than using the meta data that I'd been recording for a while," Earth-2 Barry said modestly. He pushed his glasses up his nose and shrugged. "But you…you've done so much more. All because of your friends, you put that much power and faith into them and they all risked their lives to help them. Now, I don't know you and you don't know me, but before you came here, I never thought I could do the impossible. But if you can do that, then so can I. I always thought I was more than just a CSI and now you've proven that to me. I am… _you_ are so much more than that. I'm just Barry Allen, but you're the Flash." He held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Barry smiled and grabbed Earth-2 Barry's hand. "It's nice to meet you, too, Barry."

The two gasped in surprise at the sudden sensation that befell them. The feeling that everything was falling into place but flushing out of a faucet all at once. In his mind's eye, Barry could see Earth-2 Barry's entire life; all the good, all the bad, the happy, the sad, and everything in between. He saw the love he had for his friends and family and everything that he'd do for all of them. Finally, when the two let go of each other's hands, they noticed that each other had a single tear dripping down their cheeks.

Earth-2 Barry quickly wiped it away and said, "With a life like that you still became a hero. I don't know anyone stronger than that."

"Okay, okay, let's just get out of here, alright?" Cisco asked.

The group started to move but Barry stopped them. "Wait, we can't forget him," he said, pointing to the man in the mask. "We're not leaving him behind." He started forward but was knocked back with a punch along the jaw from Zoom. "He's not going anywhere, and neither are you," Zoom rasped, looking over the group. Then he looked over at Reverb, Burnout, Deathstorm, and Killer Frost, giving them a slow nod. "Thank you for bringing them to me."

Realization hit the group like a ton of bricks. They'd been betrayed. Cisco was the first to recover, glaring over at the doppelgangers. "You double-crossed us?" He demanded.

"Their names start with 'Killer' and 'Death'," Earth-2 Barry pointed out. "What was your first clue?" Earth-2 Barry snapped.

Barry held up his hands. He took a slow step towards Zoom. "Zoom, let them go," he said.

Harry shook off Jesse and stepped forward as well. "All you need is me and Barry," he agreed.

Cadence started forward but was stopped by an icicle that shot by her head. Cadence felt it slice across her cheek before the skin healed over. She turned back to Killer Frost and sent a blast of fire her way that Killer Frost combated with an icy blast.

"Stop Caitlin," Cadence called out to her. "You don't need to have to do this."

Killer Frost glared back at her. "Don't call me that," she growled. "It's not my name."

"It is. It _is_ you, Caitlin," Barry insisted.

"I know Caitlin," Cisco added. "When she loves someone, that person is her world. And she would never do something like this to her friends."

"You're _not_ my friends," Killer Frost said.

Cadence's eyes narrowed. "Then I guess, no matter what, I'll have to take you down."

"Just try it."

With that, Killer Frost and Cadence launched themselves at each other in a vicious attack. Zoom, on the other hand, kept his eyes on Barry and Harry. "I may not be able to kill you yet," Zoom said. Then he lifted his hand and motioned to the others in the room. "But I can kill them." He turned and shoved his fist through Deathstorm's back. A shuddering gasp escaped Deathstorm's lips before Zoom removed his hand, allowing him to drop to the floor.

"NO!" Killer Frost screamed at the top of her lungs. Ignoring Cadence, she immediately collapsed to her knees, holding her hands around Deathstorm's head. She pulled his head into her lap and smoothed back his hair, tears sliding down her cheeks as she sobbed. "Baby. Baby, please wake up!'

Zoom then turned and raced in front of Reverb, who stared back at him in surprise. "That's for betraying me." Then he shoved his fist through Reverb's chest, using his other hand to heave him away and across the floor of the cavern, where he lay lifelessly. Blue lightning streaked around the room and Zoom grabbed Burnout by the neck. "For working against me." He shoved a fist through Burnout's stomach then heaved her to the ground. Burnout gasped and curled into a ball, holding her hands to her stomach.

"NO, PLEASE!" Earth-2 Barry shouted, feebly holding out his hand.

Zoom stepped over to Cadence and grabbed the sides of her head. Tears trickled down from Burnout's cheeks and she looked at Earth-2 Barry, stretching her hand out to him. "Don't tell Brady," she begged.

"Try to heal from this," Zoom rasped.

"Please. Don't tell—"With a loud crack, Zoom twisted her head to the side and she went limp. Earth-2 Brady fell to his knees beside her, grabbing her hand, shaking it pathetically.

Killer Frost stood up and turned to Zoom. She brought back her hands and shot ice towards him. The ice hit him in the side and he fell to his side, giving her the opportunity to encompass him in large sheets of ice that multiplied by the second. She glared over her shoulder, tears brimming in her eyes. "Get out of here, I can't hold him all day," she gasped.

"Come on, let's go!" Harry ordered. He grabbed Jesse and he, Earth-2 Barry, Cisco, and Cadence started towards the entrance. Barry moved to go after them then stopped, seeing the man in the mask tapping frantically at them.

"Wait, wait, wait, I can't leave him," Barry said.

Harry skidded to a stop. "Barry, we don't have time," he barked.

Barry closed his eyes, knowing he was right. He turned his head and looked back at the man. "I'm coming back for you," he promised. The man in the mask nodded. "I'm going to come back for you, okay? I promise."

With that, Barry followed the others and ran out of the caverns all the way back to STAR Labs. He arrived just as Harry raced back and forth through the laboratories, grabbing things left and right as they went. Barry turned to Earth-2 Barry, who was righting his glasses along his face and said, "You need to get out of Central City. Somewhere as far as you can go so that Zoom would never think of finding you. Do…you know…"

"I have an idea of where to go, yes," Earth-2 Barry said shortly. He sniffed and turned away.

Barry reached out and grabbed his arm. "You may not have been struck by lightning, but today you risked your life to save someone you didn't know and someone you loved…" Earth-2 Barry closed his eyes. "That's a hero to me. And everyone would agree. But please…you need to go."

"I just need to see my dad first," Earth-2 Barry said. "And Joe. And figure some things out, then I'll be gone."

Barry nodded. He turned back towards Harry as he continued to move around at top speed. "Harry, you need to get somewhere safe."

"I know, I'm getting our stuff together," Harry explained.

Jesse's eyebrows lowered in concern. "What? Y-you just want us to leave? You want us to leave everything we have here? My friends, my family, my life-"

"We don't have a life here anymore, Jesse," Harry said. "Zoom has our life here. He's going to hunt us down until we're dead. We _have_ to go."

Jesse shook her head. "Dad, I…I _just_ found out I have a _sister_ here," she explained. "I just saw her, I saw her…" Jesse's mouth opened and closed and Cadence moved and grabbed her hands.

"You have a sister on Earth-1, if you want one, Jesse," she said hastily. Jesse's eyes searched Cadence's for any insincere words. "Me. But you need to get back to that Earth where you'll be _safe_ , okay?" Jesse nodded. Then Cadence turned back to Barry. "You need to open a breach, like, yesterday."

Barry nodded and started to run around in circles, going as fast as he could. Finally, a swirling blue vortex opened just as an alarm started to blare. Harry looked over his alarm system and shook his head. "Zoom's coming," he said frantically, we have to go now."

Barry and Earth-2 Barry nodded at each other before Barry raced him out of the Vortex.

* * *

Caitlin wind milled her arms as another tremor rocked beneath her feet. She looked over at the TV screen in front of her, broadcasting the increasing tremors that moved around the city. So far there had been many of them but they hadn't seen Geomancer or had been able to track him down again.

"Caitlin, we have to do something about these tremors," Joe said to her.

"I know, but without the next velocity, how is Jay supposed to get there in time?" Caitlin asked. She waved her hands towards the vial that sat in a machine by her. "Velocity-9's not finished yet and we don't know what's going to happen if we give it to him now."

"Wait, what happened to Velocity-8?" Joe askd.

Caitlin ignored him. "What if the same things that happen with the last ones happen here? What if this one kills him, too?"

"It's killing him?" Leah asked.

Brady and Conner looked at each other. Caitlin closed her eyes before turning around to face them. Brady's eyes shifted back and forth, mind working through what had just been said. "Uh, yes, Jay's taken the velocity drugs before and…the most recent one…that's the one that's killing him."

"You mean Velocity-6?" Brady asked. His voice cracked and he hunched his shoulders, curving in on himself. "D…does that mean that Barry's dying too?" Caitlin's mouth opened and closed and Brady's eyes widened even further. "But I gave it to him, does that mean…?"

"No, no it doesn't mean anything," Caitlin interrupted. "We don't know what'll happen to Barry."

Jay hurried back into the room, running as fast as he could. He grabbed onto the wall as he skidded through the doorway and said. Gasping for air, he said, "You need to come down to the basement. Right now. You need to see this." Caitlin and Joe exchanged glances before following the kids out of the Cortex and ran after Jay, down to the basement.

A giddy butterfly flew though Caitlin when she saw that the breach was back. Caitlin brushed her hair back from her eyes as she watched it swirl in front of her. She and Jay exchanged a glance, backing away when there was a bright flash of light. It disappeared and Caitlin looked back just in time for Cisco and a young girl to come through the breach.

"Cisco!" Caitlin cried happily.

Cisco grinned at her before hurrying over and enveloping his best friend in a tight hug. The two then turned when Harry and Cadence both came through next. "Mom!" Brady's eyes lit up and he ran over, wrapping his arms around Cadence's neck. Cadence grabbed Brady and lifted him off the ground, hugging him as she rocked back and forth. She then opened her arms and allowed Conner and Leah to run over and gave them hugs as well.

Finally, Barry came back through the breach, crouching low on the ground as he did so. He whipped around, chest heaving up and down as he watched the breach continue to swirl around before completely disappearing. A cheer went up through the room and Barry let out a relieved laugh when Joe grabbed onto him and held him tightly. Barry squeezed him back, feeling relief move through him.

It was done. They'd gotten away from Zoom.

He wasn't the only hero that day.

* * *

 **A/N:** So what'd you think? I really liked this one and as you can see, the end changed. Which means I've got something else up my sleeve for Jay. ;)

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** I already had the meta watch idea, you just mentioned it a chapter early. You were right, Brady overpowered himself and that's why he didn't have the ability to phase himself out, add in how scared he was and it'd be harder than normal for him to do it.

 **yummers:** Hope you enjoyed this one just as much.

 **DarkHelm145:** Haha, yes, Burnout was playing the piano throughout the fight. That was something that I thought would be really funny so I'm glad it had the impact it did.

 **PowerHero432:** Hope all your questions were answered with this one.

 **Guest:** I knowww, I really felt for Brady in that one. But at least now we know what he's really going through.

 **Babyj:** Glad you really liked the two different fights in that one. Hope you enjoyed the fights in this one as well.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


	41. Truth

**A/N:** A while before, someone asked for some chapters focused on BarryCade and their relationship and I think this was a good one to show it but to also get into their heads a bit more.

* * *

 **.:41:.**

 _Truth_

* * *

A low crashing sound woke Barry from his slumber. He opened his eyes, lashes brushing against the pillow his face was pressed into. He rubbed his eye and rolled over to lie flat on his other side. He took in a deep breath and listened quietly, trying to discern if the sound was anything he should be concerned about. His eyes shifted over his surroundings, taking in all the new furniture in the room. For a second, Barry was confused.

He had the same furniture in his room in the West House since he was in high school. And this looked top of the line. There was another crashing sound and Barry shifted his gaze to the door of the room. There were too many things it could be; and not being entirely aware of where he was, didn't put his mind at ease. The sound continued for a few seconds before footsteps headed towards the door. What could it be?

His mind shifted over to Zoom. Since leaving Earth-2 Central City had been quiet. Not enough so the new Task Force was standing down. Not enough so the metahuman detractors stopped their protest measures outside of city hall—of which Barry and Cadence had rebuilt—and their counter-protestors would quickly fire back at them. But quiet enough that Barry was afraid to allow himself to fall into a false sense of security. He did patrols long into the night, making sure a portal hadn't opened and Zoom raced out. So far he could rest easy. At that exact moment, lying in bed, Barry's muscles tensed, ready to fire up at a moment's notice.

A light knock shattered the silence and the door opened, allowing Barry to completely relax. What enemy would give a courteous knock before killing him? Henry pushed open the door, knuckles still resting on the door. He looked over at his son and smiled.

"Come on, Slugger, I've got breakfast waiting for you," he said.

Barry smiled and rubbed his palms over face, waking himself even further. He sat up, stretching, feeling all the tense muscles in his back release. "You know how much I have to eat for breakfast?" He asked.

"Enough so that my complaints about the food bill when you were young is laughable," Henry replied. He crossed the room to his son and ruffled his hair. "To think I thought a $300 grocery bill was a lot. I nearly had a heart attack seeing how much I was making now to keep you going."

"I could stop for a muffing…or ten before going into work," Barry said.

"I'm not going to have you spend that kind of money when I can pamper my son, now come on. It's getting cold!" Henry slapped Barry on the shoulder before leaving the room. Barry pulled back the covers and followed him, stopping to get dressed first. Henry sat at his spot at the small, square table and flipped open a napkin to his lap. "Should I be concerned about food flying over the place when you eat, too?"

"I'm a Speedster, dad, not the Tasmanian Devil," Barry pointed out. "Though Cisco and I _have_ tested it before. It's more of being careful where I put piling plates than food flying everywhere." He laughed along with his father and started to pile food onto his plate—comically different than the smaller portion his father had.

"I don't doubt it," Henry agreed. "You were a bit of a messy eater when you were young, too. Your mother and I could hardly go a day without having to change clothes a few times."

"Isn't that what all babies do?"

"You were five." Barry laughed again and matched his father's smile. No matter how many times he was at his father's apartment it was like being in a dream. A dream that he'd hoped he'd never wake up from. How many times had he thought about what it would be like when his father was out of jail? Enough so that it was very vivid. And now here he was, sitting across from him at a family breakfast with only the food his father could make. "You know, I really like having you around, Barry," Henry said after a minute. "I know it's a funny thing to say, but considering how many times we've had to talk with glass between us, it's hard to get used to sometimes."

Barry nodded. He had been thinking the same thing.

"I know you suggested before that I start to pick up everything I used to; getting my medical license and maybe moving in together," Henry continued. "And I think you're right. I've gotten into contact with some of my former colleagues to see if it's possible to start up again, and things seem to be going well on that front." Henry took in a deep breath and said, "And, maybe, we _could_ think about moving in together."

Abruptly, Barry stopped chewing. He stared back at his father, eyebrows coming together. What brought on this change of heart? The last time Barry spoke about it, Henry had practically laughed off the suggestion. He'd said that Barry didn't need to be living with his father and that their lives were just fine the way they were.

"Of course, I've already got your room figured out and everything, the only thing you'd have to worry about is splitting the bills and everything but that's not a problem either," Henry said. He took in another deep breath, his chest swelling. Then his gaze flicked away and he added, "We just…have to get Joe's permission I guess."

Oh. _So that's it,_ Barry thought. He thought he'd heard Henry and Joe have a bit of an argument when they had breakfast together. And Earth-2 Joe and Henry had had a similar conversation as well, both ending with Henry reminding Joe, "He's my son, not yours." At least on Earth-2, Henry had a reason to be upset enough to say it.

On _this_ Earth, however, Barry wasn't quite sure where the animosity was coming from. He decided to bring up the situation delicately. "So, you and Joe haven't really talked much since the day we had breakfast together."

Henry blinked but the expression on his face never changed. "You noticed?"

"It's kind of hard to ignore my two dads completely ignoring each other," Barry pointed out. "You know…on Earth-2, you and Joe weren't friends. Mom never died and we lived together happily. But because of that, I never lived with Joe and Iris and we didn't become close. You and Joe used to be best friends but over there, there was something that split you apart." He wasn't going to mention it was his fault, like how this fallout was sort of his fault, too. "You hated each other."

The corner of Henry's lips lifted. "I wouldn't go so far as to say we hate each other. We're just not seeing eye to eye right now."

"And it has to do with me."

"Barry—"

"I know it does. I heard what you said..." Barry licked his lips. "Dad, I don't ever want you to think that anyone can replace you."

"Isn't that what happened?" Henry's eyes bored into his son. Barry dropped his fork and knife to his plate, pushing it away from him. He wasn't hungry anymore. His heart hurt too much to think about how hungry he was. Henry held up his hand, cutting off Barry's protest before he could even start. "Barry, I don't want this to come out into a fight and I don't want you to think that I'm not grateful for everything that Joe has done for you…you could've easily ended up in a foster system if he didn't take you in. But there are some things that, while I can forgive him over, I can't forget. I can't forget that he was one of the people that believed I would do something to my wife to endanger her. Or you. I can't forget that he's been there for so many events and activities in your life that I'd taken for granted. And he was the one who single-handedly raised you into being the man you are now."

Barry shook his head. "That's not true, dad."

"Isn't it?"

"No!" Barry's voice cracked, his mind raced, he felt himself starting to flush with emotion. Sweat pooled in his armpits and his hands grew clammy. This wasn't supposed to happen when he got back from Earth-2. Things were supposed to be better. Frustration crept into his body, muscles tensing in a way he hadn't before. "Joe may've helped raised me, but you're my dad. I went to visit you every weekend, I wanted to spend my birthdays with you, no matter what." He licked his lips. "I understand what you're feeling though; you've missed a lot and you feel like everything has moved on without you and that they're not working out the way you thought. But the thing is, dad, I'm not the same boy that you knew so long ago."

"I know," Henry agreed. "You're the Flash."

Barry closed his mouth. _He doesn't like that I'm the Flash?_ The thought crossed his mind before he could stop it. That couldn't be true. His father had known he was The Flash long before Barry admitted it and he'd been nothing but supportive—sometimes a little worried—about the good Barry was doing for the city. Then Barry looked at his father closer, making Henry look away. He knew it then, that Henry was just feeling very saddened about all the work he'd had to do to make his life feel normal again, not for himself but for being a father as well. He would never be able to turn back time and be there for all the pivotal moments in Barry's life and that was a hard pill to swallow.

Barry never wanted his mother alive more than at that moment, she always had a way to making them see eye to eye when things became tough between them. Though having mellowed out since being in prison, Henry Allen could push Barry hard on things sometimes. When he was in the Boy Scouts and slowly lost interest due to bullying, Barry had been afraid to say anything to Henry, whose philosophy was always to stick things out to prove you could do it. Barry whispered his displeasure to his mother, who then sat the two down and had them work things out, prompting Henry to mention he'd rather see Barry open about those things instead of being afraid to bring it to him.

They'd managed to get past that. But how do you work past it when there were years of things that hadn't been mentioned because his father was in jail. Thinking of it now, Barry knew he tried his hardest not to talk about certain things his father would be upset to miss. _Maybe it's my fault,_ Barry thought. _Maybe I'm the reason Dad resents Joe so much._

"Before you think it's your fault, Barry, it's not," Henry said, reminding Barry how much his father truly knew him. "These are insecurities of my own that I have to and am dealing with. But it's not something I'm going get over easily. Like, I'm not going to get over your running around the city and saving the people."

"Not lately," Barry pointed out. "So far I've been doing nothing but training to get faster."

"For this Zoom character?" Henry asked.

Barry could see the worry flash through his eyes. "Yeah, but…we haven't heard from him since we got back from Earth-2. Every day I'm working to figure out what can be done to stop him. There's only so many options we have."

"And you think running faster is going to do it?" Henry's question stumped Barry, making him shrug. On paper it seemed so simple, saying it out loud he knew it was much more complicated. "It seems to me that instead of trying to kill yourself getting faster, it might be easier to—"

"—slow him down?" Barry interrupted. "Yeah, Harry's working on that already?"

Henry shook his head. "No, it's like…it's like Olympians. They can work as hard as they want to be faster but what most people don't understand is that your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If trying to get faster isn't working, try getting a mental edge over him."

Barry's eyebrows came together. A mental edge? There was truth in that statement. A lot of what had to do with coming out on top in physical spaces was your mental track through it. If you were mentally strong, you could keep out negative thoughts and stay motivated longer than your body gave you credit for. If he could mentally stay on top of Zoom, he could come up with a way to finally stop him. Zoom wanted nothing more than to take Barry's speed…to be faster…what if there was a way to overpower him…

"That's something to think about," Barry murmured. His mind was already rolling through different things that could be done.

"Not that I'd know, seeing what this guy and other metas can do, I'd rather not be anywhere near them." Henry held up his hands, leaning back in his seat. "I'm sure if others knew, they'd constantly ask why I let you go out there. Sometimes I wonder it myself."

Barry's mind shifted back to what his father was presently saying. He knew his father was referring to the video footage of Brady, Conner, and Leah at the fight. Not anything good where their identities would be revealed. But enough so that their stature, clumsy movements, and cries could discern children were fighting Geomancer. The backlash caused enough of a hit to Flash's and Flare's public reception that those who were against metas used as fuel to the fire. What sort of superhero would let kids use their powers to fight?

"If I didn't do anything I wouldn't be able to live with myself," Barry finally said. He couldn't give too much away. "Brady's already promised he'd never do anything like that again. But I can understand why he did, he couldn't sit back and watch things happen."

"It kind of reminds me of you," Henry said. "Trying to stop all of those bullies hurting other people in your class."

"Yeah, but those were people with fists, not with powers that can crush you under rubble," Barry pointed out. He ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know how you did it. Just _hearing_ about what had happened with them scared me half to death."

Henry smiled, a twinkle in his eye. "Spoken like a true parent."

Barry leveled his gaze at his father. "I'm not a parent, dad."

"Are you sure about that?"

Barry didn't respond because, honestly, he wasn't quite sure.

* * *

"Brady, come on!" Cadence called, drying her hands off on a dishtowel. She picked up the lunch bag sitting on the counter and her gym bag from beside her feet, walking them both to the living room. "We're going to be late."

Brady came out of his room, pulling his backpack up onto his shoulders as he went. "I was just packing my backpack," he said then unzipped it and held it open to his mother. Cadence leaned over and looked at the contents inside, it appeared everything for school was there. She'd also checked to make sure his homework from the night before had been finished as well. "Everything's there."

"And?" she prompted.

Brady lowered his gaze. "And I'm not going to leave school or skip school again. I promise."

Cadence wished she could completely believe that. Not that she didn't trust his words but that he'd said them to her time and time against over the last year. As much as she wanted to infallibly believe him, there was a little voice in the back of her head reminding her of the last times he'd lied. Still, she'd seen the look on his face and his demeanor after having had explained what had gone on with Geomancer and she knew he finally got the message loud and clear. She'd never seen him so…shell-shocked before. To the point that over the last week or so, he'd grown quiet and sullen. A little more than his now typical serious resting face.

It hurt her not to trust him as well as it hurt to be unsure of what'd happen every second he stepped out the door. It was a reality she'd gotten used to her for herself since first arriving in Central City. Watching the footage of what happened to Brady, Conner, and Leah while she was gone on Earth-2 made her tear up from anxiety alone. Anxiety over what could've happened. It was the 'what ifs' that were the hardest things to go through. Seeing what it was like on Earth-2, getting some answers to the big 'what ifs' of her life had shocked her harder than she thought. Knowing on Earth-2 she was someone who lived on the streets, had given up Brady to Ryder and had never seen him? Knowing she was still working for the Assassination Bureau? All of it made her skin crawl.

It was a wonder she could even look herself in the mirror.

Cadence reached out and ran a hand through Brady's hair and rested her hand on the back of his neck, forcing him to look at her. The two didn't say anything for a long moment but Brady finally nodded and looked away from her. He got the message loud and clear. And as much as she still shook over the anticipation of what she could've come back from Earth-2 to, there was a part of him that was still proud.

There was a knock on the door and Cadence nodded towards it. "That'd Ryder," she said. "He's taking you to school today. From now on he or I will drive you to school or from school and practice to make sure that you're where you're supposed to be."

"Okay." Brady turned to answer the door.

"And we're still figuring out details of you being grounded, too."

Brady nodded. He opened the door and stood back as Ryder stepped into the apartment. "Hey, buddy," he greeted his son. Brady gave a small smile back but looked away, grasping the straps to his backpack. "We'll go in a minute, I just want to talk to your mom about something."

Cadence levelled her gaze at Ryder. "Sounds important," She mentioned.

"It is," Ryder said. He motioned to the TV. "They've been running the same clips on the news from the Geomancer fight and the small bit of footage of Brady and his friends and every time I see it I—"

"—Wonder what could've happened?" Cadence interrupted. "Yeah, I feel that too."

"I'm surprised."

Cadence whipped her head to face her ex. "Excuse me?" She'd never seen him look so angry in a long time. Not since a bad call during a soccer that eventually ended up with him tearing his ACL only moments later.

Ryder swiped a hand through his hair. "You've been having him follow you and Barry around STAR Labs and metas so long he thinks it's cool to run out and try to fight someone." Brady chewed his lower lip, watching his father speak so candidly. "It's like you don't care that, powers aside, he's still a kid."

Cadence's eyes widened to maximum size in disbelief. Then she took in a deep breath and steadied herself the best he she could. "I want nothing more than for Brady to be able to be a kid 24/7 and not worry about who may want to kill him just because he's there. But I'm also not naïve enough to pretend he doesn't have any powers."

"Maybe that's the problem then," Ryder said. His voice lowered, though his words still spit fire. "He's been around meta powers so long that he thinks it's normal and cool."

Cadence gave him a look. "So have you, but I don't remember you complaining about it."

Ryder mimicked her look; a sarcastic sneer. "That's because you didn't tell me you had any powers, remember?"

"Would you have reacted to it the way you are now? Like I'm some sort of a freak that should pretend that it's not a part of me? It's _there_ Ryder. I have these powers and they're never going to go away. Days go by where I wonder what my life would've been like without it, but I know there's no point. It'd just make me wistful for something that's not there. I would never lie to Brady about my powers because there's nothing I should lie about. If I can keep him safe by making sure he understands about metas then I'll do that."

"At the risk of his life?"

"His life would be even more at risk if I didn't say anything." Cadence ran a hand through her hair. "We can't pretend that there isn't bad things and bad people in the world."

"But we can protect him from it," Ryder insisted.

"We can protect him by making sure he knows how to face it," Cadence snapped back.

Ryder blew hair out of his face and opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped when he noticed that Brady had walked over and was not standing between both of his parents. "Can I say something now?" He asked. They nodded and Brady took in a deep breath. "You're both right. I thought being a metahuman was cool. I thought my powers wouldn't get me hurt. I didn't know it was dangerous. Mom kept telling me but I wouldn't listen. Geomancer really hurt me. I didn't mean to scare you."

Cadence and Ryder exchanged a glance but continued to listen. "But…I have my powers. They're not going to go away. I still want to be a kid but I want to help. I don't want you to be mad at each other."

"We're not mad at each other, bud," Cadence explained.

"Yeah, we're just not seeing eye-to-eye on this situation, but we're not mad," Ryder added. He twisted his mouth to the side. "I guess we shouldn't have had the conversation in front of you, but it's one we needed to have."

Cadence nodded. And, to be honest, she'd been avoiding having the conversation. Not because it was a hard one, she'd had much harder conversations; telling him about her pregnancy being one. But that she didn't want to rock the boat. Since his arrival in Central City the year before, they'd managed to have a good friendship and their parental relationship with raising Brady had been even better. Why rock the boat when it was steadily drifting along? Brady was growing up fast and it was something they should've addressed sooner.

"I should've listened when you told Caitlin and Cisco and Barry that you didn't like when they made my suit, mom," Brady added. "I just wanted to help…" Brady pressed his lips together. "Ryder's been showing me how to box and he gave me the idea of looking for metas in my school. Maybe I could just do that while I train some more."

Cadence thought for a long moment. Brady had been telling the truth, she'd been very angry when she found out that her friends had come up with a suit and weapons for him without talking to her about it first. So much so that she could still feel her temper flare by the reminder alone. Angry that they'd undermined what she wanted as his parent and wanting to keep him safe, but at the same time, angry because she knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. He'd hung around STAR Labs too much to act like he hadn't seen anything, knew what Barry and Cadence did to stop other metas and watched with wide-eyed wonder.

"It looks like it's some more stuff we have to talk about," Cadence said to Ryder, who nodded in response. "But…I don't think we're going to keep him from this."

"Neither do I, but he shouldn't be going after Zoom or any of the big metas," Ryder said. "Not when they'd…" he trailed off, looking down at Brady. Then he looked at Cadence and said, "I can keep showing you how to box, buddy." Cadence nodded her encouragement. "But I don't think it's anything you should being showing off when it tickles your fancy."

Brady's nose wrinkled. "My what? And why would I tickle it?"

Cadence laughed. "Just go get in the car."

"Okay." Brady turned and gave both of his parent a hug before leaving the apartment.

Cadence turned her attention back to Ryder, "You know how I told you everything that went on in Earth-2?" She asked. Ryder shrugged and nodded. "Do you think things would've been better for him there if things turned out that way?"

Ryder looked blankly at her for a few long moments. Then he took a deep breath and asked, "Do you think it would've been better for _you_?" Cadence frowned. Surprisingly, the question stumped her. With that Ryder stepped forward and gave her a hug, rubbing her back. "In case I don't say it enough, I wouldn't be able to do what you've done so far. And I'm here to help whenever you need it."

"Well you should," Cadence replied, voice muffled by his shoulder. "You're part of the reason he's here."

Ryder laughed, took a step back, squeezed her shoulders and said, "And if this is the biggest thing we'll have to deal with, with him. I'm glad."

"Don't get too excited." Cadence crossed her arms. "We've got his teens to get through first."

* * *

When Barry arrived at the CCPD for his 10-7 shift that day, he knew something was up. There were more detectives, police officers, captains, cadets, troopers, inspectors, lieutenants, and trainees sitting around the lobby than he'd seen in a long while. At first, he thought someone may've passed that he hadn't heard about, but then realized no one was dressed in their ceremonial blues. Nor had he received a phone call about it.

Once that relief went through him, his mind continued to wander. Barry hitched his briefcase up his shoulder and walked closer to the chairs that had been set up. He looked around to see if he could find Joe, who came out from the break room with a doughnut in his hand, along with Captain Singh.

"Hey, uh, what's going on?" Barry asked as they approached.

Joe lifted his doughnut in greeting and said, "Chief Paulson wanted us to hold a formal meeting."

"A meeting?" Barry's eyebrows rose. That couldn't be good. The last time Chief Paulson had called anything in was when it was announced that people were moving up in their ranks. There hadn't been anyone that had done that as of late and with the temperatures around Central City boiling…" Do you…have any idea what about?"

Captain Singh kept a straight face as he said, "He wants to make sure everyone in the CCPD is prepared in case The Flash disrupts things." Barry would've laughed at the barely concealed contempt on his boss's face, but as unsure if it was directed at him—The Flash.

"D-disrupts?" Barry repeated.

Joe noticed Barry's fright and said, "Now as the head of the task force, he feels it's important that the city knows what to do in the rare cases that The Flash assists the police," he explained. "You know…if he moves people, if criminals are suddenly dropped in the CCPD."

Barry's jaw dropped hard enough Barry heard something crack. Then he closed his jaw and tried to steady his voice. "I wouldn't say that's disrupting anything. He's just trying to help…to help make the CCPD run smoother while they get the weapons they need to take on metas." Even as he said it out loud, Barry knew how Chief Paulson could've taken his words and glanced over his shoulder to be sure said boss wasn't glaring down at him.

"Yeah, that's what we were saying," Captain Singh agreed. "And guess who're the ones that are supposed to spearhead this thing." He patted Joe on the shoulder before moving off to set up the presentation.

Barry swiveled his bewildered look back at Joe who shrugged in a 'don't look at me' way. "This is the last thing I need, honestly."

"You and me both," Barry agreed.

"How'd your visit with your dad go?" Joe asked, changing the subject. "You sounded really excited to head over there."

 _He's my son, Joe, not yours._

Barry pressed his lips together. Should he say what his father had told him in confidence? It was something he and Joe were having problems with, if it even _was_ a problem. Otherwise he'd had a great time hanging out with him again. He must've waited too long because Joe wagged a finger and said, "Uh-oh, I know that look."

"What look?" Joe asked.

"That deer in the headlights look," Joe explained. "That same one that you get when you're either confronted with something, caught in a lie, or don't know how to answer a question. I know that look very well. If there's something you don't want to tell me…"

"No, we just talked about a lot of things," Barry reassured him. "About Earth-2 and The Flash and maybe moving in with him…" Joe's eyebrows rose and Barry said. "We haven't come up with anything concrete about it or anything. But, hey, my dad's saying he wants to get his medical license again."

"That's great, Bare!" Joe clapped Barry on the shoulder, after making sure his fingers were no longer sticky. "With all this meta stuff going on, I'm sure he'll get a lot of work." Barry listened to see if there was anything in Joe's voice that would betray his displeasure, but there was nothing there. Then Joe's expression dropped to one of exasperation. "Maybe he'll work on Wally, see if he can get any sense into that knucklehead."

"Is he still racing?" Barry asked. He knew the answer to the question before asking it. Since Joe had mentioned Wally's street racing side job, as well as seeing Wally out when Geomancer was attacking, Barry had been vigilant in his patrols of the city to see if he saw anything. Either he was a little too slow or the illegal racers were becoming aware of his presence and made sure he was long gone before doing so.

"As far as I know he is," Joe said. "And Francine and I are worried. We had dinner together recently, all of us and I feel that he's still not really warming up to me or Iris. He mostly just talked to Linda or his mom."

Barry nodded as he listened to Joe's plight. "Well, if there's anything that I can do as me or…The Flash, then let me know. It's a new family and he's still getting used to things. It can take some time. You know how long it took for me to get used to staying with you and Iris?"

"I don't know," Joe pretended to think. "How many times have I had to handcuff you to your bed?"

Barry rolled his eyes. He should've known he wasn't ever going to get rid of that reputation. Why was it that everything embarrassing that was mention from the West family had to do with him? Joe continued to laugh before shifting his gaze to the side and greeting Cadence with a lift of his chin.

"Hey," Cadence replied. "What's going on? What's with all the chairs?"

"Captain Singh and I are going to do a presentation," Joe explained. "About the Flash."

"Uh-oh." Cadence looked at Barry out the corner of her eye. "What'd he do now? Rob a bank?" She shook her head. "I always thought it was only a matter of time until he snapped. They can't all be good ones." She and Joe—again—laughed at Barry's expense.

"Ha ha," Barry said. He nodded to Joe, who moved to help Captain Singh. "Seriously, the Flash would never rob a bank…a bookstore maybe, but not a bank."

Cadence's eyebrows rose curiously. "Why a bookstore?"

Barry shrugged. "You can never learn too much." Then he noticed the expression on Cadence's face. "Is something wrong?"

"Me?" Cadence pointed to herself.

"Well, unless Burnout managed to get here…" Barry joked.

Cadence chuckled. "Don't joke about that, Barry, I'm not in the mood."

Then Barry became serious, noting that while she laughed it didn't quite reach her eyes. "What's wrong?" He watched her face, looking for a hint to what she was feeling.

"Nothing. Ryder and I sort of got into a fight this morning," She explained. "It's not a big deal, just a conversation that we needed to have about Brady. I guess I've just been putting it off for a while." Using both of her hands, she pushed her hair back behind her shoulders. "Why don't people ever make a manual about how to parent between exes?"

"I think they have that," Barry teased. "It's called 'communicating'." He used air quotes around the word.

Cadence slapped him on the stomach. "Shut up." She laughed then looked at him. "What about you? What've you been thinking about this Earth-2 stuff?"

"Not a lot, honestly," Barry said. It was the truth. He hadn't said or thought much about it because he didn't want to torture himself. He had dreams about the man in the iron mask, as much as he dreamt about Zoom. He thought about Jesse now being on their Earth when he stopped by STAR Labs and saw them. He, Cisco, and Cadence had all agreed not to talk to Caitlin about Killer Frost and Deathstorm, knowing it'd hurt her even more to know that on that Earth he had been alive. Knowing it'd certainly cause her to question a lot if they knew about her persona on that Earth.

There were so many things to _not_ think about that continuously bounced into mind every now and then. Who knew avoiding things were a lot harder than actively confronting them? The irony wasn't lost on him.

"That man in the iron mask, I still think of him," Barry admitted. "And I wonder what Zoom's going to do now that we got away. And…my dad may've given me an idea of how to stop Zoom but—"

Cadence's eyes shone with excitement. "Really? What?"

Just then a blare from a loud horn went off, causing the two to slap their hands over their ears and wince in pain. The sharp blast sounded like a canon going off in the high-ceilinged lobby. Captain Singh waved the other milling members of the CCPD and they filed into their seats. Barry and Cadence moved to sit in the back row a few seats down from Patty, who sat up straight, looking ahead towards the front, eager to hear everything that was going to be said.

As soon as they sat down, Joe started by whipping off a sheet of paper from the pad in front of him. Their colleagues moved in anticipation for what had been said. Barry squinted at the title in front of him.

 _"What to do if you're taken by The Flash; or if a criminal is dropped in your lap."_

Barry sank down in his seat, bringing his hand up to cover his face while beside him Cadence rolled her eyes. He was sure she would start glaring at him in a few minutes. He already felt as if every eye were on him. Joe's were for sure, considering his less than enthused expression as he led the seminar. With pointer in hand, he jabbed it towards each word on the board, smacking it with emphasis each time.

"Now, I know we've had a lot of times that a criminal has suddenly appeared in handcuffs on our front porch, but not everyone is going to react favorably to the experience," Joe explained. Captain Singh stood by his side, nodding every few seconds. "There may be a few who are so bewildered that they don't immediately move into action, allowing the chance for the criminal to get away."

"Or you're working on a case and The Flash suddenly moves you to another location," Captain Singh said. "Whether it's to protect you or positions you to stop a criminal or a meta, it may happen and you need to be prepared for it." He placed his hand on Joe's shoulder. "Detective West and I have come up with a few ideas of what to do if it happens."

With that, Joe flipped the page over to reveal a ten-step list of suggestions of what to do when moved by The Flash. And another ten-step list of what to do if a criminal is brought in.

"Number One," Captain Singh said with even less enthusiasm than Joe produced. "Is 'don't panic'."

Barry closed his eyes, dropping his hand from his lap. Cadence tilted her head back and let out a quiet groan.

This was going to be torture.

"If there's ever a time I'm glad I don't have this much recognition, it's now," Cadence murmured to Barry out the side of her mouth. Barry chuckled to himself and leaned back to her to say, "I don't know if you've been to Jitters lately, but that's not true."

"I'm addition on a coffee, so what?"

"They're advertising a new Flare coffee now. Since you saved everyone at the hospital," Barry explained. Sure, he'd been the first one to go in and save the staff when Geomancer's aftershocks had weakened the structure of the building. But she had been the one to go in last to save the child patients that had been inside as well. He was glad he prompted the applause for her, she was as much of a hero as he was and deserved the attention. "You're welcome."

"It's really self-centered to say 'you're welcome' to someone for something they haven't said 'thank you' for," Cadence said.

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "You'd be so surprised how many times I've thought that same thing. Mostly when I'm around Oliver."

Cadence laughed quietly.

"Number Two, assess the new situation you're put in," Captain Singh continued from the front.

"Determine whether you're a danger, or there's danger coming towards you," Joe added.

Cadence shifted in her seat, crossing her legs the other way. "What were you saying about Zoom? That you had an idea to take him down?"

"Not a full idea," Barry said. "But my dad pointed out if I couldn't become faster than him, then if we could mentally outrun him then we could stop him." He looked at Cadence out of the corner of his eye, watching as she seriously contemplated his words. "If we could get one step ahead of him, then we could figure out how to beat him."

"I like the idea," she said slowly. "Being able to mentally beat him…but what does that mean, really?"

"We've got to get him into a position that he thinks he's won—"

"—So he'll pound you into the ground?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Cadence smiled, trying not to laugh at her joke. "But as long as we got something more than just trying to outrun him then we have a semblance of a plan. We can be prepared in case Zoom comes back, and we know he's going to come back. He won't be happy that we got away."

"I know, I've been thinking about what he'd do when he comes back," Barry said. He turned his gaze back to Captain Singh and Joe to make it look like he was paying attention. Other officers around him chuckled every now and then. It looked like no one was really taking it seriously at all. It looked like they were all fans of The Flash and knew things were fine with his random appearances.

"Now, would anyone like to come up and demonstrate what to do if you encounter The Flash?" Joe asked. Barry ducked his head, knocking Joe would do everything he could to embarrass him if he had the chance. Thankfully, Joe passed over him to Patty who had thrown her hand into the air to be chosen.

This wasn't a good time to talk about Earth-2. "Do you want to get lunch today to talk about this more?"

"Can't, I'm way behind on paper work that needs to be done and Captain Singh's been breathing down my neck about it," Cadence said. "After work?"

"Can't," Barry said. "Your shift ends before mine. And I've got some paperwork I need to do, too. And unless something happens then I won't be at STAR Labs either."

"Things have been quiet so far, knock on wood, why ruin it now?"

That's exactly what Barry had been thinking. He turned to pay as much attention as he could for the seminar but zoned out as soon as Joe announced point number four of being moved by The Flash: "You may end up throwing up, make sure to aim away from your shoes."

* * *

Later that night, Cadence heard a knock on the door to her apartment. She set her glasses on top of her pile of bills and brushed her hands off on the legs of her jeans and answered the door. She blinked in surprise, seeing Barry standing on the other side of the threshold. Cadence opened the door and blinked in surprise when she saw Barry.

"Hey!" She greeted him warmly.

"Hey." Barry leaned in and surprised her with a long kiss. "Sorry, I wanted to do that all day."

"I'll never complain about that," Cadence replied with a grin. She stepped out of the way, allowing Barry to enter the apartment. "What are you doing here?" Cadence asked. She tucked her hair behind her ear then crossed her arms. "Better question, why'd you use the front door?"

"To surprise you," Barry replied.

"Really?" Cadence tilted her head. She eyed him suspiciously. If he ever wanted to surprise her all he had to do was race to where she was and take her somewhere else, as he had done before. But…she couldn't ignore the cute smile that was typically reserved for her. "Okay, what is it?"

He pulled his hands out from behind his back and revealed two large bags of food. "I brought Chinese. You like Chinese, right? I wasn't sure whether to get this or Thai food. Indian was the first to cross my mind but I wasn't sure how you dealt with spices. But then I remembered that spices probably don't bother a fire metahuman. By then I thought about pizza but we have that almost as much as we have Big Belly Burger. So, there you go!" He brandished the bags with a flourish. "Chinese it is!"

"Chinese it is," Cadence agreed, laughing at his rapid explanation. She stepped into him and gave him another peck. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Barry set it down on the table where Cadence instructed him to and started to open the bags.

Cadence walked over and sat on the couch next to him, pulling her legs up under her. "I'm guessing you wanted to finish that conversation from earlier, right? About Zoom and Earth-2?"

Barry sighed, keeping his eyes on the food he arranged in front of them. "No," he said after a minute. "We said if we were on a date that we wouldn't talk about meta things. I don't want to talk about that."

"Kind of hard to ignore the elephant in the room this time, Tholly," Cadence pointed out. She sniffed and said, "I think about what went on in Earth-2 a lot more than I should, honestly. Mostly about seeing the answers to the questions I've asked myself for years. Ryder and I were talking about it this morning."

"When you were fighting?" Barry's voice was subdued, knowing he wasn't going to get his wish to not talk about it. It might've been something he wanted to avoid, but he needed to be supportive if she did.

Cadence nodded. "We were fighting about Brady. We needed to talk about how Brady would go forward with being Shadowhunter after what happened with Geomancer. We both know that what he needs is just to be a kid, but we can't ignore the fact the has powers either."

Barry's eyebrows rose. He backed away from the couch and sat next to Cadence, turning his body towards her. "And he was mad about that?"

"Sort of, but only because he was as scared as I was, after seeing the footage on the news," Cadence explained. She tried to avoid the news since that day, how many times could you watch your son get crushed by a mountain of concrete before it became completely engrained in your head. Once, she found. And when it was constantly played, it was like a nightmare. "I understood though; Ryder doesn't have any powers so he doesn't really know what it's like to have to hide that part of yourself and wanting to use it to help."

"My dad and I were talking about that this morning, too," Barry said. "He was saying that he's proud of me being The Flash but sometimes wonders how he can let me go out and face Zoom when he's so strong."

"Worrying parents, huh? They never stop." Cadence reached over to pick up a box of lo-mein but Barry reached out a hand and grabbed her wrist saying, "That's mine." Cadence laughed. "You're acting like I'm going to steal your fries or something."

"I just haven't eaten anything since this morning."

"You got a lunch break!"

"It's not my fault you had paperwork you needed to catch up on." Barry's eyes flashed with mischief as his teasing and Cadence rolled her eyes. She moved to the other bag and picked out another box of food, silently showing it to Barry to make sure she could have it. Then started in, expertly maneuvering a pair of chopsticks inside. He leaned over, resting his cheek on the back of the couch. For a long moment, the two sat silently with each other, enjoying each other's company. How many times did they get a chance to sit back and just talk? Not every often. "I don't think it's been this quiet in a while," he said.

"Just wait until Ryder brings Brady back over," Cadence said. "Then silence will be long gone."

Barry smiled. "I mean, it gives me some time to think." _Not that you haven't had this entire last week to think,_ he pointed out. _You've done nothing but think about Earth-2. Face it, you're never going to get over this._ "To figure some things out."

"Well, that's good because I was starting to wonder when you were going to stop lying to me," Cadence remarked.

She tilted her head, studied him closely. A little _too_ closely. Barry realized then how much of the truth she told when she said she'd been appointed to watch him when with the Assassination Bureau. She probably knew his every nuance and thought before he even had them.

Honestly, he found that to be very comforting, knowing how close they had become over the years. How she'd gone from someone he couldn't trust to breathe to someone he loved with all his heart. As of late it was starting to scare him how much he cared about her. So much so that the short thought of her betrayal on Earth-2—which turned out to be Burnout—hurt him.

What was harder, what he still hadn't found the words to tell her was how choked up he became watching Burnout get killed. Looking into the face of someone that wasn't who he knew but looked _exactly_ like her…seeing it all play out just like his dreams…

"Cause, I think I've been a pretty good girlfriend up to his point," Cadence continued. Her voice was soft, comforting. "I can overlook a lot of things when I know you don't want to talk about them. But this is too big to handle on your own."

Barry took a deep breath to steady himself. He could already feel the tears come back to his eyes again. He blinked them back and let out a long breath. "I dream about him," Barry admitted. "About Zoom. About the man in the mask. I dream that he attacks you and Caitlin and Cisco and he keeps killing you guys before I can save you. I dream that he's always a little bit faster than me and I'll never catch up. I dram that Zoom is torturing the man in the mask and I can't stop him. I dream about Zoom so much and…parts of my dreams have come true on that Earth."

Cadence slowly nodded, listening intently to his story. She didn't realize it was that bad. Though getting punched and kicked in the middle of the night should've been her first clue. He'd always been insistent that nothing was wrong and he didn't want to talk about it. She knew that feeling and knew it well.

"I watched as Zoom killed my friends on that Earth, and it was hard to remind myself that it wasn't you guys. I can't…I can't imagine what'd happen if Zoom did that to anyone here," Barry continued. "And it makes me feel helpless. So, having this idea of what we can do to stop him, that's one of the only things keeping me going."

Cadence's voice was soft. "That's it?"

"And you," he admitted. By then, Cadence had set her food aside, having only taken a few bites before becoming engrossed in Barry's story. Her feet rested in his lap and he gently ran his hand up and down her leg, almost absentmindedly. "And Cisco and Caitlin, my friends and my family. My mom and dad. I thought about all of you guys when Zoom was bearing me. You gave me strength to keep going, to trick Zoom to figure out how to get out of my cage." _I fi I can do that, I can figure out how to finally take him down._ He took a deep breath and changed the subject. "So when are you going to tell me about Breathtaker?" He could feel Cadence's body flinch under his hand. "I see the way you keep looking at his pod. Like you're in a trance."

"I…I…" Cadence stammered. She closed her eyes, shook her head to collect her bearings. "I didn't realize you noticed." She opened her eyes and gave a wry smile. "I guess you watch me as much as I watch you, huh?" Barry felt his cheeks flush.

Cadence shifted her gaze to the side. How was she going to explain this without making him worry more? There were some things she didn't realize she thought about until going to Earth-2. "Zoom said something, the first time we faced him, that I couldn't stop thinking about. That my own enemy was myself and the choices I've made. The only big choice I've made in my life was about the Assassination Bureau. I thought telling you guys everything that went on when I was with them would've cleared my conscience. And I was clear…until we went to Earth-2."

Barry nodded. It had to have been hard, knowing how everything seemed to turn out so badly for her on that Earth when things worked out so well for him over there. Though if he had to compare the two…

"Then on Earth-2 I saw _everything_ I ever wondered about. What would've happened if Harrison and Tess kept me? She's dead over there and Harry hadn't seen me since I was born. I have a sister and I gave Brady up and hadn't seen him since. I'm still part of the Assassination Bureau, but I have no friends and I live on the streets." She smiled a little. "It's be hysterical if it wasn't so sad."

Barry lifted his hand and started to play with her fingers.

"They say ignorance is bliss and I now know why they say it, I would've been better not knowing anything. But the hero part of me knew I couldn't sit back and wait to see what happened. I had to help somehow." Cadence laughed at the irony. "And that's what Ryder and I argued about, Brady said the same thing."

"How's he doing?" Barry asked. "Now that he knows about everything on Earth-2?"

"He was really upset to know what happened, that I gave him up. But I think that along with everything that happened with Geomancer really hit home and he understands why you and I take everything with metas so seriously." Cadence's amused smile dropped. Her eyes hardened and Barry could feel her hand trembling beneath his. "I got out of the Assassination Bureau when I did because I knew it wasn't for me. While I was with them, I was a killer. But I was a killer without a choice. I have that choice now…" She looked him in the eye. "if I see Killer Frost again…any version of Killer Frost, Deathstrom, Burnout…Zoom…if I get the chance, I'm going to catch them. And I'm going to kill them. I won't rest until they're dead."

Barry listened to admission and understood. Death was never something he would've wished on his worst enemy, but he'd found recently, sometimes they didn't have the luxury of keeping them alive. The longer Zoom was alive, the more people would fall beneath his reign.

"I'm not strong enough to do it on my own, I know that now. I know not to keep bottling things up but, I guess if I told you guys the truth I was afraid I'd lose my friends and lose myself. I didn't want you to know—"

"—That you're a coldblooded murderer? I think we already knew that," Barry joked. Cadence whacked him on the stomach and he laughed.

"I didn't want you to know that I still struggled with what the Assassination Bureau has taught me," Cadence said.

"I worried about the same thing with Eobard," Barry admitted. "That I might've learned too much from him, that I'm his idea of a hero and not my own."

"What does being a hero mean to you?"

Barry thought for a moment. "That you don't have to have powers to be a hero. That you have courage and you're selfless and sacrifice as much of yourself for people around you. Even if they're not thankful. It's not about the glory or the prestige but knowing that you're doing the right thing because it's right to you." He looked at her. "What about you?"

"A hero to me is someone who realizes what they can accomplish when they don't have a choice," Cadence said after a second of mulling it over. "They're human so sometimes they don't want to be a hero, but they continue to do it anyway. The handle everything that's thrown their way with grace and inspires people." She then paused, nose wrinkling. "We're some of the most egotistical people, aren't we?"

Barry let out a loud guffaw at her comment, making her collapse into giggles as well. He reached over and picked up her food, handing it to Cadence, then took his own. His stomach growled in anticipation for some of his favorites. "So, what would you say you want the most out of life?"

"Oh, we're asking the fun questions now?" Cadence smiled pleasantly.

"Yes, we're now officially on our dinner date and I'm asking the hard questions," Barry teased. He slurped up a few noodles and repeated his question. "What do you want most out of life?"

"To be happy," Cadence said.

Barry turned his thumb down. "That's a lame answer."

"So? It's my answer."

"You need to be more specific," Barry insisted. "'I want to be happy'," he mimicked her voice in a higher pitch, making her shoot out her foot and kick him. "Everyone says that. It makes them sound profound or something. Come on, what do you really want out of life?"

Cadence shrugged. "I don't need money, I have enough of it. I don't need a family, I already have that. Brady's one of the best kids you can ever ask for." She paused. "Though I'm not sure how to ground him now. How do you ground someone who's been grounded more in the last year than they have in their lifetime? I can't give him chores, he's been asking me to give him more responsibility as it is."

"Give him to Joe and he'll think of something," Barry said. "You ever see a couple of kids picking up trash by the highway? They'll stop doing what they're doing fast." He pointed a finger at her. "Don't ask me how I know that."

Cadence laughed. She flicked her hair behind her shoulders and pouted. "I guess I don't really know."

"Well, is there anything in your life right now that you wish was different?" Barry snorted. "I can't imagine looking at dead bodies every day doesn't give you some sort of a nightmare."

"Well, I'll admit I'm afraid a body is going to spring up at me every time I go into work, or suddenly moved," Cadence admitted. "But other than that, not really. I love the mystery and the puzzle and helping the families."

Barry tapped his chopsticks against the sides of his box of lo-mein. "Did I tell you that my dad is going to get his medical license again?"

An offended snort escaped Cadence's lips. "I thought we were talking about me."

"I promise this'll make sense. He wants to get his medical license again, to start up his practice and help people considering all of the damage and destruction from these metas."

"I already said I don't want to go back into pediatrics," Cadence said.

"I know. But it made you happy. And I think you're the happiest when you work with kids. You took in Conner and Leah without any hesitation and you even offered to be a sister to Jesse and help her out when you didn't know her. I think if you were doing that, you'd be your happiest."

Cadence pursed her lips and looked Barry in the eye. "Okay, then what about you? What do you want out of life? Let me guess, you already have everything you need, right?"

Barry smirked back at her. Then he rested his cheek in his upraised palm. "No," he said slowly. "I want a family," he said. "A family to call my own. Sometimes, I'm afraid I'll never get it, because of what we do for the city.

"Death doesn't scare me," Cadence said. "I've gotten used to that idea ages ago. It's not meaning anything that scares me. Not leaving a mark. Not…mattering that scares me." She laughed. "But, hey, I've got my special coffee now, right?"

"The novelty wears off fast," Barry said.

"Really?"

"No."

The two laughed again. Finishing their food, Cadence packed up the leftovers and moved to up from the couch to put them away, but Barry wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back into his side. Cadence relaxed into his grasp, resting her arms atop of his, snuggling back into his chest.

"Thank you for this," she said honestly. "I really needed it."

"You're welcome," Barry replied.

"But what was the occasion?"

Barry released his grasp on Cadence and allowed her to sit up and turned to face him. He reached out and tenderly pushed her hair back from her face, his eyes searching hers. "We haven't had much time to ourselves in a while. Since Vandal Savage, the Trickster, Eobard Thawne, Earth-2, Zoom…I wanted to give you, give _us_ a chance to relax and have that romantic dinner we never got to have."

It took Cadence a second to remember their plans from before the Policeman's ball. Then a grin split her face. "Aww." Cadence smiled and accepted the kiss Barry gave her. She moved her hands to his cheeks, pecking his lips a few more times. But then Barry tightened his grasp around Cadence's waist, pulling her flush against him, and angled his head to the side to deepen the kiss. Cadence leaned her head back and said, "Oh, _that_ kind of romance."

Barry laughed. "Yeah, _that_ kind of romance." He kissed her again. Then he reached behind his neck and pulled off his shirt, tossing it to the floor.

Cadence chewed her lower lip. "Barry, there's something you need to know."

"What? Brady's not here is he?"

"No, _he's_ not." Cadence said.

"Then it's fine."

Barry kissed her a few more times then moved his hands to the front of his jeans. Her eyes widened. "Barry, you're not listening to me."

Barry, after wiggling out of his jeans, cupped her face in his hands. He kissed her again, a trail from her forehead to her lips. "You're worrying too much, you need to relax."

"No, no, I'm just— "Cadence desperately tried to stop him. "Barry!"

Movement caught the corner of Barry's eye just then. His smile faded and a look of horror immediately came to his face. His face flushed redder than a tomato. His mind screamed at him to move, to run away from the room, to get dressed again, but his body wouldn't let him move. Humiliation raced through him—his mind quickly shuttling through every embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him in life and he quickly deduced it wouldn't compare to that exact moment.

Maya Nah smiled warmly at him as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Cadence, on the other hand, pressed her palm to her face. He could feel the 'I tried to stop you' vibes, radiating off her.

"Hello, Barry," Maya greeted him with as much warmth as ever.

"Hi, Mrs. Nash." Barry reached over to grab a pillow off the couch and held it in front of him. He swallowed hard, hoping to steady his quaking voice as he asked, "How are you?"

* * *

 **A/N:** If you follow us on tumblr or twitter you'll see sneak peeks of future chapters as this story goes on. Speaking of which, whoever is reviewer 310 will get a massive sneak peek into the next story in the series.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** And now Brady truly understands what he did and how dangerous it was as well as getting into Ryder's and Cadence's opposing sides of it. I'm glad all the Earth-2 stuff went over well. I wanted to make Zoom more dangerous and I think it was a good first step with those murders.

 **DarkHelm145:** We'll figure out what happens with Jay and Zoom at the beginning of the next chapter. It'll start off with a bang, I promise. Lol.

 **Guest:** Thanks! I'm glad it worked out well.

 **Josephguy217:** Hope this one was as enjoyable.

 **PowerHero432:** Well, those things will certainly come back, their repercussions have to be felt.

 **Yummers:** You'll find out in the next chapter, right at the beginning.

 **Spinquin142:** Haha, I know what you mean. If I had to go back and do differently, I already know what I'd change to fix things. But I'm still glad you enjoyed it!


	42. Misguided

**.:42:.**

 _Misguided_

* * *

Jay Garrick was not a happy man.

So much so that if one were to capture his expression in a photo, it would resemble one from a comic strip. With one eye bigger than the other, lips turned up into a snarl, and a thought cloud above his head filled with ampersands, pound signs, and lightning bolts. All because their plan wasn't going according to plan. He placed his hands on his hips, pacing back and forth in short, tight circles. Beneath his leather jacket, his shoulders hunched up, muscles tense as rocks. How many more times, how many more setbacks would he have to sit through and being told to 'be patient' before things started to move the way they were supposed to?

He was not a patient man and this was certainly not helping his patience.

There was a bolt of bright light and Jay turned around to find Zoom standing behind him, slowly moving upward from his crouched position to completely straighten. He pulled himself up to Jay's height and looked back at Jay, who glared at him. "What is the problem now?" Zoom growled, looking back at Jay.

"Barry is my problem," Jay shot back. "And Cadence and Cisco, and all of them. They're all my problem." He pointed a finger at Zoom. "You said once you had them on Earth-2 that our plan would move forward. That your plan was foolproof and now you're saying they've managed to get out of the prison you set up for him and come back here. Not just with Harry but with Jesse as well."

Zoom tilted his head, watching as Jay went on his tirade.

"I agreed to this because you told me it was something that had to be done. Because you said we couldn't be on two Earths at the same time. That the only way for Barry to become faster was to make sure he was desperate enough to _want_ to get faster," Jay continued.

"That's correct," Zoom said.

"So what do we do now?" Jay watched as Zoom's eyes roved over him. Then Zoom slowly lifted his hands and pulled his hood down, revealing the mirror image of Jay's face. Jay stared back at Zoom, waiting for Zoom's response. Zoom slowly smiled, the corners of his lips turning upwards. "What are we going to do next?"

"Have you forgotten already?" Zoom stretched out his hand towards Jay. Jay reached out his hand and grasped Zoom's. As soon as their hands touched, flashes of time, images of moments shot into Jay's and Zoom's heads as they experienced their mind-meld. Once it was finished, Zoom dropped his hand and backed away a few steps. "Do you have it now?"

Jay nodded.

"Good. The last thing we need is for our plans to be figured out too soon," Zoom said. He turned his head to the side, listening to a distant siren. "I have too much at stake for this to fail now. Barry's not at the point we need him to be. We have to wait until then before we can do anything else."

"What about Cisco and the others?" Jay asked.

"When the time comes, kill them all," Zoom replied. "You've been around them long enough to know how to do it. Make it painful, make it slow, I don't care as long as they're dead." Zoom started to turn away then stopped. "But don't touch Caitlin, we need her."

Jay smirked back at Zoom. "As I recall, that was never part of the plan."

"Plans change," Zoom replied. "Don't touch Caitlin," he repeated. He turned his back on Jay and lifted his hood up to cover his face. His green eyes appeared even more sinister with the blackened part of his suit. "I've got plans for her."

With that, he raced off into the city. There was havoc to be made and he needed to get a head start. Taking over this Earth and knocking down The Flash was only going to be possible once every step fell into place. And there was one key step that had to be put into motion.

Zoom raced through the city and into Mercury Labs. He grabbed a scientist by the throat, away from the experiment she was working on, and slammed her back against the wall. Eliza Harmon, Mercury Labs' leading scientist, gasped in fear, bringing her hand up to her throat. He squeezed hard, making Eliza's face turn red. Tears came to her eyes, dripping down her cheeks, one right after another.

"Do you have what I need?" He growled.

Eliza's head shook back and forth, only a few inches side to side. "I can't," she managed to gasp. "I can't…make any more?"

Zoom put his face close to hers. "And…why not?" He released his grasp enough for her to catch her breath. She coughed hard, greedily swallowing gulps of air. Zoom's eyes stayed glued to hers, watching her every move until she could respond.

"It's…none of them have come out right," She said. "It…it takes time to reverse engineer these things—"

"Time is what we don't have!" Zoom lifted his hand and threw Eliza to the floor. She backed away from him, using her hands to propel herself away. "I need the Velocity-9 now!" His started to vibrate over his head. "Trajectory, I need you to do this for me."

Eliza stared back at Zoom. Slowly, the expression on her face changed from fear to one of manic pleasure. Her lips stretched back into a ghastly smile, eyes growing dark. Eliza pushed herself to her feet and walked by Zoom to a glass case on the wall behind her. She pulled open the front of the case and took out two tubes that resembled Epi-Pens. She picked one up and spun it in her fingers, straightening her back. She was no longer timid, scared Eliza Harmon.

Pressing her thumb into the top, a spring-loaded needle shot out of the tip. In one swift movement, Eliza jabbed herself in the thigh. The Velocity-9 coursed through her veins, making her smile to herself at the immediate adrenaline rush. Her eyes shone with a golden blast of lightning.

"Yes," Zoom hissed, watching her. He held out his hand. Eliza nodded and reached into the glass case, pulling out the second of the tubes. She slapped it into Zoom's palm and watched as he jabbed it into his wrist. He tilted his head back, sucking in a deep breath, his entire body glowing blue with the addition of Velocity-9 in his system.

Now all they had to do was find The Flash.

* * *

Tess leaned back in her seat and rubbed her shoulders. A low sigh escaped her throat. Her back was on fire, her eyes burned, and everything in her was telling her to give up. There was nothing else that could be done. No amount of studying was going to make a difference. She could write as many papers and go to as many hearings as she wanted, taking every piece of information that had been gathered from STAR Labs but it wasn't going to make a difference.

"Are you done for the night?" Harrison asked, coming up behind her.

Tess looked over her shoulder and took the shot tumbler glass from his hand. She smiled gratefully and downed it in one gulp. With the stinging burn in the back of her throat, it took her mind off the plight even for a little bit. "This is never going to be done," She said. Then she looked away from her husband and shook her head. "But…I'm afraid there's not much time left. Mayor Bellows is doing everything he can to get this pushed forward." Harrison's eyebrows rose. "It's not something the public is privy to yet, but the signs are all there. The protests, Chief Paulson's insistence of the seminar at the CCPD, they're thinking of enforcing a curfew. Before we know it, Barry and Cadence aren't going to be able to do anything in Central City without having to think big brother is watching them all the time."

"And Zoom certainly isn't helping," Harrison agreed.

"The newspapers are already starting to turn on Barry as well," Tess pointed out. "When he was gone on Earth-2 and Jay was trying to take his place…there's been enough people who said Barry couldn't hack it anymore. That Geomancer got away because he was losing his touch. That they couldn't rely on him and Cadence anymore…"

Anger flashed through Harrison's eyes. He turned on his heel, bringing a hand up to his forehead. "We've seen it time and time again, what fear of the unknown does. But it's different to see the how it happens from a scientific point of view to someone you care about. With science, that fear is exciting, you may be figuring out a new advancement, but with people…with powers like that…it's just distrust of something they don't understand."

"Then how do we make them understand?" Tess shot back. "They can only save the city so many times before people realize they can be fully trusted. And what was it that changed the climate? At first everyone loved The Flash and what he was doing—"

"—It was when all of the other metas appeared that became a problem. Those that are evil…it's like what happened at the clearing, what's to stop someone with powers from robbing a bank?"

"The Flash and Flare. And Shadowhunter on one occasion."

Harrison smiled at Tess's immediate response. Central City's bank had been targeted numerous times since they arrival of metahumans and the heroes had done a good job at defending it. So Chief Paulson's suggestion didn't hold water to the point he was trying to make. But now that the Metahuman Task Force had been outfitted with what was just short of military tactical gear, it looked like there was only a glimmer of hope left to state their case.

Then Harrison caught the expression on Tess's face. He shook his head, knowing what she was going to say before saying it. There were only a few occasions the look was reserved for. And it was always bad news. The last time he consciously remembered seeing it was when she'd announced that she wanted to give Cadence up for adoption, knowing it wasn't the right time of their lives for a baby.

"It's the MRA," Tess finally said. She glanced back towards her computer screen. "I just got confirmation, there's nothing more we can do. It's going to be passed."

* * *

Barry took in a deep breath as he looked over the canyon gorge. Then he looked over at Cisco, Caitlin, and Cadence. All three were doing their best not to look him in the eye lest he see the hesitation in their faces.

"You know," Cisco finally said, lifting a finger. "I didn't expect it to be this deep. I swear, it didn't look that way on the map."

"Maps are flat," Barry said matter-of-fact. "This is like…a black hole."

"Who's idea was this, anyway?" Caitlin asked.

"Cisco's," Cadence said quickly.

Offended, Cisco turned to her with raised eyebrows. "All I said was that Barry needed to get faster and he needed to figure out what'd motivate him to do it."

"And you though hurtling him over a thousand-foot gorge was the way to do it?"

"I have lots of ideas, okay? No one ever said you all actually had to listen to me."

Barry shook his head and turned his back to the gorge. His heart was already beating harder than it did at its resting point. There was too much on the line for him to mess up. Most of which turning him into a red smush on the other side of the rock wall if he didn't run fast enough. He glanced at Harry, who was writing equations with the tip of his finger on the tablet in his hands. Beside him, Jesse stood with her hands shoved into her coat pockets, giving her two-cents on Harry's equations every now and then. Otherwise, she was too busy looking around the gorge with as much concern as the others.

It'd been a few weeks since coming back from Earth-2 and the changes were still hard to come to terms with. As he slept he dreamt about Zoom and wondered how to stop him, in his waking hours he did everything he could to stay as busy as possible. Since having Velocity-6 in his system he could feel himself move faster but it must've started to wear off. He continued to get slower and slower as they did time-trials on the Cosmic Treadmill. It was then Harry and Cisco suggested a change in scenery. Getting out of STAR Labs was great, but the harder part was getting used to Jesse being around.

She was a cool girl, and at only twenty years old, Barry knew she'd been through a lot. Not just with what happened to Zoom, but also from her life in general. She had multiple degrees and was nearly as smart, if not smarter than her father. Having had the opportunity to skip grades before, Barry knew her choice to do so must've made it harder for her to fit in with those around her. She'd finished her undergraduate and masters learning long before others had finished their undergrad. And with a man that was as famous on her Earth than his, it had to have been hard for people to know her before she knew them.

Since arriving on Earth-1 Jesse had done her best to assimilate herself on the changes, the one that had thrown her the most being that on their Earth Beyoncé was a singer, not a senator. Other pop culture things like that made her a staple at Cisco-Cinema, which she eagerly and routinely attended. But there were still struggles, Cadence had offered to be her sister and…from what Barry had seen, Jesse wasn't very comfortable with the arrangement yet, though it was obvious how they were related. Their enthusiasm for life was unmatched from anyone else.

"So what do you think?" Barry finally asked Harry.

Harry turned his tablet around. "If you want to get across that, you'll have to go that fast."

"That fast is impossible," Barry said, nearly having a heart attack when seeing the numbers.

"Aren't you the one who always said you _were_ the impossible?" Caitlin reminded him. Barry glared over his shoulder at her and Caitlin held her hands up defensively, taking a step back. "Just saying."

"You'll be fine, Barry," Cisco said, taking a step up beside Caitlin. "We're like…70% sure that you'll make it all the way across." Barry gave him a look and Cisco elbowed Caitlin in the side. "Cait, help me out here."

Caitlin grimaced for a minute as she thought about the outcome. She looked at Barry, then at the gorge, then back to Barry. "If you don't think you'll make it—"

Cisco immediately cut her off, raising his hand in front of her mouth. "Not helping," he declared.

Barry then turned to Cadence, who continued to look over the water, her eyes shifting back and forth. Watched as the water rolled over the top of the waterfall and into the basin below. It looked like a far jump to make even from where she stood and she could teleport straight across if she wanted to. Feeling Barry's eyes on her, Cadence turned to him and nodded. "What's life without risk?" She asked. "Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind."

Barry lifted an eyebrow. "How long have you been waiting to say that?"

Cadence pecked his cheek before addressing Harry, "You think he's ready for this?"

"With as fast as we've seen him go, there's always room for improvement," Harry explained. He reached up, pulling down the brim to the baseball cap that sat on his head and nodded. "He's ready."

"Yeah, there's no time like the present, right?" Jesse agreed.

Barry sucked in another deep breath, this time holding it tight in his chest. Then he nodded, pulling his hood back up. There was no time like the present. The longer he hesitated, the less chance he had of actually going to accomplish anything. _Remember, you're trying to stop Zoom,_ he reminded himself. _Trying to save the Man in the Mask._ He walked to the edge of the gorge and peered over it once more. Then he took a few steps back to give himself some more space. Then he crouched low, putting himself into a crouch position, steadying his muscles to get ready. He concentrated hard, focusing on the Speed Force moving through his body.

Then he raced forward, careening towards the end of the gorge and leapt off, windmilling his arms as he flew across the gorge. For a moment, it looked like he was going to make it to the other side. But then he started to fall, making Caitlin and Jesse let out shrieks of surprise. Harry's eyes widened and a simple, "Oh, damn," escaped his lips. Cadence reached out and grabbed onto Cisco's arm and he waved her off, grabbing a remote-control box from the ground. He jammed his thumbs into the joy sticks and a set of drones with a net between them flew into the gorge and hovered beneath him.

Barry grunted as he collided with the net and grabbed onto it for dear life. Turning his head, he pressed his face into the net, working to catch his breath. It'd been scarier than he thought it'd be, falling towards the gorge like that. Who knows what would've happened had it been that he was doing the same while fighting against Zoom. Zoom would've made sure to use the combination of water and electricity to shock him.

Barry closed his eyes, the memory of Zoom absolutely trashing him in his cell came to mind once more. He could still feel the way Zoom's fists rained down on him, his body crashing into the walls of the cell with as much power as he'd ever felt exerted upon his body. He could still see the way Zoom's eyes glowed with manic fury as he continued to race the two around the small space, how he held Barry by the neck and squeezed as hard as he could, keeping him pressed against the wall behind him.

"Barry, you can open your eyes now."

Caitlin's voice broke Barry out of his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he found himself sitting on the ground by the gorge once more. When had they gotten him out? Barry looked up at Caitlin's face in front of him, her kind eyes shining as she checked his body for any injuries. She smiled at him and Barry was suddenly struck with an image of Killer Frost smiling evilly at him, her ice blue eyes trained on him. Quickly, Barry shook his head and looked away. _No, Killer Frost doesn't exist here,_ he reminded himself.

"Thanks," he said to her, taking her hand to be pulled up. He had to focus on how warm her hand was, not cold like Killer Frost's.

"No problem." Caitlin dropped his hand and turned to Cisco with a nod. "I hate to say it, but good job with the drone net."

Cisco smiled smugly. "And you thought it was a bad idea."

Harry rolled his eyes. "To think we thought you would just want to play with your toys when we have so much more important things to deal with." He turned and placed the tablet on the table that was set up beneath a tent, filled with other STAR Labs equipment. "How wrong were we." The sarcasm in his voice was not lost on Cisco, who stuck his tongue out at Harry, making Jesse giggle quietly. She pressed her lips together when Harry glared at her.

"Well, it's going to take some time for him to get up to speed," Jesse said. "No pun intended. But I think it might be more important to continue training. That way, you'll have something to fall back on if getting faster just doesn't cut it. Like the way you tricked Zoom into you getting out of that enclosure." Barry nodded. Maybe it really was like his father had suggested, that they just needed to get a mental edge over Zoom to win. It had worked against him before. Jesse shrugged and continued with, "Zoom is so powerful that he may put Barry and Cadence out of commission."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Jesse," Cadence said. She mulled over, Jesse's comment. "She has a point, though," she said to Barry. "We haven't trained against each other in a while. Maybe it'd help to try to think like Zoom."

"If you want to think like Zoom then the only thing you need to think about is mass murder and wanting to kill Harry," Cisco quipped. "Though I think everyone can agree with Zoom that we could all live without Harry." He smiled sweetly when Harry glared over at him, resulting in Caitlin elbowing him in the side.

Barry nodded. He'd heard her, but his mind was still on Zoom and Earth-2 and the gorge he couldn't get across. What good was he if he couldn't get past whatever was blocking him? His hands clenched into fists. _It's not anything, Barry, you're scared,_ he admitted to himself. _Scared that you're never going to beat him and all your hard work will be for nothing._ Finally, Barry said, "Sounds good."

"Just try not to electrocute me," Cadence said.

"I can't promise that," Barry replied.

The two backed across the clearing and let out deep breaths to settle their nerves. Then Barry clenched his hands into fists and waited for the first move to be made. He could do it, but forced himself to hold back. If things were going to be like they were fighting Zoom, then Zoom would most certainly make the first move. And so Barry waited. Cadence waited as well, before finally deciding to take the first shot. Instead of teleporting, like Barry had suggested, she brought up her arms and sent rapid-fire fire balls to Barry. Barry ran out of the way but Cadence continued to follow him wither fire balls, making him run faster and faster to avoid it.

Her fireballs continued to blend together until a pyre to form around him. Barry skidded to a stop before he ran head first into a fire wall. He twisted around, beads of sweat immediately popping up on his skin as he found himself completely enclosed from it. Squinting through the shimmering air around him, Barry thought he saw Cadence and started to run towards her, but found himself punched upside the head. He fell to the ground and was kicked from the other side.

Barry rolled across the clearing, coming to a stop on his side. He blinked, wanting to rub his eyes when he saw three Cadence's standing in front of him. Then he shook his head, remembering what she'd told him about her new ability to do heat mirages. Only one of them was real. Barry watched them come closer then everything started to move in slow motion. Inch by inch the three Cadences started to lift their feet, to continue walking towards him.

Barry pushed himself up and watched them. He blinked once, twice, three times. What looked to be little white lines swirled around him and Cadence. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize what was happening. The arrows zig-zagged around before they slowly formed into place. And it gave Barry all the information he needed. He could see exactly where Cadence was going to move and what would happen next when she did so, she was going to use all three forms of herself to flank him on all sides with two of them simultaneously projecting blinding smoke into him before imploding the ground below him, sending him flying. Then she'd use a combination of fire and lightning to send a shockwave through his body, leaving him on the verge of consciousness.

With that newfound information, Barry came up with a quick counter-measure. He flipped over, lightning crackling down his arms. He brought his hands up just as Cadence did the same. Everything moved at normal speed. At the same time Barry snapped his fingers, sending the lightning down his arm and out of his fingertips, the heat mirages started up a cloud of smoke. The lightning combined with her heat combustion created a mini-implosion in front of her. Cadence was knocked off her feet by the shockwave and Barry raced forward, holding out his arm. He caught her around the neck and bent her back towards the ground. The smoke cleared for Caitlin, Cisco, Harry, and Jesse to see Barry's knees pressed to the ground with his arm wrapped around Cadence's neck and Cadence bent back into a bridge position, using her firmly planted feet and Barry's grasp on her to keep her up.

Surprised, her eyes shifted over to Barry. "How'd you know I was going to do that?" She asked.

"I don't know," Barry replied. It all happened so fast. Almost like his body was moving on auto-pilot.

"Barry?"

"What?"

"Let go of my neck."

Relinquishing his grasp, Barry right the two back up with a burst of speed. "Sorry," he apologized while Cadence rubbed her neck, shooting him a glance.

"What happened, Barry?" Caitlin asked.

"I saw something," Barry said slowly.

"What as it? Zoom? The Black Flash?"

He shook his head. "No, I…" he took a deep breath, eyes shifting over the ground. "I saw something when we were fighting. It was like…everything slowed down around me. Then there were these little arrows that showed me what Cadence was going to do before she did it. That gave me the upper hand to stop her attack."

"Accelerated Perception," Cisco nodded. "Sounds like with your speed you were able to figure out what was going to happen before it happened." He rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Just imagine what we can do with that with Zoom."

"Barry'd have to work on it first," Caitlin pointed out. "It's not like this is something that'll happen every time he's in a fight. And with Zoom being even faster…chances are he'll be able to do the same thing. That might've been why he was able to defeat him so easily."

"Or knew how to keep the others from double crossing him when we were on Earth-2," Jesse added.

Cadence sighed heavily, bringing her hands up to rest atop her head. "Is there anything else we can do? We keep having questions but not getting a lot of answers."

"If we can't rely on Barry's new ability until we know he can control it, then it has to be his speed," Cisco said.

"Okay, so what haven't we done to ensure that I'm going at my top speed?" Barry asked. There was renewed vigor in his voice. Now that he had an idea of what could help them once he worked on it, his speed was the end-all be all of success. He knew he was starting to become obsessed, but not having as clear of an answer to stop Zoom like what happened with the Reverse-Flash, was starting to drive him crazy. "Why won't we try factoring in drag?"

Harry nodded, as if agreeing with Barry, then surprised the speedster when he said, "You can try dropping it for a bit and taking a break."

"I need to find a leg up," Barry insisted.

"Let it go for now."

Barry frowned. "I can't let it go. Zoom's still out there."

"And we're all falling apart," Cisco insisted. He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, look at that!" He held out his hand where a few strands of hair lay. "I'm so stressed that my hair is falling out." Jesse started to point out that it was probably what would've fallen off his head anyway, and he cut her off with a raised palm. "Not the point, Jesse, not the point."

"So what _is_ your point?" Caitlin asked.

"That we need some time off. We've been running ragged since coming back from Earth-2 and we're all falling apart. With all this Zoom stuff, I know I'm not getting any sleep. And Caitlin's starting to look like Dracula's cousin." Caitlin glared at him and he smiled sheepishly. "And I mean that in the best way possible, you're looking absolutely lovely today." Seeing that the crisis was averted, Cisco mimed wiping sweat off his forehead and said, "But what I'm saying is we need to forget everything for a little bit and just have fun. And by have fun I mean, head out to the clubs and go dancing!"

"Yes!" Cadence agreed, giving him a high-five.

"Let's go Team Flash, let's get turnt!"

Barry burst out laughing while Cadence withdrew her hand from Cisco and regarded him with an expression filled with horror. "And I thought Barry saying things were his 'jam' was nauseating." Barry nudged her on the shoulder and Cadence smiled. "But I'm so with you, we need a night off to blow off some steam and I'm so there for dancing. My mom can watch Brady tonight before she heads back to Metropolis so I'm free."

Barry tried not to blush, remembering his ill-fated meeting with Cadence's mother. It didn't help that it seemed that Maya was extra nice to him when he was around. He'd been so embarrassed that when he finally regained feeling in his body and changed back into his clothes, he couldn't look her in the eye. When she went into the kitchen to heat up the food Cadence offered to her, Barry mumbled, "You could've told me she was here."

"I tried to," Cadence defended herself. "But you were a little preoccupied."

"I didn't know she was back," Barry said, changing the subject a little. He kept his eyes on a spot on the floor in front of him.

"She got back earlier today and stopped by here to get some rest before heading off to Metropolis," she said. "She was sleeping in my room." A light laugh escaped her lips and Barry glared at her, letting her know he didn't think it was funny. "I'm sorry, I should've told you she was here before. But it's not that bad."

"Then you have a different definition of what 'bad' means," Barry said. He ran his hands over his face. He could feel it burning behind his palms. "I thought my life was going a too smoothly for something like this to happen."

"It could've been worse."

"How?"

"I could've been at your house, hanging out, and Joe could've seen me in my underwear and stupidly asked what I was doing at your place so early. Oh wait, that happened, too!"

And finally, Barry started to smile at her sarcasm. Thankfully, since then, no one had brought it up or else he'd have Caitlin's, Cisco's, and even Iris's commentary on the situation. He'd been so good at not thinking about it, either. Maybe the others were right, though. They really needed to take some off and to just forget everything and looking at the excitement on Cisco's, Cadence's, and Jesse's faces was slowly starting to sway him.

It wasn't until Caitlin said, "I even want to go and if I'm saying we need a break, you know it's serious," swayed him.

"Okay, looks like we're going out tonight," he finally said.

"Yes!" Cisco cheered, pumping his fists. "Don't worry, I know all of Central City's hot spots. I'll narrow them down to see which one is the best one to go to for a night we'll never forget." He started to do a two-step dance. "And we're going to tear up that dance floor."

"Sounds great," Jesse agreed. She turned to Harry, eager eyes wide. "I can go, right?"

Harry snorted. "Over my dead body."

"Just because we're stuck here on this Earth doesn't mean that I can't try new things and meet new people," Jesse pleaded. She clasped her hands together. "And I'm going to be with Barry and these guys and you know they'll keep me safe. They're nice people, you said so yourself."

"Did he?" Caitlin smirked. "I think that's the best complement we've ever gotten from you."

"I've had plenty more, I've just never said them out loud," Harry said. He busied himself with packing up the equipment. "Usually when I want to, you're all doing or saying something that immediately makes me change my mind."

Cadence spoke up, placing her hand on Jesse's shoulder. "Harry, if anything happen you know Barry or I could get Jesse back to STAR Labs within a tenth of a second. And you can't expect to keep her locked up her entire life, if she could stare down Zoom and not give up hope on you finding her, then she can handle herself at a little nightclub."

Harry turned and glared at her while Jesse smiled her thanks towards the fire metahuman. "You're not helping," he said through gritted teeth.

"I did say I'd watch out for her while she was here," Cadence said. She was about to add 'like a sister' but cut herself off.

She hadn't known Jesse long enough to even, truly think of her that way. Though she hadn't been lying when she said she'd be there for Jesse as a sister if she wanted. But Jesse would have to be the one to make that move. There was no need in overstepping any boundaries. "And if you can't trust her with us, who can you trust her with?"

Harry pressed his lips together. "The National Guard," he said. He looked at the faces of the young adults standing in front of him and rolled his eyes, noticing they all looked up at him with picture perfect images of innocence. He muttered something that sounded like, "I'm surrounded by idiots" under his breath then said, "Fine!" making Jesse squeal in delight. "But don't come crying to me when something happens."

"What could go wrong?" Barry asked.

Barry's head jerked back in surprise when the sound of the thumping music of the nightclub filled his ears. He tightened his grasp on Cadence's hand, leading the way through the throng of other young adults who were covering the already crowded dance floor, spilling out to the tables that surrounded it. He wedged his way to the bar and Caitlin, Cisco, Jesse, and Ryder all filed in after him. He looked around the colorful lights that danced around before grabbing the attention of the bar tender to order a round of kamikaze shots.

"Toast?" He asked them.

"To having a normal, fun night out?" Ryder suggested.

"I don't think 'normal' is ever going to be normal for us, Ry," Cadence pointed out.

"Okay, so to a moderately standard, but equally awesome night out," Cisco suggested. The group smiled and clinked their glasses together, tilting their heads back to take the shot. At least, Jesse tried. Right when she was about to put the glass to her lips, Barry reached out and slapped his hand atop the opening.

"Sorry, but you're underage and known of us want to get murdered by your father tonight," he said.

Cadence smiled to her. "If he's anything like my Harrison, then it's all talk and no show," she said.

Jesse nodded. "The girl is right. Dad's all bark and no bite."

"Funny, Cade's all bite and no bark," Cisco teased. "I'm more afraid of a tiny Chihuahua."

"Yeah? Let's see how this Chihuahua shames you with her dance moves then." Cadence reached across the bar and grabbed onto Cisco's hand. She dragged him off onto the dance floor with Cisco grabbing onto Caitlin to come along with them.

Barry smiled, watching his friends have fun. Then he noticed that Ryder hadn't done with them. "You aren't going to dance?" He asked.

Ryder shook his head. "No way, man. I'm not a dancer and Cade can attest to that. I've got two left feet."

"You're not the only one."

"I heard you're a regular twinkle toes."

Barry shrugged modestly. "I can dance if it's choreographed and even do some slow dancing. Everything else…" he shook his hand back and forth. "You don't ever want to see it."

"I'll take your word for it." Ryder then nodded to the side. "Hey, there's Iris."

Barry leaned away from the bar and waved his hand to catch Iris's eye. Her eyes lit up and she nodded, squeezing her way through the crowd with Wally right behind her. "Hey, you made it," Barry greeted her, giving her a tight hug. He hadn't realized how little time he'd spent with her lately until they. They'd both been so busy with their work. "I thought you had to work late."

"I did, but Wally convinced me to come out," Iris said, motioning to her brother, who stood off to the side, looking around. "He said I was being a stick in the mud because I was trying to reach this deadline."

"An important story?" Ryder asked.

"Yeah, I'm still looking into this Natalie Ramirez chick," Iris explained. "There's just something weird about it. I haven't been making much headway, but there's all of this stuff about The Flash I'm working on, too."

"What about him?" Jesse asked.

"Well, my boss wants me to write about how The Flash isn't working as well as he used to. You know…with Geomancer and everything." Iris looked at Barry out of the corner of her eye, an apologetic expression. "So many people are turning against him now it's unbelievable. The people I work with, the ones who used to be as excited about The Flash as I am are jumping on the chance to write scathing stories about him."

Barry tried not to let his disappointment show. It was enough he wasn't making a lot of progress, but to know that even more were starting to turn on him was even worse. Wally, thankfully, took his attention away from the subject as he remarked, "This is an interesting place you decided to come to," he said.

"Yeah, I don't go out very much…" Barry explained.

"That's obvious," Wally teased. Jesse laughed, bringing Wally's attention to her. "I'm sorry, I'm Wally West, Iris's brother." He held out his hand and Jesse grabbed it, shaking it firmly.

"I'm Jesse."

"Are you new here? I don't think I've ever seen you around before."

"Yeah, I, uh, just moved here," Jesse explained. How true that was. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "There's a lot to get used to. I've only been here for a week and it's like I'm from a completely different world."

"I know that feeling very well," Wally agreed. "I just recently moved here from Keystone. It's not that far away but I totally understand the different world thing. It's kind of like everything moves at a different pace."

"So much faster," Jesse agreed.

Wally smiled. He held her gaze for a moment then blinked, looking away. "Can, I, uh, get you a drink?"

"Oh." Jesse blushed. "I can't, I, uh, I'm a little too young."

"Well, I'll get you a soda then."

"Thanks!"

Wally and Jesse moved further down the bar while Ryder, Iris, and Barry all exchanged glances with each other. Iris folded her arms, gently shaking her head. "He knows he's still dating Linda, right?" Ryder asked.

Iris glanced at him. "Between you and me, Wally and Linda haven't really been working out lately."

"What?" That was the first Barry had heard about it. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, with this whole thing with us and my dad, Wally's not really opening to Linda and Linda's not taking it very well." Iris brought a hand up to her mouth. "Please don't say anything, Wally and Linda both told me in confidence. I'm just a little worried about them."

"Do you think they're going to break up?" Barry asked.

Iris shrugged. "I don't know. But when you invited Wally out, he jumped at the chance." She spread her arms. "And Linda's not here and he seems to be hitting it off with Jesse." She smiled. "They kind of make a cute couple, though." The song suddenly changed and Barry groaned while Iris's eyes lit up. It was Iris's favorite song and, as usual, he knew he was going to be dragged into dancing to it with her, like what always happened. He _hated_ this song. "I _love_ this song! Come on!" She took off her leather jacket and draped it over a nearby table, clutching her purse in her hands. "Let's dance."

"I don't think so," Barry said quickly. "You know why."

"Baby," Iris teased. She questioned Ryder, "What about you?"

"No, I don't dance."

"Your ex is a dancer and a cheerleader, how do you not dance?" Iris demanded.

Ryder slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "The same way I didn't realize I had to ask my girlfriend to homecoming." Barry's eyebrows rose in his laughter and Ryder shook his head. "Don't ask, it's a long story."

"And you can tell us between songs, let's go!" Iris grabbed onto Barry's and Ryder's arms and dragged them onto the dance floor where Cisco expertly spun Cadence and Caitlin around him in tight circles. Once Barry made it onto the dancefloor, he already felt himself starting to loosen up. When was the last time he'd had a chance to have fun and not stress? Long enough he couldn't remember.

He grasped Caitlin's hand on another one of her rotations and pulled her away from Cisco, who was now enthusiastically whipping his hair back and forth all the while Cadence ignored him, actively turning her back as if to say she wasn't associated with Cisco's very excitable dancing.

"Thank you," Caitlin gasped, clasping Barry's hands as they rocked back and forth. "I was already starting to fall behind. I knew Cisco liked to dance but he's really got the footwork."

"The footwork's not a problem," Barry joked. "It's the upper half that needs some work." They looked over at Cisco, who now had a sizeable crowd around him and laughed. Barry focused back on the song, moving his body along with the beat the pulsed out through the speakers.

Song after song went by and soon with Wally and Jesse joining them on the dance floor, the group was complete. The music increased in volume and soon Barry could hardly hear anyone talking about him. But he didn't' care, he was having too much fun, jumping, spinning, and dancing along with everyone else.

That was, until a bolt of light caught his eye. It darted from the left side of the dance floor to the right, swirling back and forth and around the club goers, whipping wind around everyone as they did so. Finally, with rapid eye movement, Barry caught sight of someone running through the crowd.

A speedster.

They moved fast enough that whomever they moved by were knocked to the ground. Seconds later, the lightning left the club, leaving a screaming, surprised pile of clubgoers in its wake. Wally reached out, grabbing Jesse's arm to pull her to her feet. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jessie said. She reached for her hip then looked around. "No, I'm not, my purse is gone."

Iris gasped, looking at her now empty hand. "So's mine," she said. Caitlin slapped her hands down to her waist and Cadence nodded in agreement. They had been targeted by the speedster as well. Cadence turned and locked eyes with Barry before the two backed into the crowd and raced out of the club once they were out of sight.

Rocks skidded under Barry's feet, spraying out in all directions. He pumped his arms, racing after the speedster in front of him. He turned his head to look behind him, Cadence was hot on his heels, using her teleportation ability to aid her running to keep up. Barry looked forward once more coming up beside the Speedster. When he reached its side, he gasped in surprise when she smiled back at him before putting on an extra burst of speed and running out of sight.

Barry came to a stop with Cadence stopping next to him. "Did who see who it was?" She demanded.

"I have no idea who the hell it is," Barry said. He swallowed hard.

All he knew was it wasn't good if she was faster than him.

* * *

"Facial recognition hasn't identified her yet, but we at least know it's a her," Caitlin said the next morning at STAR Labs. She rested her chin in her hands. "Now all we have to do is narrow it down to someone who could be Zoom's henchmen."

"How can facial recognition get if she was wearing a mask?" Cadence tilted her head, watching Caitlin's computer screen shuttle through a bank of faces.

"With the parts of the face the program was able to get from pictures that've been flooding in, it'll try to guess the closest match," Cisco pointed out. "But, like Caitlin said, it may be a breacher."

"We closed all the breaches, remember," Cadence pointed out. "Even the one we used when we came back from Earth-2. There couldn't be any other metas that Zoom's brought over from there."

"Then it must be a meta from here," Barry remarked. He leaned against the side of Cisco's and Caitlin's work desk, his eyes on the floor just behind it. "A speedster can only be made from the particle accelerator explosion."

"Not for sure," Cadence reminded him. "I became a meta without the explosion." Though her powers probably had gotten a boost when she had been hit by the wave. As far as she knew, Brady received his powers from the explosion, but having been a meta before being in Central City always made that theory hard to determine as fact. There were similar events surrounding hers and Barry's powers, however, both having been put in a life or death situation when the powers were manifesting.

"Yes, but for a speedster? That's the only way."

Caitlin chewed her lower lip quietly. Cadence glanced at her, noticing the movement, then peered closer. The bioengineer wrung her hands in her lap and she gently shook her knees back and forth. To the untrained eye she would've been worried about the stolen purse that had yet to be retrieved. But Caitlin knew her well enough to know she was worried about something else, something she was hiding. "What's wrong, Cait?" She asked.

Sighing, Caitlin said, "There's another way a speedster can be made," she explained. "With Velocity-6," she said.

"Yeah, the stuff that Brady shot into me when Cade was kidnapped by the Turtle," Barry agreed with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Yes, but, I also managed to make a better version of the serum," Caitlin said. "Velocity-9. Jay used it when you were gone on Earth-2 to save Brady, Conner, and Leah." Cadence's eyes narrowed as she watched her friend. Why would that make her so worried? "The thing is, though. I found out that Jay is sick, where Barry's cells can regenerate, creating his healing factor. Jay's were deteriorating at a rapid pace."

"What does that mean?" Cisco asked. Caitlin was silent for a long moment. Cisco reached out and grabbed onto her hand, lacing his fingers in with hers. "We need to know, Cait. Good or bad," he murmured.

"It means that his taking the Velocity-6…it was killing him," Caitlin admitted. "And because of that, he knew the risks when taking Velocity-9, but…he took it anyway and now he's dying." She stood up, seeing the stunned expression on Barry's face. "I would've told you, but—"

"—but Velocity-6 hasn't been doing anything to me," Barry pointed out. "I've been faster because of it."

"You have been," Harry agreed. "But that doesn't mean that you're not in as much risk as Jay. You're stronger than he was, Barry. As far as we know, it's only a matter of time until your Velocity-6 dosage starts to affect you."

"That explains why Brady was so distraught," Cadence said, suddenly remembering how quickly Brady had agreed not to do anything when he wasn't told to anymore. Saying something about not wanting other people to get hurt. "He put the Velocity-6 in you, he's afraid you're dying."

"But I'm not, I feel fine," Barry insisted.

"For now," Caitlin reminded him.

"So why don't we run a test on his cells?" Cadence asked.

"I've been looking at them since I found out what was going on with Jay. And while nothing's changed yet, we can't be certain that nothing ever will change," Caitlin insisted. "It's only a matter of time until we see something."

Barry brought his hands up to his hair and turned his back on his friends. Cadence lowered her chin, thinking. Jay had taken Velocity-6 and it was causing his cells to deteriorate. Then he took Velocity-9 to help save her son and it was even more powerful than Velocity-6. By an easy deduction it meant his body was deteriorating faster. And if that was the only way to make a speedster…

"How would this speedster have gotten the formula?" She finally asked. Caitlin looked at her. "You said you were able to make Velocity-9 and that Jay used it, and that this was the only way they were able to make a speedster without an explosion, how would they have gotten their speed?"

Caitlin blanched even further. "At one point, I needed some help in creating the drug. There were little things I was missing that wasn't making it work so I asked a colleague of mine at Mercury Labs for assistance. Eliza Harmon."

"Wait, so she knows how to make it?" Barry asked.

"No," Caitlin said firmly. "I never told her how. I followed the protocols…I only gave her three of the eight components needs to make the V-9 recipe."

Barry glanced at Cadence, who used her powers to test Caitlin's body temperature levels. They were normal. She was telling the truth. Cadence nodded and Barry nodded back. Now that they had an idea of what it was to make a speedster… "Then she probably knows how to reverse engineer it," Harry concluded. "And what's a scientist that doesn't run their own tests when there are no guinea pigs around?"

"So you think she injected herself with her own speed serum?" Cisco asked.

"Wouldn't you? If you had the chance?" Cadence replied.

"I don't know, I've never thought about it."

"Then we need to test it out ourselves," Barry finally concluded. "To see how fast I can go with it. We'll go to the Ferris Air Strip and test it there. Test for drag, anything that'll make me go faster."

"What?" Cisco practically yelped.

Even Cadence looked at him in shock. Caitlin stood up and walked over to Barry until she was standing directly in front of him. "Barry, Velocity-9 could _kill_ you." Her voice quivered with emotion. "Do you get that? We don't know how fast or slow it'll work on you."

"Yeah, what if you take it and it stops your heart or something?" Cisco asked.

"Then I can heal him," Cadence spoke up. Her friends turned her way and she explained, "With his healing powers combined with mine, if anything happens, it can combat what happens."

"You can't guarantee it'll work," Harry warned.

"We've never been able to. But if we don't try, we'll just be sitting here, twiddling our thumbs." If she were being completely honest, she didn't like the idea one bit. There were too many risky factors that needed to be considered and so far, it looked like Barry would be on the receiving end of said risks. But…it was what he wanted to do and as his friend, as his partner, she needed to support him whether she agreed with it. Just like he'd supported her with her decisions he didn't quite agree with. "Whatever you decide, I'm right behind you."

Barry nodded. He waited, hoping no one else would question him. He didn't care anymore. He just didn't care. There were enough people that had been murdered on Earth-2, probably more now that the days were passing and here was his one chance to maybe get faster. It wasn't guaranteed he'd suffer the same consequence as Jay, he hadn't had any of his cells die off yet, it may not even happen. Still, Barry knew it was a tough decision to make, all without the rest of his team. So he waited for someone to say something.

When they didn't he said, "We'll meet at the Air Field in a half hour."

They ran test after test of Barry's speed at the air field. They tested him running at his slowest speed, not tapping into his powers, his slowed speed when tapping into his powers, what would be considered his middle speed, and his absolute top field. With and without drag, where Barry insisted on holding Cadence on his back as he ran. They studied his cells after each trial run, with each of the results showing nothing changed between each one.

Then it was time for Barry to try Velocity-9. With a Tachyon device attached to his chest, to separate the power of the Speed Force from the power of Velocity-9, Barry held the device above his wrist right where a vein was situated. He took in a couple of deep breaths, trying to steel himself for the prick and shot of adrenaline.

He sucked in a deep breath through his nose and looked over at his friends as they stood behind their STAR Labs equipment. They looked back at him, waiting for the inevitable. Barry then turned to Cadence, who adjusted her goggles over her eyes, and nodded. He nodded back and slowly pressed the needles into his skin. Then, with a quivering thumb, Barry pressed it firmly into the top of the injector.

All at once Barry felt he was slapped with an invisible hand of power, seconds before it moved through his body, illuminating every muscle and synapse in his body. His eyes shone with lightning and he moved into a crouched position with Cadence grabbing onto his back. Barry turned his head back to look at his friends and Harry nodded.

Barry returned the gesture before taking off like a bullet.

In a matter of seconds he was far from Central City, leaving a sonic boom in his wake. He ran and ran, numerous landscapes shooting by him before a blue breach opened in front of him. The light blinded Barry for a second, before it disappeared and streets he didn't recognize whizzed by him.

"What happened?" Cadence shouted. Her fingers dug into Barry's shoulders as the nearly gale force winds whipped by her. She was sure she'd fall off the second she let go of him, injuring her faster than she could teleport.

"I don't know." Barry replied over the howling gusts of wind as he continued to run, the world a blur around him.

Cadence was about to respond when something caught her eye. Despite everything moving by in a blur the unordinary image of two girls galling from a building was something she couldn't miss. Quickly, Cadence pointed them out. "Barry!"

"I see them."

Barry rapidly changed direction and raced up the face of the building. With outstretched arms, he grabbed the older blonde while Cadence grasped the younger brunette. Turning, Barry ran back down the building and kept going until he left the city and reached a set of fields.

"Barry, stop!" Cadence shouted. With the new addition of Velocity-9 in his system, hanging on as he raced around wasn't as easy as it used to be. And her stomach was certainly starting to feel the change. She hadn't felt that nauseous from his speed since the very first day they met.

"I-I can't." Barry said. His legs carried him forward until he slammed to a stop, pitching everyone to the ground. Cadence quickly turned to the side and stared to throw up, while the others disentangled themselves from their heap on the ground.

The blonde woman rolled her neck, brushing off her clothes. Barry's eyes widened when he noticed the front of her blouse was suddenly on fire. He moved to aid in patting out the flames then stopped, noticing the scorching area was over her breasts and quickly pulls his hands back.

"I-Nope. I'm-Uh...Cade?" Barry asked looking back over to his partner who was down on all fours.

"Kind of busy," Cadence mumbled.

"Ok, I guess..." Barry said, turning around and ready to put out the flames, only to find that the blonde had already put them out herself.

"You didn't need to save me," The blonde said.

"You just fell from a skyscraper." Barry chuckled. "If we hadn't been there, you would have gone splat." He clapped his hands together for added affect.

"Is this guy for real?" The teenager asked looking the man in the red suit up and down with a frown. The blonde shook her head before motioning to the teen, the two leaping up into the air at a rapid pace. Barry shielded his face with his arm, keeping the dust away.

"How'd you do that?" Barry breathed. He'd seen it once before but…he didn't know there was anyone else on their Earth that was like Superman. Not since his colleagues had all disappeared or gone into hiding.

"We're Supergirl and Deity," The teenager said with a hint of 'duh' in her tone.

Barry tilted his head to the side. "You're who now?"

There was a blast of smoke that made Supergirl and Deity jump when Cadence appeared by Barry's side. "You could have waited for me," she muttered, wiping at her mouth.

"Sorry," Barry apologized to her.

"Sorry. We were just a little...disoriented after the electric shock. How did you save us?" Supergirl asked. Her eyebrows furrowed together as she looked back and forth between Barry and Cadence.

"Well..." Barry hesitated for a moment. "You fell out a window. And I,"—Cadence cleared her throat—"I mean we caught you, before...running you all the way out here, which I did not mean to do."

"Yes... But..." Supergirl trailed off, glancing at Deity, then the two harmonized as they asked, "Who are you?"

"We're Flash and Flare," Cadence explained. Beside her, Barry grinned and nodded.

Supergirl's eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "Who and who now?"

Cadence frowned. That was weird. No matter where they went on their Earth, people had at least heard inklings of The Flash and his partner. News of the MRA had started to spread enough that international outlets were reporting on it and Central City with renewed vigor since the Particle Accelerator first exploded. "Wait...do you not know who we are?"

"Should we?" Deity folded her arms.

Cadence let out an incredulous laugh and pointed to Barry. "Not even him?" She asked, just to be sure.

"Nope."

Cadence smiled a little. "Well at least if everyone forgot about me they forgot about you as well," she teased Barry, making him roll his eyes.

"What about the Green Arrow?" Barry asked the newcomers. "Have you ever heard of him?" He frowned when the girls shook their heads.

"Black Canary?" Cadence added. A bad feeling settled in the pit of her stomach when they shook their heads again.

"Firestorm?"

"Atom?"

"Reverse Flash?"

"Breathtaker?"

"Captain Cold, Heat Wave?"

"Stratos, Mindboggler?"

"Zoom?!" The last one was an outburst form both Barry and Cadence. There was no way they hadn't heard of Zoom. He'd already been terrorizing different Earths, if they heard of someone…still, they received shaking heads in response.

That wasn't good.

"Oh, boy," Barry whispered.

"Way to go Tholly!" Cadence snapped before she could stop herself, throwing her hands into the air. She knew it wasn't entirely his fault. It was hers as well, not talking him out of using Velocity-9. But Barry could be stubborn when he wanted to be and they needed answers. Still, they knew they would've run to…wherever they were, they probably would've thought about it more.

"Cade, you just give away my identity," Barry said through gritted teeth.

"No, but you just gave away mine!" Cadence snapped back. Honestly, who would name their kid 'Tholly' anyway?

"Oops."

Barry sighed and reached up, removing his hood while Cadence dropped her goggles around her neck. "Hey, I'm Barry Allen, fastest man alive." He waved to further show his non-threatening demeanor.

"I'm Cadence Nash, fire metahuman," Cadence introduced herself.

"And...we might be on the wrong Earth," Barry said.

"We're also more than likely going to need your help to get back," Cadence said.

* * *

 **A/N:** Along with this chapter, check out my new, fun one-shot _How Superheroes Set Up Dates,_ it's a deleted scene from this story. I hope you like it. And I hope you also enjoyed this chapter, it was one I've been excited to work on, especially with how it fits with the Velocity stuff and the changes with Eliza and Zoom. And before anyone asks, no, Ryder and Iris aren't going to get together.

So, the portions with Barry and Cadence on Supergirl's Earth is the crossover that _PowerHero432_ and I wrote together. He did the majority of their part on Earth-38 with my input, and I did the majority of their part on Earth-1 with his input. So if you haven't read it in his story, we hope you enjoy it here.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday. Or maybe again on Saturday as a birthday gift to you all.  
****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** You have a good point. Burnout would have Earth-2 Barry as a friend, but she wouldn't have seen it since none of them were as close as they are on Earth-2.

 **yummers:** Thank you, fluff is something I haven't done in a while so I'm glad with BarryCade I can get some practice.

 **Guest:** Yeah, he can't. Maybe I should do more to show Cade's being teased of their relationship a bit.

 **PowerHero432:** Good news is that I've actually figured out a pretty good job that she can change to. Just have to see if everything else will work out as my stories tend to run away from me sometimes, lol.

 **DarkHelm145:** Since I'm sure you're curious about it, the RF part of Barry going back in time during the Pied Piper ep hasn't been skipped, but is moved to a different portion of the story. But yes, their exposition sets up some stuff for later.

 **babyj:** Yes, their differences between their ideals is going to show up and be a little difficult for them to work through and support each other through. But I hope when it gets there it makes sense to their characters and their growth.


	43. Worlds

**A/N:** Deity and Zoey are OCs owned by PowerHero432, all other mentions are Supergirl characters. And as said before, the Supergirl parts are a collab between me and him.

 **.:43:.**

 _Worlds_

* * *

If they were going to be on this new Earth for a while, Barry and Cadence certainly couldn't stay in their suits. Barry raced off to get clothes for him and Cadence, coming back to a longwinded explanation to Kara and Deity how he paid for it, when Supergirl—who finally introduced herself as Kara Danvers-questioned him. It didn't appear that she used her enhanced speed to do so and preferred to wait in lines. Then they'd returned to her place of work, Cat Co. for Barry and Cadence to search their database to determine if there was anyone that could help them.

"What do you mean you're from another Earth? How many other Earth are there other than this one?" Kara asked. She tilted her head, standing behind Barry as he raced through file after file on the computer, hands moving so fast they blurred. "You know, _we're_ Earth."

Barry shook his head. No, they weren't Earth. Not the Earth he and Cadence knew. That much was true from his search results. Nothing. Nothing came up that gave him any hope. "I don't get it," he murmured, turning to Cadence almost completely ignoring their new acquaintances. "There's a Central City here but no STAR Labs." Cadence frowned. "No Cisco Ramon, no Caitlin Snow, no Harrison Wells, and no Tess Morgan. No one to help us get home."

Cadence nodded, taking in Barry's information. There was no one they knew that could help them. But…that also meant there was no Zoom on that Earth. As far as they knew anyway. No Reverse-Flash, no Breathtaker…those small bits of realization gave her a little peace. Not so much that all of her worries went away, but enough so that they could breathe a little easier. Then another thought entered her head. Someone they hadn't thought of searching but probably existed on other Earths.

"I think I know someone who can help." Cadence said, pushing Barry out of the seat so she could type 'Superman' into the search engine. "If they've got Superman here, we can ask him for help." Cadence said with a hopeful look to Barry who seemed to share her optimism, his eyes lightning up. He gripped the back of the chair and leaned towards the screen..

"How do you know my cousin?" Kara asked. The innocence in her voice made Barry and Cadence whip their heads towards him.

Barry's eyebrows came together, his eyes looking her up and down, as if trying to place their resemblance. Kara looked Barry up and down, curiously mimicking his movements.

"You're Superman's cousin?" Barry asked, jaw dropping in surprise.

"Didn't you get that from the 'Super' bit in 'Super' girl?" Deity mocked, making Barry let out a small, embarrassed laugh.

"Wait..." Cadence murmured. It sounded familiar to her. She hadn't been in Metropolis later when Superman was really starting to get his start, but she'd heard inklings and rumors from her connections to her home. "I do remember something about you on our Earth." Cadence said as she lowered her hands from the computer to rest in her lap. "There was a Supergirl in Smallville and Metropolis, but she went missing a couple of years ago."

Kara frowned, with everything they'd learned from Barry and Cadence, it seemed like they were telling the truth about multiple Earths. But to know she was missing on another Earth she'd never been to didn't sound good. She opened her mouth to ask for more information but was cut off by Cadence's low gasp of surprise, her shoulders slumping.

"What? What is it?" Barry leaned around her, making Cadence tilt her head to remove herself form his view. "Oh," he said. She could practically see the disappointment on his face even if she wasn't looking at him.

"What is it?" Kara asked. She studied the picture of Superman then looked at her new acquaintances. From what she could see, it was the same old picture of her cousin.

"That's not Superman," Barry explained. He stood back, running his hands over his hair before leaving them atop his head, fingers laced. "Or at least not _our_ Superman."

"He looks so different," Cadence murmured. She narrowed her eyes at the image in front of her. This Superman certainly looked a little more youthful, though there was also a look to him that was a little more intense compared to the sweet natured one she knew. The sound of the door to the office bursting open immediately had her out of her seat, reeling from the sudden and obvious—to her—increase in temperature of the room.

She and Barry turned around, tensing when they saw three new people coming into the room. Cadence saw Barry clench his hands into fists and her muscles fired up, ready to launch into an attack.

"You guys alright?" The African-American man asked, studying Barry and Cadence with a suspicious eye.

"Yeah, we're fine," Kara said almost flippantly. "What happened to Live Wire?"

"Once she realized that Cat wasn't here she ran off," The young woman explained to her, though her eyes continued to stay on the newcomers

"Who are you?" The other young man asked, pointing to Barry and Cadence.

Barry immediately relaxed. If these guys hadn't started to attack them yet, then they didn't seem to be of any harm to them. Once figuring that out, Barry stood up straight and started to shake everyone's hand, a charming smile on his face. "Hey, sorry, I'm Barry Allen."

"Cadence Nash." Cadence said with a wave of her hand and a friendly smile.

"Winn Schott," the man without tact said.

"James Olsen," The African-American said.

"Lucy Lane," the young woman said, then confirmed Cadence's question of whether she was related to Lois Lane. _Okay, so there are some people still here,_ Cadence thought. _Just not the important ones_. She thought of questioning whether or not Lucy knew of a Golden Glider, they _did_ sort of look similar…

"Um, you guys..." Kara let out a nervous laugh before continuing, "I'm not quite sure how to tell you this...Well, I do know how to tell you, I just-" Kara stammered, unable to keep the excited smile from her face.

"They're from another Earth," Deity blurted out. Kara frowned at her and Deity said defensively, "What? You were taking too long."

Cadence expected disbelief but was surprised when Winn immediately grinned the biggest smile she'd ever seen. "Cool! So that means the theory of the multiverse, that's true?" Winn asked.

"It is," Barry confirmed. "Big time."

"Yeah, I still can't believe it and I'm from another planet." Kara said, making Barry look at her in surprise.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm an alien Hybrid," Deity piped up, raising her hand as if she were waiting to be called on in class.

"Seriously?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah," Kara confirmed. "She's also my Daughter."

Barry's and Cadence's eyes immediately shot open. Barry glanced at her and Cadence quickly looked back at him. She knew she had a kid young, it'd been pointed out to her enough times. But if Kara was about their age and Deity looked to be about fifteen…

"She's adopted," Lucy added.

Cadence immediately relaxed and said, "Oh Good, I was about to get very angry."

Barry quickly elbowed Cadence out of the way to change the subject from a potentially uncomfortable one. "So do you have, like, other Hybrids and aliens on this Earth?" He asked.

"What do you mean _this_ Earth?" James asked with a confused frown.

"Uh…" Barry quickly looked around the room, smiling when he spotted a glass board in the corner. If he was going to explain this, _again,_ then he was going to need some visuals to get his point across. He picked up a pen and motioned to the board. "Just give me a second." Barry quickly drew a few large circles on the board then stepped back to explain.

Cadence groaned, immediately understanding where this was going. She hardly understood when it was explained last time and that was when Professor Stein used his expertise. Barry, however, had a tendency to ramble and it'd probably make things worse. "Not this again."

"All right, so imagine there are multiple versions of Earth," Barry explained, pointing to each of the circles. "One where the Nazis won World War Two. One where Kennedy was never assassinated."

"Oh, one where all of us are evil." Winn spoke up.

Barry's demeanor didn't change visibly, but Cadence noticed it all the same. Darkness entered his eyes and he stooped over just slightly. She could feel her own despair slowly starting to get to her; another reminder of what they'd seen on Earth-2. "Been there, it sucks," Barry said.

"Don't remind me," Cadence added quietly.

Barry nodded slightly then pointed back at the glass board. "So all these Earths occupy the same place in space, but they vibrate at a different frequency so they can't be seen by one another."

"But,"—Winn quickly jumped up to aid in Barry's explanation. "If you can go fast enough then it's possible to open a...a…a breach, and then travel between the worlds!"

"Right," Barry agreed.

"But how could you travel that fast?" Lucy asked with a confused frown. The stunned expression on James's face showed his confusion as well. Even Kara and Deity, who'd seen Barry's speed in action didn't seem to understand his explanation of their travels to their Earth.

Barry turned to Cadence with a confident smirk, she could already see the lightning flash in his eyes. Cadence waved him off. "Go on then," she said, trying to hide her smile. Barry then raced out of the room at super speed, leaving a trail of lightning behind him. Cadence held out her hand when the lightning returned, an ice cream cone appearing in her hand along with everyone else's.

"Awesome!" Deity shouted, jumping up and down. She licked her cone with short, excited licks as the others gazed at their new treats in wonder.

"Show off," Cadence murmured, though she couldn't help but grin when Barry smirked her way. _Any reason to show off._

"So, I was struck by lightning the same night a particle accelerator exploded and I became a Superhero," Barry explained his back story with a modest shrug.

"What about you?" James asked to Cadence as he licked his cone.

"My dad, who may not have been my dad at the time, injected me with something when I got really sick as a kid," Cadence explained. "I got better but it gave me my powers, and years later I met Barry and now I'm a superhero too."

"Wait. What do you mean 'your dad who may not have been your dad at the time'?" Lucy asked in confusion as she tried to piece it together in her head.

"Long story," was all Cadence gave her as she licked her cone. "My family's messed up."

"So does that mean you can just pop back and forth between universes?" Winn asked Barry, returning to the topic he was most interested by. His eyes were wide, ready for Barry's answer.

"No actually, this happened by accident," Barry said sheepishly as he caught Cadence's glare. Clearly the ice cream hadn't been enough to make her forgive him.

"So, basically, you're stuck here." Lucy pointed out causing Barry to wince.

"Yep." Cadence confirmed.

"Don't worry Cadence, we'll help you guys get home," Kara said as she walked over and put her hand on the brunette's shoulder. Cadence flashed her an appreciative smile before looking back to Barry. Her eyes lowered to his chest, suddenly realizing she hadn't known what happened to the Tachyon device since they went through. It was to separate the power of the Speed Force from that of Velocity-9, if it had broken…

"How's the tachyon device looking?" Cadence asked.

The concern must've been evident in her voice because he quickly turned to retrieve it. "Not good," he said after a few long seconds. "Could take a good few hours to fix." He scratched the back of his neck, frowning in confusion. Little pieces along it had spider-like cracks, as if it had been heaved against the ground. Something about them coming through the Earths had broken it but…he couldn't figure out what it was. And knowing there was Velocity-9 in his system that may or may not be slowly killing him…

They needed Cisco now more than ever.

"You need some help with that thing?" Winn asked, pointing to it.

"I'll need some replacement parts but they'll be pretty high tech and unless you guys know of a government facility that would hand them over I don't think I'll be able to find them."

Cadence watched as Kara and her friends all grinned at each other. "What?"

"Come with us. There's something we need to show you," Kara said as she led them out of the office. "And bring your stuff with you." She led the way from the office.

Barry and Cadence fell in step behind her and Barry glanced at Cadence's face. Barry lifted his eyebrows when he saw the unfamiliar expression, but slowly started to smile all the same. "What?" He asked.

"What?" Cadence replied, startled by his question.

"What's with that look on your face?" He pressed.

"What look?"

"The look like…I don't know," Barry said. "Like you're mad about something."

What did she have to be mad about? Cadence said so and Barry insisted. Cadence smirked at him, saying, "You didn't notice the way Kara was looking at you?"

Barry blinked. "When?"

She snorted. "You didn't notice?"

"Notice what, Cade? It's nothing."

"I'm just saying the way she was looking at you while licking that ice cream cone wasn't exactly friendly. Or In this case 'just' friendly," Cadence pointed out.

Barry laughed, putting his hand on Cadence's shoulder and gently shook it. "Look, just because you've been getting your swerve on before the rest of us, doesn't mean we all have our minds in the gutter." He eyed Cadence as she burst out into a peal of laughter so hard that she started to cry. Barry couldn't help but smile. "it's not that funny."

"Get my swerve on?" she repeated, voice high-pitched and squeaky as she continued to laugh. "What does that even _mean_?"

They laughed.

* * *

Their tour of the D.E.O. went by in a blur but still Barry and Cadence picked up every detail as they raced around the secret base. Naturally Barry had the lead with Cadence trailing behind but neither cared as they took in the amazing base of operations.

"Ok, so, this place is amazing!" Barry gasped, taking in everything his eyes could land on. They bounced from thing to thing, not pausing for a second.

"We should really consider partnering up with the government if we get a base like this," Cadence said and the others laugh. Well, if they weren't currently trying to kill them and all other metahumans. "Is that a space ship?" Cadence pointed to the Kryptonian pod resting in the corner of the room.

"Yeah," Kara said fondly. "That's actually my space ship." She grinned at Cadence's comment of, "This place keeps getting better and better."

"Where's your ship?" Barry asked Deity.

"At the bottom of the ocean," Deity said matter-of-fact.

"What's going on in here!" Hank barked his presence as he and Alex Danvers came marching into the room with several other men, all of which had guns aimed at Barry and Cadence. "Who are these two?"

"Barry Allen and Cadence Nash," Barry said as he pulls off his hood, while Cadence pulled her goggles down around her neck.

"Kara what's going on?" Alex asked, folding her arms.

"Who's that?" Barry asked leaning over to Deity.

"That's Alex, she's my Aunt," Deity said with a proud smile.

"Awe, nice to meet you," Barry said. He moved to shake Alex's hand only to have a gun pressed to his chest by a DEO agent. Cadence grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to her side, rolling her eyes at his intimidated stammer.

"So basically, Barry and Cadence are from this other earth," Kara explained.

"So they're aliens?" Hank asked.

"Metas," Barry and Cadence harmonized.

Kara nodded and started up her explanation once more, "They're from this parallel Earth and they're kind of stuck here. So we brought them here so they could fix their device"—Barry held up the Tachyon device—"and go home."

Hank and Alex exchanged glances. Barry watched them nervously. It didn't look like they truly believed what was going on. But if they were the ones who chased after aliens, why would metas be any different. At the moment, he wished Cisco and Caitlin could be there, to see everything on this Earth as well. Cisco would have a field have with it, so would Caitlin, though she'd do her best to appear less enthused. Still, knowing they were back on their Earth put him a little at ease. Just a little; it meant there were people back there that could protect the city from Zoom, but without The Flash and Flare, it probably wouldn't take him too long to notice they were gone and plan accordingly.

They needed to get back and fast.

"Guys come on, they're fine," Kara insisted, breaking Barry out of his thoughts.

"If it helps I'm a doctor on our Earth," Cadence stepped in, trying to sway the decision in hers and Barry's favor.

"And I'm a C.S.I. with the police" Barry added. He lowered his gaze to his feet when Hank turned a hard stare his way.

"Alright, fine," Hank finally said. He nodded towards Alex. "Agent Danvers will assist you in any way she can." He turned on his heel and left the DEO.

Barry cautiously watched the DEO agents leave. He could run faster than a bullet but having a gun pointed in his face from government officials was no less scary. "So can I shake your hand now?" He asked Alex.

"Sure." She smiled and flashed Barry a friendly smile, shaking his hand. "Alex Danvers."

"Barry Allen."

"Cadence Nash." Cadence said, shaking Alex's hand as well. "Who was that?" She lifted her chin to indicate Hank.

"That's Hank, he's the boss around here," Alex replied. She nodded towards the Tachyon device. "What do you need to fix that thing?"

"Not sure yet, do you have a lab where we can work?" Barry asked.

"Right this way," Alex said as she led the group over towards her lab which was right next to the medical room.

"So, do you great all your guests with a gun to the face?" Cadence asked Deity, walking alongside her. Barry shot her a look. Not that she had any room to talk, she'd set fire—a controlled fire, she constantly reminded him—to meet him the first time.

"More or less," Deity said. "My first memory of Hank is actually him wanting to throw me in a jail cell."

She and Cadence laughed.

* * *

"Winn can you pass me the screwdriver?" Barry asked an hour later, leaning over the table the Tachyon device rested on. Winn slapped it into his palm and Barry went to work trying to force a piece together. He looked over at Cadence as she explained things about their Earth to Kara, James, Luc and Deity.

James held his hand over his mouth for a moment before slowly pointing at Cadence. Cadence watched, waiting for his question. It was a lot to go over and she knew it didn't all make much sense. "So you have a son...who can walk through walls?" James asked.

Cadence nodded. "He can do more than that, but, yeah, it's his basic power," Cadence confirmed.

"And he also has a magic slingshot?" Lucy asked with an unconvinced frown.

"Don't let Cisco hear you say that," Barry called over, smiling. Cisco would've probably placed a hand to his chest before going on a rant about how his work was engineering genius and not 'magic'. Cadence laughed in agreement.

"I'm not buying it," Lucy said, shaking her head.

Cadence crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow. "You track down aliens, but a ten-year-old that can walk through walls and has a teched-out slingshot is impossible for you?" Cadence said with a laugh to follow which caused Lucy to smile. How many times had Barry mentioned they were the impossible? Too many times to not immediately flash back to it from time to time.

"So how did you end up here?" Deity asked.

Cadence opened her mouth to respond but stopped. She strained to remember, something in the back of her head…she could almost reach it but it was foggy. "I'm not quite sure…" Cadence said, massaging her temples. Something with the Velocity-9 and the Speed Force… "It's a blur."

"Probably a side effect of going to another universe." Kara suggested.

"Bound to be some right?" Cadence said with a light smile. There certainly was enough having gone back from Earth-2.

"You ok?" Kara asked, noticing the change in Cadence's mood.

"Yeah, I just...I just hope my son's alright," Cadence admitted. She knew he could take care of himself, but after what happened last time, and with a new Speedster on the loose…"I mean, who knows how long we've been gone for? Time works differently on different Earths, who knows how it is here."

"It's going to be fine Cadence, we'll get you home. I promise," Kara said with her optimistic smile.

"Thanks Kara." Cadence smiled back. She then noticed Kara's bright blue eyes, noting that she was cute. Still, she wasn't much of Cadence's type. Cadence looked closer at her, something in the way she stood was strange. Almost as if there was the weight of the world on her shoulders, almost if her smile was hiding something.

Cadence winced when an alarm suddenly sounded, bringing her hands to cover her ears. The DEO agents suddenly ran around the control room, prompting Barry, Cadence, and the others o steam out to see what was going on. Hank stood in front of a monitor, looking up at a transmission of National City.

"What's going on?" Barry asked.

"It appears your old friend Live Wire is at it again," Hank said to Kara and Deity.

"What's she doing?" Kara asked, her voice suddenly taking on a serious tone. Her demeanor had changed as well, to where she stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips, accentuating her biceps.

"So far, she's just attacking the industrial estate," Hank explained. His eyes shifted back and forth across the screen. "Everyone's left the area but we think she's trying to call you out." He and Kara exchanged concerned glances.

"What should we do?" Deity asked, looking at Kara.

"Let's go," Kara said. She and Deity moved to head out.

Barry watched them for a second before saying, "Wait, is that it?" He followed after them, waiting for their response.

"Don't you have a plan or something?" Cadence added. She and Barry stood with each other as Kara and Deity stopped and turned to face them.

"Of course," Kara said. "We catch the bad girl and bring her here so she can't hurt anyone."

"With about a ninety-five percent chance of punching," Deity added, grinning at Kara.

Barry and Cadence exchanged a glance. Then Cadence repeated the question, "Yes, but what's the plan?" She hoped to keep her voice neutral, though her concern was mounting. Going into a fight without a plan was never a good idea. Even when they didn't know much about a meta they were going after, Team Flash always made some semblance of a plan. Oliver really had gotten to them with his suggestions from long ago.

"Well we could try and trap her in,"—Winn trailed off, trying to figure out the best course of action. He snapped his fingers repeatedly before the answer finally came to him. "In...in an industrial capacitator!"

"And were exactly are we going to get one?" Kara asked.

"We can build you one," Barry said, motioning between himself and Winn.

"No," Kara said with a firm shake of her head. "We don't have time. We have to stop her before she hurts anyone else."

"Why don't you take Barry and Cadence with you for back up?" Alex suggested.

"Sure...I-I guess we could," Barry stammered before looking to Cadence who did not seem to share his view. As a matter of fact, she was staring hard at him, like she was annoyed by the mere idea.

"Barry can I talk to you for a moment?" Cadence asked as she grabbed his wrist and dragged him a few feet away. She lowered her voice to ask, "What do you think you're doing? We have to get back to our Earth. Who knows what could have happened while we've been here."

"Yeah," but they need our help." Barry said.

"Not our Earth, not our problem." She snapped back.

Barry blinked at her in surprise. Usually she would've been the first to jump to help. "It's one bad guy Cade. We go there, lock her up, and then head home. What's the worst that could happen?" Barry said with a small smile and shrug of the shoulders.

"You should know what could wrong by now, after everything we've been through," Cadence said, still not convinced. Actually, she was a little confused as to how he was able to push aside what was going on with Zoom so easily.

"Come on Cade. Four versus one, that's like a five second job for us." Barry pleaded. That was true. With his speed and her teleportation ability, they could do things pretty quickly. Finally, Cadence nodded.

"Alright!" Barry grinned. He turned back to Kara and Deity. "We're in."

"Yes! Another team up," Deity squealed before getting a frown from everyone and quieting down, though she could see Winn grinning along with her.

"Thanks. Now come on." Kara said before she and Deity took off leaving a red and yellow trial behind them.

"Here we go again." Cadence muttered as she pulled on her goggles and Barry pulled on his hood. She looped her arm around Barry's neck and he lifted her into his arms, racing after Supergirl and Deity.

* * *

"Alright, so where is she?" Cadence asked when Barry set her down. She couldn't get a good reading of any heat sources coming their way. Barry looked around them, he couldn't see any speed coming towards them either.

"Alex?" Kara asked, touching her ear piece.

"We've lost visual, stay alert?" Alex said through all their ear pieces.

It didn't take long for Live Wire to make her appearance. Her silvery hair stood out against her tanned skin, making her ghoulish smile appear even more sinister. "I see you brought friends, what's the matter, scared to fight me along?" Live Wire taunted, stepping out in front of them.

"You must be joking." Cadence scoffed. Live Wire didn't look to be so menacing. Seconds later, she was flung to the ground, a scream ripping from her throat when Live Wire shot a storm of electricity their way. "Luckily shot."

"Hardly," Live Wire said. Her hands glowed with blue electricity, slowly walking towards the group. When she was close enough. Kara used her heat vision to shoot a fire hydrant into the air. But she didn't get struck by the water at all. Kara was hardly able to get a word of disbelief from her mouth before Live Wire struck her again.

"Supergirl!" Deity raced to her mother while Cadence and Barry moved to fight Live Wire.

"I brought some friends too." Live Wire said, gesturing to the woman behind her. "Meet Killer Frost."

Cadence started, her eyes widening, jaw dropping. She could practically feel Killer Frost's hands around her throat once more. She turned to Barry, who was staring at Killer Frost in surprise. She looked like Caitlin…but not so similar. For a moment, Cadence couldn't tell who she was looking at.

"Catlin?" Cadence whispered.

"Sorry," Killer Frost hissed. "I don't know a Catlin." Killer Frost sent a wave of ice towards Barry and Cadence to punctuate her words.

Barry superspeeded out of the way but Cadence held her ground. She thrust a wave of fire in equal measure back to Killer Frost. Her heart hurt, but she'd said she would stop at nothing to stop Killer Frost if she saw her again. Ice and fire collided, leaving a cloud of ash and mist.

Out the corner of her eye, she saw Live Wire coming up on her vulnerable side to attack. Barry tackled her to the ground before she could do so with a cry of, ""Move Flare!"

Cadence snapped back to Killer Frost and teleported, a large icicle passing through where she'd just been standing. She flicked her wrists, flames licking up her arms and turned to Killer Frost watching as the ice metahuman created a mist around her hands. The two looked at each other for a long moment before launching into a vicious attack. And the only way Cadence could do it was by repeating to herself, _It's not Caitlin._

"You ok?" Deity asked, helping Kara off the ground.

"I will be once we stop them," Kara said. Zoey and Non, two more aliens appeared in front of them.

"Oh, I don't think so," Zoey snarled. She grabbed Deity by the collar and threw her across the street.

"Deity!" Kara shouted. Non stepped in front of her, pushing her back.

"You're dealing with me," Non said, lowering into a fighting stance. Kara lunged forward to punch Non, but he blocked it, making Kara lose her balance. Non swung again but this time Kara ducked and punched Non in the side.

Deity crashed against the chimney, Zoey driving her weight into her. She moved to throw a punch, but Deity wiggled free and kicked Zoey back. They scuffled for a few moments, each trying to get the upper hand, before resulting in using their heat vision at each other, the Zoey's blue and Deity's beams colliding.

"Get off!" Live Wire shouted. She pushed Barry off her with w wave of static, sending him flying.

He crashed to the ground and looked up to see Live Wire taking aim at him again. He propelled himself to his feet and threw lightning at her before she could attack then ran away from the blast she sent. Live Wire growled, trying to follow him, but he kept just out of her reach.

"Gonna have to be faster than that," Barry taunted as he ran.

Cadence threw herself to the ground in the first movement of the worm as Killer Frost's frozen fist came towards her. Cadence then flipped herself back to her feet and upercutted at just the right angle, knocking her under the chin. Cadence quickly followed it up with an illusion kick, narrowly missing Killer Frost when she stumbled back. Regaining her balance, Cadence sent a stream of fire to her opponent, blocked by a stream of ice. Flames flickered through Cadence's eyes and her fire increased, knocking Killer Frost back.

She flipped atop Killer Frost, ready to hold her captive then stopped, getting a good look at Killer Frost's face. She couldn't stand the expression on her face.

Across the way, Barry noticed his partner hesitate and watched as Cadence stood over Killer Frost. The ice meta took her chance to lift her hands to Cadence's bare chest, peeking out from the cut in her suit and froze her with such a strong icy blast that Cadence flew backwards.

A scream of pain ripped from Cadnece's throat when she hit the ground, rolling a few times before stopping in a heap. It burned where she froze, outlines of hand prints on her skin. Her skin was already healing but it burned.

"Flare!" Barry shouted.

Live Wire snuck up behind him and shot him directly in the back with an electrical shock. He was hit hard enough to land next to Cadence, smoke billowing from the scorches in his suit. Cisco would kill him if he could see it.

"You ok?" Cadence asked him, pushing herself up.

"Not really," Barry replied. He looked up at Live Wire and Killer Frost. He'd gone up against an electrical metahuman a few times before and Killer Frost. Something was making it harder for him to fight. But he couldn't quite figure out what it was. Even his new ability of accelerated perception was already failing him.

It took only a second before Kara and Deity were on the ground along with them, overpowered from Zoey and Non. "This isn't working, we have to get out of here." Cadence said, helping Deity up. "Regroup and try again."

"No!" Kara snapped. She pushed herself to her knees. Her entire body trembled but she still got up. "We can do this."

Barry looked at Cadence, torn with concern. If they kept going without a plan, they'd end up seriously hurt. Or worse. This wasn't like going after Zoom where they only needed to go faster. This was something else entirely.

"Supergirl, we need to go," Barry insisted.

"No. I'm not letting them escape." Kara bared her teeth towards the villains. Kara walked towards the group with Deity struggling to follow. She fell to her knees, struggling to get back up. Cadence looked toward Deity and made her decision.

"That's it!" Cadence snapped. She grabbed Kara's arm.

"What are you-" Kara's words were cut off when Cadence teleported.

"Where'd they go?" Deity asked as Barry lifted her up in his arms.

"Same place we're going. Away from here."

* * *

Kara was used to running at superspeed, used to flying, used to leaping massive distances. But teleportation was new to her. Everything shifted instantaneously and the next thing she knew, she was back at the DEO. Then she grew her wits about her, turning to glare at Cadence, who glared back at her.

"What did you do?" Kara demanded. Her chest heaved with effort, anger churning through her. Hanks, Alex, and the rest of her friends moved closer to see what was going on as well.

"What you should have done," Cadence snapped back. She pulled her goggles from her eyes, this time resting them on her forehead. "I got us the hell out of there before something worse happened."

"What's going on?" Hank asked. He eyed the two angry women when they turned to him.

"She pulled me out while we were fighting the bad guys," Kara responded, pointing towards Cadence as well as an angry glare to back it up, almost like a child throwing a tantrum.

"You call that fighting?" Cadence laughed sarcastically, folding her arms. "I call that getting our asses handed to us. We needed a plan."

"We had one!"

"Running in and expecting a fight isn't a plan!"

"She has a point Kara," Lucy pointed out.

"Stay out of it!" Kara and Cadence both snapped.

"Enough!" Hank barked. "You two are like a couple of kids. Now tell me what happened." He then raised a hand as both of them went to speak. "One at a time." Neither of them got a word in as that was the moment that Barry came running in with Deity in his arms.

"Deity," Alex said. She hurried over to her niece to asses her.

"I'm alright," Deity said, trying and failing to brush off her aunt.

"She seems alright but you might want to check her out, just to be safe." Barry said as he handed the teenager to Alex. "We were chased in by that other alien, Deity used her energy vision to knock her off our tail. It might've taken a lot out of her.

"Thanks Barry," Alex said sincerely. She flashed him a smile before whisking her niece away.

"What'd I miss?" Barry asked, pulling off his hood as he walked over to the group.

"Don't ask," James warned.

He looked over at Cadence and Kara and sighed. There was only one way to deal with this and it was to wait it out. "You had no right to just teleport me out of there." Kara snapped at Cadence.

"I had no choice. You were being stubborn and we needed to regroup," Cadence replied angrily.

"We could have stopped them then and there if you hadn't gotten scared," Kara said bitterly.

"I was using common sense. We were losing-"

"We could have turned the tables. It was four on four."

Cadence couldn't help but let a sarcastic tone come to her voice. Now she _really_ knew what Oliver meant. It pained her to admit he was right, and judging by Barry's expression he was thinking the same thing. "Really, was it?"

"Yes. Four. You, me, Barry and Deity. Four." Kara said as she held up four fingers to emphasize her point.

"Did Deity still count when she was on the floor?" Cadence asked. Kara fell silent, staring back at her. Cadence took a step forward. "When she was hurt and wounded and unable to fight. Is that still four?"

Now Barry knew he had to step in. He could see how riled up she was getting and knew it was the best time to diffuse the situation. He started to speak to her, grabbing her arm, but she shrugged him off..

"No. She thinks she's a hero, she needs to hear this," Cadence said. Then she turned back to Kara and continued with, "While you were of stubbornly fighting, your partner was on the ground, barley able to stand." Kara's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, let me guess. You didn't even notice You think what you did out there is what a hero would do. If Barry had been out there and like that I wouldn't have hesitated in getting him out of there. But you didn't even notice. And you know why you didn't notice? Because you were too busy trying to beat the bad guys. If you knew what was right you would've gotten her out of there, rather than focusing on a grudge."

Silence filled the room after her outburst, her heavy breathing filled the room.

Kara turned and walked towards the medical bay.

"Kara..." Winn stared to follow her but Hank stopped him. It wasn't for him to step into at the moment.

"Hey. Everything alright?" Alex asked when she saw Kara standing in the doorway. Kara just nodded, putting on a brave smile that her sister saw right through. "You want a minute alone?" Alex asked and Kara nodded again.

"Back in a minute." Alex said with a smile to her niece, who was looking much more composed than before, before she exited.

"What was that?" Barry asked Cadence quietly, glancing over as Kara walked into the medical bay and hugged Deity tightly. Deity hugged her back, a bewildered expression on her face, but she did so all the same.

Cadence glanced at him. "You know I'm right," she said. "We could've died if we stayed there."

"I get that," Barry agreed. He ran his fingertip up the bridge of his nose then folded his arms. "Anyone could see that. I agree with you on that part," he added, seeing Cadence's expression, curious of his support of her decision. "But this isn't our city. If they wanted to keep fighting…"

"They're not the ones we answer to," Cadence said. She then paused, mind moving a mile a minute. Why'd that sound so familiar? Why couldn't she remember it? Whatever it was, it was something big, something they needed to do.

"Listen, there's something you should know," Alex said, coming over to her and Barry. She looked back and forth between the two to be sure she had their attention before explaining. "A couple weeks ago...something happened. "Kara and Debby—"

"—Debby?" Barry interrupted. He thought a moment. "Oh, her secret identity. Got it."

Alex nodded. "They were fighting this really nasty alien computer named Indigo. She managed to get control of some nuclear missiles." Barry and Cadence exchanged glance. They'd only ever had to deal with a nuclear weapon once, and that had been with the potential explosion of Ronnie and Profession Stein from their Firestorm Matrix. "She lunched two of them. Debby managed to stop the one heading for National City. Kara went after the one that was heading for a place called Codsville."

"I've heard of it," Barry said. Barry said as he nodded his head to the familiar name. "It's a place not _too_ far from here," he explained to Cadence.

Again Alex nodded. "Well Kara tried to stop the missile but Indigo stopped her. The whole town is gone. Over two-thousand people dead. And Kara thinks it's her fault."

Alex eyed Cadence, who looked back at her. That explains what she saw in Kara earlier that day. She knew there was something wrong, but couldn't quite figure out why it seemed familiar. It was because it was the same look she herself had given time and time again, knowing what she'd done with the Assassination Bureau.

"These past few weeks she's been pushing herself, more than ever. But the truth is she's scared. Scared that more people could die if she doesn't stop the people trying to hurt them. She's already got to many dead bodies on her conscious, she can't take anymore. That's why she wouldn't back down. Not because of some grudge or anything, but because she doesn't want anyone else to die."

Alex stepped past Barry and looking Cadence in the eye said, "And if you ever call my sister a bad hero again. Meta-Human or not. I'll put you down."

Cadence pressed her lips together. "You'd think by now I'd learn not to say everything that comes to mind," she said.

Barry gave her a small smile. "Your judgments never failed you before, but you can't be right all the time."

Cadence sighed as she ran her hands over her face in frustration. "I can't believe I just said all those things to her. If anyone would know what it's like…"

"You didn't know." Barry said, gently rubbing her shoulder..

"But I should have. I mean, I basically went through the same thing...Sort of." Semantics. She could justify a lot of things she'd done with semantics. But the truth of the matter was you could never change the past." Cadence glanced towards the medical bay. "I need to talk to her."

" _We_ need to talk to her." Barry corrected.

Cadence looked at him in wonder, slowly smiling. "You weren't the one that said those horrible things to her."

"Maybe, but we're partners," Barry said simply. "We deal with this stuff together." Barry started to walk to the medical room door then stopped, noticing she wasn't following him. "You coming?"

"Yeah," Cadence replied, finally following him, the thought crossed her mind that she certainly didn't deserve a partner like Barry but definitely was grateful for him. She knocked on the door to the medical room, pausing as she looked around. It reminded her of when she was a resident at Central City Hospital. Where she was working with people of all ages, primarily the kids, smiling and laughing with them to ease whatever pain they had. It felt like a life time ago.

"Hey, Kara?"

"What is it?" Kara let go of Deity and quickly turned so that her daughter couldn't see her eyes.

Cadence looked at Barry, who gave her an encouraging nod. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"What things?" Deity frowned, looking between the two women.

"It doesn't matter," Kara said.

"Yes it does," Deity protested. "What did she say?" Deity eyed Cadence, waiting for her answer. "Clearly it matters or my Mom would tell me. What did you say?"

"I said she was a bad hero," Cadence said.

Deity stared at Cadence for a long, tense moment. Then she reached out her hand, lacing her fingers between Kara's. She looked at her mother with as much love she could muster in a simple gaze. "You're wrong," Deity finally said. "She's a great hero."

"I know, I get it." Kara truly didn't know how much she did. "And I'm sorry Kara."

"Thank you," Kara replied. She nodded. "And I'm sorry."

Barry walked over, arms folded. "Alex told us about Codsville." Kara's eyes turned to the floor, squeezing shut against the pain. "That wasn't your fault. And I understand that you don't want it to happen again, but you can't overdo it. Take it from me. Sometimes it's best to take things slow."

His smile made Kara laugh. "Coming from you that seems little strange," she said with a soft smile.

"Trust me. Some things, you don't want to rush. Right Cade?" Barry asked as he looked to his partner. She just smiled and slowly nodded her head in agreement, a knowing smile on her face.

"Right," Cadence agreed.

"So what are we going to do about the fearsome four?" Deity asked in reference to the four villains that were still at large. All eyes moved to Kara and she looked to each of their faces before honing in on Cadence.

"We're going to come up with a plan," Kara said.

Cadence smiled back. "Yeah, we are," She said and raised her hand.

The Kyrptonian smiled before high fiving her.

* * *

They'd made the plan or some semblance of a plan before going their separate ways to track Live Wire and Killer Frost. Cadence apologized to Kara once more, to which Kara gratefully took, but also pointed out that maybe she'd need to hear it. To break her out of the terrible headspace he'd been in. Then Cadence explained everything about the Assassination Bureau; what they were like and her role in their plans. And for the first time in a while Cadence managed to say it without too much residual anger, guilt, and depression. It was starting ot become easier to talk about as well as easier to move on from, the more she looked towards the future and what she did as a hero for Central City.

Kara looked at Cadence with a suspicious frown when the fire metahuman mentioned what she'd done for money. "Don't worry. I haven't killed anyone in a long time. That's thanks to Barry, though half the time I've wanted to kill him, too." She quickly explained that way and then said, "Barry was the first _real_ friend I had and he helped pull me back from that dark place." Cadence explained. "And he still does when I get there. Cisco and Caitlin help, too." She held up a hand, shaking her head. "My point is. You're doing good now, and that's what counts. I will always have to live with the fact that I killed people, just like you. But what you're doing, what we're all trying to do, it does help ease the pain. And believe me when I say it's well worth it. Especially when you're doing it with your friends. They're your team, the _only_ people who will understand what you're doing, pick you up when you fall, and still have your back even if you don't agree with each other."

"So you and Barry," Kara started, running her finger back and forth along the balcony railing. "Are you two…?"

Intense sadness filled Cadence suddenly. Tears came to her eyes for a moment but she blinked them away. "To be honest with you I don't know." Cadence admitted as she stood up straight. "We dated, but then broke up because there was too much else going on. Then this Patty girl showed up." Cadence began to shake her head at the memory. Strived to remember. Desperate to remember. But something was blocking her. "It's kind of a blur from then on. Which probably doesn't bode so well for him, honestly."

Kara laughed at her joke then asked, "Still not remember all that much then?"

"God, I hope he's not with her when we get back," Cadence blurted instead. Then she sighed and asked, "What about you?"

"There's Winn." Kara shrugged modestly.

 _Duh,_ Cadence thought. She'd seen that since arriving on their Earth. Whenever Winn would suggest something he'd look to her for approval, maybe even trying to impress her a little bit. "But we haven't even dated yet"

"Why not?"

"To busy." Kara said with another shrug.

"The curse of being a here," Cadence chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Our work is never done."

"Did sleep with him though," Kara said with a cheeky smile.

"What?!" Cadence exclaimed before she began to laugh hysterically. Other than Caitlin, Kara was the last person Cadence thought would sleep with someone before even going on a date. It just made her laugh, Kara's blush making her laugher harder. She swore she wasn't laughing _at_ Kara, but it was funny.

"I assume you and Barry haven't..." Kara trailed off.

"Again, not that I remember," Cadence said. "And, again, which doesn't work out so well for him." She held up a finger. "Just the one date." She paused, something else coming to her. "But Brady is, like, obsessed with Barry and wants nothing more for us to live happily ever after," she admitted.

"Debby's the same," Kara agreed. "Always asking about me and Winn and needing to know every detail."

"What is with kids getting involved in their parents' relationship?"

"Tell me about it."

"I wouldn't trade it though. Not any off it."

"Me either. Debby's my Daughter in everything other than blood." Kara agreed before she grew somber once more. "I just wish my Aunt would see it that way."

"You want to talk about bad families? My birth dad was possessed for over a decade and tried to kill me and my boyfriend. Which ruined our first date." Cadence said with a little annoyance at how her first date with Barry had ended. "And then on another Earth my dad hadn't seen me since birth, and I, suddenly have a little sister that I didn't know about."

"My Aunt's out to destroy the world and rebuild it in her imagine. Had to brainwash me just to get me on her side and locked me and Debby away in a fantasy world," Kara said.

"Good to know I'm not the only one with a messed up family," Cadence said which made Kara laugh.

"No, no you certainly aren't." Kara agreed as she shared a smile with her new friend.

* * *

Cadence wasn't the only one who was struggling with her memory of Earth-1. There was a large part of Barry's memory that he couldn't quite place either. Every time he worked his way up to it, the feeling of something familiar coming back, it'd go away. He strained to get it, even used his speed to try and run through his long-term memory, but nothing. Instead, he tried to focus on the conversation around him, to determine what would take down Zoey and Non.

"They're Kryptonians like Kara, right?" Barry asked. "So does she have any physical weakness?" Barry asked as he looked over Non's and Zoey's profiles."

"Kryptonite," Hank said. He frowned. "But it's not exactly easy to get and we only have a little left."

"Plus, it will make me and mom useless in a fight and take away our powers," Deity added.

"Well you could take out Live Wire and Killer Frost first and then use the kryptonite on Non and Zoey," Winn suggested.

That idea was shot down as well. And so were a few other ideas. Barry hummed, bringing his chin up to cover his mouth. He'd worked with Superman a few times; once in Metropolis and once in Central City. In Metropolis he'd been affected by Kryptonite for a few moments but had never come across them in Central City. But Metallo had a Kryptonite heart that still beat within the Pipeline. It wasn't like they could go back and get it from him and find his way back to this Earth.

As it was, he could feel the effects of Velocity-9 already starting to wear off. He was a little more tired than usual. Not so much that he was truly starting to worry, it was normal for him to go some time without food and get as run down. Still, that extra burst of speed would've really come in handy right now.

Barry watched as everyone around him continued to converse. Watched as Alex took a file folder from a DEO agent and read it over. Watched as Deity showed she was feeling better by showing off some of her power. He watched the yellow glow around her hand.

"Do you know what energy surrounds your hand when you do it?" Barry asked, pointing at her. Deity shrugged and Alex shook her head as she said, "As far as we can tell it's just pure energy."

"Kara said she gets her powers from the 'yellow' sun right?" Barry's brain was slowly working its way into a plan. If she was _really_ Superman's cousin…

"That's right," Alex agreed.

"What color is Deity's energy?"

"Yellow."

"You think Deity is giving off solar energy?" Winn asked suddenly getting very excited. He was practically yelling by the end of his question.

"Not just solar energy, pure yellow solar energy. It powers Kryptonians," Barry explained. "She's basically a walking battery for them. Just like me and Cade. We can do a similar thing in which we can combine our powers to make each other stronger. I amplify her fire powers and she amplifies my speed since our powers are similar properties."

 _Or she's charging the Speed Force._ The thought entered Barry's head before he could stop it, almost as if it wasn't a thought of his own. He drowned it out by saying, "Though in your case you'll be making Kara stronger."

"Great," Deity said simply. "So how do I do it?"

Barry knew the answer. It was right in front of him. It was easy. The most obvious reason the two of them were ever able to do it without much thought…it just wouldn't come to him. That one section of his brain was empty. "...I'm not sure," he finally replied, sounding uncearting of himself. "We've done it a few times, sometimes it was luck" Frustration came through him. No, that wasn't it. Why wasn't that it? Why couldn't he explain it?

"So we have a possible solution but no way to deploy it," Hank grumbled. "Brilliant."

"It's better than nothing," Alex reminded him. "And maybe if they take down two the other two will flee."

"Alright, let's go and tell the others," Winn said.

"Race ya?" Deity said with a competitive smile to Barry who grinned back.

"You're on." The words barely left his lips before the two took off leaving a trail of golden yellow and lightning behind.

"Wait," Winn started. "How am I-"

Yellow lightning returned and Winn vanished with it out the door.

When Barry, Deity, and Winn returned to Cat Co. they found the others already eating, prompting a discussion about the calories the heroes needed to eat to stay stable. Barry's whopping tally of ten thousand calories a day surprised those from National City, taking note of his size compared to the amount he ate.

"I know right. That's why I call him Tholly." Cadence grinned at him from her seat. "Because it's part of his name and because he's like a lollypop."

"I can see that catching on," Lucy agreed.

"Please don't let it," Barry muttered under his breath, making everyone laugh.

A sudden bark caught their attention. "Kira!" Cat Grant's voice came from her office. "My office. And bring Betty with you."

"Actually, its Debby," Deity corrected her but got no response. With a roll of the eyes, Deity followed Kara into Cat's office, the others following along with her.

"I assume you know why I called you in here," Cat said, folding her hands together. Getting confused looks in response, Cat rolled her eyes and turned her computer around. An image of Flash and Flare graced the screen from the industrial fight.

Barry smiled a little. He couldn't help it, it was a good picture.

"This was taken by the same photographer that took the photo of Batgirl a couple months back," Cat explained. "The Daily Planet has it all over their front page. But they don't have a story to go with it, that's where you two come in." Cat eyed Kara and Deity. "You were the first to be saved by these two heroes and now I need to interview you both." She then turned to James. "James, I'm going to need a new and better photo than this, get everyone on it, and contact this photographer again."

"I told you Miss Grant she doesn't want to work here," James said.

"Call her anyway, we're bound to wear her down eventually," Cat said. She then shifted her gaze once more. "Lucy, get some contracts for Kira and Betty to sign; make sure they can't accidently spill the story before I print it."

Cat turned her gaze to the ceiling, leaning back in her seat. "Now if only I can get a quote from Superigrl on her new competition," she mused.

"They don't have to be competition." Kara pointed out.

"Would you prefer sidekicks?"

Cadence groaned. She could feel Barry stiffen beside her. It seemed that even on an alternative Earth she still couldn't escape the 'sidekick' label.

"No, not sidekicks." Barry quickly spoke up. "More like equals, or an allies, even partners, maybe," Barry said with a smile. When he saw Cat's glare, his smile immediately faded. "Speaking was the wrong choice, I see that now," he muttered, twiddling his thumbs.

Cat didn't respond. Instead, she glanced at all the faces lined up in front of her. "Look at all of you standing there doing nothing, you look like the imaginered cast of some nobody's FanFiction who has no idea what to do with half of you," she drawled. Then she looked pointedly at Barry and Cadence. "You two. Who are you?"

"Barry," he said quickly, nervously. "Barry Allen." He motioned to Cadence. "And she's Cadence."

Cat blinked and abruptly turned away. "I don't have time for this. I have to name these new heroes." She tilted her head. "For the masked one I was thinking about 'The Whoose' or 'The Red Streak' or 'The Blur'."

Barry cringed. So many nicknames he'd had and had heard since before The Flash caught on. And he didn't like any of them. The Scarlet Speedster was pretty cool, but all of those other ones…it was no wonder Cisco liked trying to name metas so much. Some pretty bad names could get in and catch on before nayone could stop them. Plus, he was quite partial to the one he already had.

"And as for goggles here..." Cat tapped her finger against her chin. "How about 'Flash Fire' or 'Heat Wave' maybe even 'Glow Stick'."

"NO!" Cadence couldn't help her outburst. Barry thought the ones _he_ had were bad. She could kill Cisco for even coming up with some of them in the first place. Glow Stick? Come on, who would take a superhero named Glow Stick seriously? _Well,_ she thought. _Brady probably would._ It'd be up his alley with his video games and comic books. But _Glow Stick?_ Really? "I mean." She smiled sheepishly, trying to regain her composure. "I was thinking Flare would be a pretty good name."

Cat tilted her head in thought. She was silent for a long moment before saying, "Strong, deadly, dangerous. Both hot and cute with a hint of innocence and femininity to it...Yes. I like it." Cat said as she nodded.

Cadence sighed in relief.

"And what about the Flash for the other guy," Barry quickly spoke up once he saw Cadence convince Cat of her alter ego's name. "Just saying, I think that's a pretty cool superhero name."

"The Flash?" Cat frowned. "Sounds like someone whose only superpower is jumping out of an alley in a trench coat." From beside him, Barry could hear Cadence try to hide her snicker, turning a guffaw into a cough. "No, I want mystery, I want intrigue, I want the Blur and Flare." Cat dismissed them with a wave. "Now leave please, I have a story to write."

The second they were out of Cat's office, Cadence burst out into hysterical laughter. Barry sighed irritably, knowing he wasn't going to hear the end of this one anytime soon. Why was it that he could never get anything that he could tease her about for days to come? It wasn't fair, really.

"What's so funny?" Deity asked.

"Nothing. Just alternative Earth humour." Cadence said, wiping tears from her eyes. With her mascara starting to run, she looked like a dripping oil painting. "Oh God, I can't wait to tell the others about that one."

"Please don't," Barry pleased.

Cadence grasped his shoulder, leaning into him with a teasing smile. "It's alright, Tholly, it'll be our little secret."

"Just another one to add to the list I guess," He said with a smile.

* * *

The next hour went by uneventfully until everything happened at once. Firs Kara's computer was on the fritz, then the lights in the office flickered on and off. Kara and Cadence, who were still at Cat Co while Barry and Deity raced off to get something to eat, both stood up uneasily, noticing the entire office lighting up. Then they turned around when they heard the elevator at the back of the office chime to let them know someone arrived on their floor.

A cold mist spread through the office, sweeping around desks like clawing, gnarled fingers of a witch. "What the…" Cadence murmured, watching it. "That's new."

Killer Frost and Live Wire made their way to the floor, both grinning evilly.

"Oh no," Kara murmured.

"Didn't I throw you out a window?" Live Wire asked, walking towards Kara's She rubbed her hands together. "Oh well, no heroes to save you this time."

Live Wire threw lightning at Kara. Had it had hit her, Kara would've been sent right back out the window. But with a kick of speed and her teleportation power, Cadence knocked Kara to the ground in the nick of time. The two took cover under the desk, listening as Live Wire continued to throw lightning bolts around.

"We have to do something," Kara hissed.

"Way ahead of you," Cadence said. She took Kara's hand and teleported them away. At that moment, Cat hurried towards the sound of commotion out of her office, crouched low. She saw one of her employees about to be murdered by Killer Frost an stopped her with a forceful cry.

Killer Frost turned towards Cat and immediately stalked towards her. Cat backed herself away from Killer Frost, pinned against the wall when the ice metahuman encased her lower body in a block of ice to keep her from moving. Her body temperature sharply dropped and she started to shiver.

Live Wire grinned, eyes gleaming with unbridled happiness. "Nice job, Frost," Live Wire congratulated. She reached a hand to Cat, making the woman jerk her head to the side to avoid being touched. Live Wire laughed. "Relax, Cat. We're not going to kill you...yet."

"You're not going to be killing her at all," Kara said when she and Cadence teleported back, now in their suits.

Live Wire rolled her eyes and made a sound of disgust before throwing static towards Kara. Kara used her super speed to dodge the lightning bolts before grabbing the villains and drove them out the window. With the coast clear, Cadence made quick work of freeing Cat.

"Thank you," Cat said once she was free.

"You're welcome," Cadence replied. She started after Kara then stopped to call back, "And my partner's name is the Flash."

* * *

Kara was knocked back by a strong and sudden strike from Live Wire's blast. She rolled, heels over head before Cadence teleported behind her and grabbed her to a stop.

"You good?" Cadence asked.

"We got them out in the open, so yeah, I'm good." Kara flashed an optimistic smile before the two turned to the villains. "Give it up."

"Why would we give up when we have you out numbered?" Killer Frost asked as Non and Zoey landed on opposite sides of her with Killer Frost rounding out the group.

"Might want to do a recount," Cadence said. She smirked as a bolt of yellow lightning appeared. It did two laps around the park before stopping by Cadence's side with Deity touching ground next to Kara.

"Alright guys, what do you say we settle this like women," Barry said confidently. Kara, Deity, and Cadence all looked at him strangely. Barry shrugged defensively. "What? There's more of you here than me."

"What do we do?" Killer Frost murmured to Live Wire.

"Isn't it obvious?" Live Wire's hands crackled with lightning. "We kill them!" She threw a brilliant bolt of lightning over to the group.

"Move!"

Kara's command immediately got the group moving out of the way. Seeing she'd already missed her targets, Live Wire used her electric powers to turn into pure electricity. She surged into a nearby street lamp, using the current o make her way to a nearby roof top. Barry was already waiting for her.

"Hey there." He waved, making Live Wire glare at him.

Zoey appeared at her side, but Cadence teleported to Barry's side. She threw her arm forward and a wave of flames shot forward. Zoey's freeze breath immediately put a stop to them before the Kryptonian punched the metahuman straight across the face.

Barry ran toward Live Wire, veering off to the side so that he could run circles around her. After a few laps, he flicked his wrist, throwing lightning bolts at her. It would've been a direct hit, had Barry not noticed that it was making her stronger. _Duh, electricity,_ Barry thought. She could absorb it. _Okay, Barry. Time for plan B._

Cadence ducked under Zoey's first, backing away from the hole that it made when colliding with brick behind her. "You really need to work on your anger management," Cadence remarked, dodging a second and third punch. When she had her moment, Cadence pressed her hand against Zoey's stomach and a bright blaze of fire shot out, sending Zoey flying.

The Kryptonia recovered and lifted her chin. Cadence shot out her heat vision, it colliding with Zoey's to implode between them. Cadence stumbled back and teleported before hitting the ground, using it to reappear above Zoey. Clasping her hands together, Cadence's flame extended out into a flaming sword. She swung hard and it struck Zoey, sending her flying across the rooftop.

A light laugh escaped Cadence's lips.

She always loved that move.

Kara and Deity desperately tried to avoid Killer Frost and Non. Her freeze attacks were ridiculous and Non's fists were deadly. When he thought he cornered Kara, Deity grabbed onto Non and pulled him from behind. He stumbled, his momentum catching him offguard. Deity moved to follow him, but Killer Frost blocked her with a blast of ice. Deity immediately dropped to the ground, body so cold it started to burn.

She reached behind her to warm up her back but found she couldn't move. Killer Frost continued to walk towards her. Ready to deliver the final blow. Kara landed in front of Deity and shot Killer Frost with her heat vision. Killer Frost side-stepped the attack but the beams hit Deity's back, melting the ice that had been formed. Then the two aliens shot off to the side before doubling back to attack Killer Frost.

Non got in the way, knocking Kara aside, giving Deity a straight shot to punch Killer Frost in the stomach. Killer Frost arched through the air before hitting the ground. She leapt upwards and Non's body passed beneath her, crashing him right into Killer Frost from Kara's throw.

Kara and Deity shared a smile before going back into the fight.

On the rooftop, Barry continued to race around Live Wire. When he was close enough, he grabbed onto her and spun on his heels. Live Wire stumbled to the ground once Barry let go. He smiled impishly, dusting off his hands.

"Hope you had a nice fall," he crowed. He blinked and looked over when a blast of blue energy narrowly whizzed by him.

Zoey was having trouble locking onto Cadence with her teleporting ability. "Stay still you idiot!"

"I'm not that much of an idiot am I?" Cadence taunted, teleporting again. Zoey screamed in frustration. Cadence grabbed onto Zoey and lifted her overhead before throwing her towards Live Wire.

Barry came up to her side. "Fire tornado?" He suggested.

"Fire tornado," Cadence agreed.

Barry rapidly rotated his arms in front of him, creating little red cyclones that blurred around. An even larger cyclone formed from his movements. Cadence held a stream of fire to the cyclone that immediately lit up, causing it to brighten the sky as the fiery tornado formed. Zoey and Live Wire were swept up and flung off the roof, landing on the ground with Barry and Cadence following them.

Kara and Deity stood with them.

Barry nodded to Deity. "You know the plan?" She nodded back. "Alright. Supergirl and I will focus on the Aliens. Flare and Deity take the Metas." Barry ordered and the three girls nodded in agreement. With that. Barry took off in bolt of lightning while Kara shot up into the air. Non chased after his Kara while Zoey went after Barry, following him into the city.

"So, what's the plan?" Cadence asked Deity, going back to back with her.

"When they fire, we switch places," Deity explained. She kept her eye son Killer Frost. "Just hold off Killer Frost until I say."

Cadence nodded back. Anything to take her down.

Killer Frost sent a burst of icy mist to Deity while Live Wire shot electricity towards Cadence. Deity and Cadence flipped around to face their new opponents. Deity braced herself for the electricity that shot through her, making her scream. Cadence brought up her hands and countered Killer Frost's ice attack with a fire one of her own.

She'd reacted too slowly, Killer Frost already had the upper hand. Cadence felt her arms slowly being pressed back against her chest, still she hung on, focusing on her sheer hatred of Killer Frost. How much she wanted her gone. Steam swirled around them while the ground started to flood. Then Cadence understood what was happening. She thought back to what Barry had done so long ago with Captain Cold and Heat Wave.

Cadence watched as Live Wire moved in on Deity, going for the kill. She started to turn, to protect Deity as well, but saw Killer Frost was coming that much closer. It was going to be close.

"Now?" Cadence asked. She gritted her teeth in effort.

"No," Deity ground back through gritted teeth. She fell to her knees, body starting to light up from what Live Wire pushed at her.

"Now?" Cadence could feel her hands starting to grow cold. Killer Frost's ice was almost touching her/

"Almost."

"I got you now." Killer Frost stepped in a puddle, moving closer to Cadence in victory.

"Time to die kid." Live Wire grinned at Deity. She stepped in a puddle. Her eyes grew wide.

"NOW!"

Cadence reached back, grabbed onto Deity, and teleported. Live Wire's lightning collided with Killer Frost's melted ice. Electricity lit them both u like Christmas trees as their attacks collided. The two girls reappeared, falling to their knees, far away from the fried villains.

Cadence sighed. "If your mom doesn't kill you for what you just did, then I will," Cadence remarked.

Deity smiled at her and laughed. Cadence laughed too. Deity's face was covered in soot and scorch marks while Cadence's fingers had lost all feeling. She was sure they had frostbite. She couldn't feel her healing powers kicking in yet. Now only the Kryptonians were left.

All of a sudden, Barry and Kara were at their respective partner's sides, helping them up.

"Nice work," Barry congratulated.

"How'd you do it?" Kara asked.

"You don't want to know," Deity said, leaning against Kara.

"It's over," Barry called to Non and Zoey, his arm tight around Cadence's shoulders lest she collapse. "We've beaten your friends."

"You really think we needed their help to beat you?" Non asked confidently.

"We can take you all on our own." Zoey said with a grin.

"You don't have a chance against us. You haven't been able to defeat me together, I very much doubt you can do it alone."

"She's not alone." Deity said from Kara's side, still holding on by Kara's shoulder.

"Yeah, she's got us," Cadence added as she and Barry stepped up so that they were a lined with National City's heroes.

"And encase you haven't noticed, you're outnumbered," Barry pointed out.

"Maybe, but you are out matched. Those two look like they can barely fight and I doubt you or Supergirl have the enough strength to best us."

"Yeah, well I can change that," Deity said. She took Kara's hand lacing their fingers. Barry's eyes widened when he realized what she was about to attempt and took a step forwards to grab her attention.

"Deity," he warned.

"What are you..." Kara trailed off.

Deity's hand glowed, then her entire body glowed. Then the glow shifted over to Kara. Deity could feel her legs giving out underneath her but she kept going, closing her eyes as she concentrated. She had to give everything she had to Kara so that she and Barry could stop Non and Zoey. She kept pushing everything she had into Kara, her own glow fading while Kara's increased.

"What's going on?" Kara asked as she stared down at her daughter who was too busy concentrating to answer.

"She's giving you a boost," Barry said.

Deity opened her eyes, dropped her hand from Kara's and began to fall. Kara cried out Deity's name and grabbed her.

Cadence examined her for a second. Deity's chest wasn't moving. Then she moved her fingers beneath Deity's nose then to her neck. A weak pulse. "She's not breathing," Cadence said. "I can take her."

"Get her to Alex," Kara said.

Cadence grabbed Deity up into her arms and teleported back to the DEO.

Kara turned her attention back to the Kryptonians. Then everything happened at once. She punched Zoey so hard that a mini shockwave rumbled through the park. She engaged Non in a short fight, holding him still with his fist in her palm as she snarled, "You better hope she makes it. Because if she doesn't then neither do you." With that, she threw him before following after in a single bound.

Barry watched it unfold.

He'd seen that power once before, a power that putting everything into an attack; strength, energy, love, hate, sadness and fear all rolled into one.

He'd only ever seen Cadence do it once and knew it was the power a mother could wield when her child was in danger.

* * *

Cadence teleported into the DEO with Deity hanging in her arms. Alex was next to her in the nex second, directing her to the medical room.

"She's not breathing." Cadence quickly explained everything that happened while she put Deity down and Alex attached every monitor onto her.

"You said early you're a doctor?" Alex asked, working through preliminary tests.

"Yes," Cadence replied. Then she thought about it. "Sort of. I'm doctor for the police." Cadence quickly helped Alex move through the vital checks. "But those bodies are usually dead when they come to me. I was a resident at the hospital but then got canned for not showing up enough."

"You're not filling me with confidence," Alex muttered as she used her stethoscope to check Deity's heart. Her heartbeat was slow. Too slow.

"I got kicked out because I was too busy trying to stop metas and criminals to keep the city safe. You want to judge me for a decision I made, fine, but I'm not going to let someone who has a whole life ahead of them die," Cadence replied. She was used to being judged in all areas of her life. But she had been telling the truth about this. Deity was young, she'd hadn't had enough of her life to live. There was no reason for it to be cut short. Cadence shook her head, noticing the bruises still on Deity's body. "She's not healing."

"Her heat beat's slowing down," Alex said. She removed her stethoscope from her ears and grabbed a scalpel. She tried to cut Deity's skin but the scalpel broke. "The rest of her powers are working."

"Can't we use the defibrillator to restart her heart?" Cadence suggested.

"Won't be strong enough," Alex replied.

Cadence pushed Alex out of the way and moved to the head of Deity's bed. Using her teeth, she pulled off her gloves then pressed her hands onto Diety's chest. She didn't know for sure, but maybe her healing worked better, faster, with skin to skin contact.

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

Cadence's hands started to glow. "Healing her," she said.

Kara had never felt so powerful. Everything Non threw at her she was able to deflect. He was powerless against her. With a few strong attacks he was rocketed back to the ground, his collision creating a crater beneath him.

Non tried to get back up but Barry swept his legs out from beneath him. his

"Why don't you stay down?" Barry asked, planting his hands on his hips.

"Never," Non snarled in disgust.

"Suit yourself," Barry said. He tried. It wasn't like Non couldn't say he tried to help. Kara grabbed Non and threw him hard. Then she turned to Zoey and throttled her as well. And Barry stood back and watched, only intervening when it looked like Kara was slowly going out of control. She looked to be dealing Non's death blow as he lay defensively below her.

"Kara, don't," Barry warned.

"Why shouldn't I?" Kara snapped back. "After what he's done?"

"Because it's not who you are."

"You don't know me."

Barry licked his lips. Felt his heart hitch in his chest. "But I know what you're feeling," he said gently. "I know what it's like to lose someone and to want to hurt those responsible. But Deity's not gone, she's not dead."

Kara lowered her arm.

* * *

"We're running out of time," Cadence said.

She closed her eyes, trying to push away the extreme exhaustion she felt. She kept her hands on Deity, refused to let herself slip away. She had to keep healing. But she could feel it, feel that Deity was dying. She'd known the feeling enough, had an intimate relationship with it. It wasn't good.

"I know that," Alex snapped. She raced back and forth through the medical room, looking through drawers for anything that'd help her niece.

"What about adrenaline?" Cadence suggested.

"Even if I could inject it into her heart that wouldn't start her healing process and she's still die." Alex answered as she continued searching. "Is there any way we could power up your healing ability to make it more effective?"

"Not without Barry here," Cadence replied. She continued to pour everything she could into Deity. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

"There's got to be something, something we're missing," Alex said.

"Is there any way to reboot her powers, that might restart the healing process." Cadence knew she was grasping at straws now, but there had to be something _anything_ that'd work. She wouldn't allow herself to have another death on her hands. She imagined it was Brady and everything she'd had done and would do for him.

 _There's not much I remember from our Earth,_ Cadence thought, her stomach clenching. _But I'll never forget him._

"Kryptonite takes away her powers, we could use that," Alex said, hope coming to her voice. And she was gone for a few seconds, coming back with a tablet in her hand. She typed for a few seconds then said, "The base has kryptonite shielding in the walls. I'm going to turn this room's shielding on only and see if it works."

The room filled with a faint green glow. Cadence immediately felt the change in Deity. She was dying faster.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Cadence shouted. The monitors started to beep frantically. "Shit." Cadence closed her eyes, thinking. She couldn't heal much longer or else the effects would start to interfere on her own body, but if she stopped, Deity was a goner. She opened her eyes once more and spotted Kara and Deity through the window of the medical room, watching. "What happens if we do that again?"

"She'll die," Alex said.

"Could we use the defibrillator when she's not got her powers to restart her heart?" Cadence suggested. This was in her blood. She may not have been an actual doctor anymore, but it wasn't' something that left one anytime soon. She wasn't going to give up until all solutions were exhausted.

"She's too far along for that now," Alex said. "What we need is to turn on the kryptonite and then turn it off as we send a surge of electricity through her body. That might be enough to restart her powers." Alex countered.

"And the defibrillator isn't strong enough to do that?" Cadence cursed again with Alex's nod.

Her eyes trailed over to Barry. He wouldn't give up and neither would she. She just wished she had their team with them, together they could do anything. Her eyes drifted down to Barry's lightning bolt on his chest and then her eyes widened in realization. _Bingo._

"I have an idea," Cadence blurted.

"It better be a good one," Alex said, panic setting in on the edge of her voice. "Cause we've only got one shot left."

"I can generate electricity in my fires," Cadence explained. "If I build up a big enough fire then I can combine the electricity with my healing ability and-"

"-And hit Deity as I turn off the kryptonite." Alex finished as she grasped what Cadence was saying. "But will it work?"

"It will."

"Alright." Alex stepped back, white-knuckling her tablet. Cadence took a deep breath to calm herself down. She wasn't panicking, not yet, but even one mental push in the wrong direction could make this all go wrong. Then, like ripping off a Band-Aid, she tore her hands from Deity's chest, flames engulfing her hands.

It was tough going, a lot of her energy had already been taking from her healing ability, but as the seconds passed, sparks began to grow of the flames that covered Cadence's hands. "Come on. Come on," She murmured.

Finally, when she could see bolts of lightning generating easily, Cadence nodded to Alex, who turned on the Kryptonite shielding. Deity's heart stopped amongst the glow.

Cadence placed her hands back onto Deity and Alex turned off the Kryptonite once more. Electricity and healing energy poured out of Cadence and into Deity all in an instant and after a second the flames that had once surrounded Cadence's arms vanished, as if a sudden gust of wind a blown them out. Next thing she saw was the teenager shot up into the sitting position gasping aloud as she sucked in as much air as she could, she had taken so much that she actually began to cough and Cadence sank to the floor, nearly completely bent in half.

"Debby!"

Alex grabbed her niece and held her tightly seconds before Kara clutched onto her daughter as well.

Cadence sucked in large gulps of hair before she felt herself being pulled up, but Barry was there to catch her with a giant smile.

"Nice work." He said.

"Thanks," Cadence said before hugging him tightly.

"Guys...could you let me go...please?" Deity groaned as she tried to breathe from in between Kara and Alex.

* * *

"You sure you should be out here?" Cadence asked, eyeing Deity closely as they walked back to the clearing where they all met.

"What are you my mother?" Deity joked.

"That's me," Kara reminded her. "And don't you forget it." She then turned to Barry and Cadence. "I wish you guys didn't have to go."

"Yeah, but we really should get back," Barry said. "We've got our own problems to deal with." Barry said as he looked to Cadence. "Not entirely sure what they are but we probably have something to deal with." He and Cadence shared a knowing laugh.

"Well feel free to come back anytime." Kara said.

"And feel free to come and visit us sometime," Cadence replied.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Deity asked with a frown.

"With these." Barry said as he produced two more tachyon devices, identical to the one he had on his chest.

"Awesome," Deity said as she took the device from Barry along with Kara.

"These should help up your speed enough to get you to our Earth. Just make sure you're thinking of us when you use it. Otherwise you might end up somewhere else."

"Thanks for all your help today." Kara said as she looked back up to her two new friends.

"It's what we do." Barry shrugged modestly.

"But you totally owe me for saving your life," Cadence said with a finger outstretched towards Deity which made the teenager laugh.

"I'm going to miss you, Barry Allen and Cadence Nash," Kara said with a fond smile.

"Right back at you Kara and Debby Danvers." Cadence said with a wink.

"Or Kara Zor-El and Deity Ann. Which are your alien names. Because you're aliens, which I think is very cool," Barry said, making the others laugh. The four looked to each other before every one of them threw their arms out for a hug. They all met together and joined in a group hug before parting.

"Well I guess this is it," Barry said as he pulled on his hood, letting Cadence climb onto his back before she pulled on her goggles.

"Before you go." Deity smiled sheepishly, stepping forward. "Could we do something real quick?"

"Sure, what is it?" Barry asked as he looked to Deity with Cadence peeking over his shoulder.

"I want to race," Deity declared with a competitive grin which Barry quickly matched.

"You're on."

They lined up.

"Think you can keep up, Girl of Steel?" Barry asked.

"Just you watch Scarlet Speedster," Kara returned with a smile.

"Ready," Cadence said from Barry's back

"Set," Deity said as the three got ready to run.

"GO!" Kara and Barry shouted as they all took off running.

The fields around them moved in a blur as they raced. The four smiled to each other as they entered their own world which suddenly changed from wild fields to city streets.

As they moved through the city Barry began to take the lead until Kara and Deity lifted off their feet and took to the skies. They turned in and out of the city, leaving trials of red, yellow and lightning behind as they raced all over before exiting as quickly as they'd entered.

Unbeknownst to them, all three tachyon devices had started to glow and they were all speeding up. They continued on and on until suddenly a blue cloud appeared in front of them.

Barry and Cadence went through first and before Kara and Deity knew what had happened they were heading right in after them.

The breach closed behind them and then there was silence.

* * *

 **A/N:** So…? What'd you think? An extra update as a bday gift. The portions with Barry and Cadence on Supergirl's Earth is the crossover that _PowerHero432_ and I wrote together. He did the majority of their part on Earth-38 with my input, and I did the majority of their part on Earth-1 with his input. So if you haven't read it in his story, we hope you enjoy it here.

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** Yes! I was hoping someone would really like it. I know I saw it a lot, but I'm excited for that payoff.

 **Ethan:** Yeah, Zoom and Caitlin and Zoom's feeling for Caitlin, pretty creepy. But they need to be. Cadence's new heat mirage power was actually first introduced back on Earth-2 when she was being attacked By KF and Burnout. Yeah, no one should ever say 'what could go wrong'? It's just a bad idea, tempting the fates…

 **Luna:** It's coming soon.

 **PowerHero432:** Yeah, so, Wally and Linda. That's happening soon, too.

 **Josephguy217:** Thank you, thank you. I hope you really enjoy it.


	44. Ragdoll

**.:44:.**

 _Ragdoll_

* * *

Barry came a complete stop, nearly throwing Cadence to the ground.

Gasping for air, he frantically looked across the air strip and the surrounding areas. Barry lowered Cadence to the ground, who quickly dropped her goggles around her neck. Her eyes darted around the clearing and she let out an audible sound of relief when she spotted Caitlin. Cadence brought her hands up to her hair, pushing her fringe from her forehead. She turned and gave Barry a thumbs up, making him relax as well.

Caitlin, Cisco, and Harry watched the two with curious expressions. Cisco even looked at his watch then cross-referenced his phone. He exchanged a glance with Caitlin and she took a moment to asses her friends before asking, "Is everything okay?"

She gently tapped her tablet against her palm in a nervous manner. It was like Barry and Cadence had just seen more meta-spiders than going on a test run of the Tachyon device attached to Barry's suit. As it was, it didn't even look like they had even moved. Once second Barry was in the position to run away, then they were breathing as if they'd just run a marathon. She needed to check to see what effect the Velocity-9 had on his body, but they needed to be okay, first.

It was a risk they needed to take. But he had still managed to go faster. Even Cadence, who generally had no issues with the speed Barry exhibited—running fast as well, though not coming near Barry's top speed—had to stop and hold a hand over her mouth to keep the nausea at bay. Something that hadn't bothered her at all before.

"H-how long were we gone?" Barry asked. "Is everything okay?" His chest heaved as he fought to catch his breath. The Tachyon device increased his speed so much it was affecting his recovery. Normally he could go to Star City and back multiple times before he even got the tiniest hint of fatigue. Traveling through Earths like that worked his body more than he thought it would.

As it was, he was glad they returned to the right place with Cisco, Caitlin, and Harry. It hurt more than he thought it would to find that on Kara's Earth they didn't exist. Especially after having been on Earth-2. But if they didn't exist…that mean maybe he didn't exist over there either. It was hard to think about and wasn't making his splitting headache any better.

With Barry not receiving and answer, Cadence asked again. "How long have we been gone?"

Cisco gave the two a funny look. "Like, two seconds," he said. He looked at his watch once more. "Maybe five, tops—look, I get being able to run at high speeds can make things slower for you guys but you don't need to rub it in our faces." He then looked at his watch and bobbed his head, impressed. "Hm. Even with the drag, you made great time."

Cadence placed her hands on her hips and stared hard at Cisco. "I don't think I weigh enough for you to refer to me as 'drag'."

"You asked how long you were gone," Caitlin pointed out. "Where did you go?"

Harry regarded them suspiciously. "On our end, you were gone for only a few seconds…" He crossed his arms. "A breach opened up when you came back; you traveled to another Earth," he surmised.

"I, we, uh," Barry stammered. He moved to run his hands through his hair then stopped.

A dizzying pain struck him like a shot, making him press his fingertips to his temples. His father taught him that; to apply pressure to his temples to instantly relieve headaches and tension. It always worked but this time, it didn't seem to be an effective solution. It was like his brain was twisting apart. Then he understood. All of his memories were coming back; first and foremost being the issues with metahuman rights. Barry hoped they hadn't passed the metahuman law while they were gone. That stupid Registration Act. Working on his speed and focusing on Zoom was a good distraction from it all, but even he couldn't ignore how much of it was starting to get to him.

Day after day it looked like things were getting closer and closer to the Registration Act being made despite Tess's and Harrison's work to try and stall the ultimate decision being made. No matter how many times they met up with the city and government officials about it, it seemed like things were progressing more than it should have been. No matter how public perception of The Flash and Flare hadn't changed, that they still regarded them as heroes didn't seem to be making a difference was scarier than anything else he had ever faced. Especially when Zoom wasn't helping their cause.

Everything else; Chief Paulson now heading Joe's task force, people in his life who seemed to be onto his identity as the flash, the increase of government officials to the city, Zoom...it all filled in as well.

Barry started to say something, started to explain what happened on that new Earth then stopped again. A sudden realization hit him like a brick. "Cade." Barry reached out and grabbed onto Cadence's arm. The movement immediately got her attention. "What happened to Kara and Debby?"

Realization came over Cadence's face as well. She opened her mouth to answer but stopped, shaking her head. They weren't at the air field. But their new friends had been there when the breach opened and they ran through. That meant the breach had opened, for them, somewhere else in Central City.

Or else…

 _Maybe they made it back to their Earth when we came through_ , Barry thought.

All of a sudden, the transportable monitors from STAR Labs started to blare out a warning. The familiar signal they received when something meta or criminal related was happening in the city. Adding in Cisco's new metahuman app and they received the information faster.

Barry had a gut feeling he knew what it was.

"Who?" Cisco asked.

"We've got something flying downtown," Caitlin interrupted. Her head was bent, looking over the tablet in her hands. She shifted her fingertips over the face of the device, navigating through multiple pages. "And it's going fast fast."

"Looks like the task force has locked onto it," Harry agreed, looking over her shoulder. "The CCPD are already dispatching their team out there."

Barry shook his head.

The metahuman task force had become much more than what Joe had originated it to be. Since Chief Paulson had come to take the lead on it things had become more difficult with working with them. Instead of taking the metahumans and allowing them to be locked into Iron Heights or even the Pipeline (though no one on the police force knew of that practice within STAR Labs), where they were treated with even less of a semblance of humanity, the newly captured ones were being taken away to locations even Barry hadn't figured out yet. He even checked Oliver's prison on Lian Yu and with ARGUS—without allowing himself to be detected either time—and hadn't figured out what was happening.

Not to mention threats of those being the first ones who would have to reveal themselves to the world…

Metas were starting to get scared; those who weren't criminals, those who wanted to lead a normal life, and those who were glad for their powers. All of them were starting to suffer from the fear the media and other mediums were pushing forward to create a divide between metas and humans. As far as Barry and the others knew, through their own tactics of gathering information, there were whispers of creatures within the government that could adapt to any metahuman power thrown their way.

He wasn't sure how true it was, rumors on the internet always floated around like that, but continued to hope things would change for the better. All Chief Paulson needed was a little bit of reasoning, not more excuses to tear the city apart.

"You've got to get down there, now!" Harry barked. His eyes flashed. Barry wasn't surprised to find he was still as gruff as ever. It was foolish to think that going to a different Earth was going to change that some way. Still, he'd at least hoped that Jesse's presence would've toned him down a little. Or maybe would've taken on some more of Harrison's patience and excitement.

"These things are moving fast, but the CCPD are moving even faster," Caitlin added, looking over his own communication device.

"What part of the city?" Cadence demanded. She already moved her goggles back into place, itching to leave.

"The metro area, heading further downtown," Cisco said. He whistled appreciatively, looking over the readings that rapidly spat out to them. "And they're booking it. By the looks of their speed, they may be faster than Barry."

Despite the circumstance, Barry couldn't help but smile as he said, "I doubt that." He turned to Cadence. "Let's go!"

She nodded.

Barry superspeeded from the area at the same time Cadence teleported.

* * *

Kara and Deity swung to opposite sides of the street as a barrage of smoke bombs flew their way. When not striking nearby buildings and light poles, the smoke bombs exploded once they reached a certain height. Black, acrid smoke shot through the air, swirling tighter around them with their movements making the two aliens continuously arch back and forth across the street. Deity blew out a large gust of air, knocking the smoke away from them, only seconds before another smoke bomb blew up in front of them.

Kara's eyebrows came together, scanning the streets below. Police cars careened up the street towards others that had already stopped. The occupants streamed out, covered in armor and carrying large panes of shield.

This wasn't the Central City she expected. She'd seen stories of the metropolitan city in the news, of the local people getting awards for their scientific and technological achievements. Nothing but great things. Now they were attacking the sky as if they were defending their city from an air raid in a war.

But Barry had said that on her Earth, despite there being a STAR Labs, there was no Harrison Wells, Cisco Ramon, or Caitlin Snow. So maybe there were other things that were different. How much of National City is different here? She thought.

Kara frowned. She tried to remember what had been going on back there, even before Barry and Cadence came through the breach but found she couldn't dredge up even the most recent memories. That must've been what they meant, with their memories becoming affected through interdimensional—interplanetary?—traveling. Her friends remained in her memory, but certain things about them; their relationships, successes they had working with the DEO, some of her work at Cat Co….nothing.

"Heads up!" Deity cried.

Kara snapped back to attention as the officers crouched low on the ground, sending more bombs towards them. Others carried guns that looked to carry large amounts of ammo—in quantity and size—over their shoulders, pointed towards the two aliens. Kara stopped short, bringing her cape up around her, to blow back a wall of smoke that headed her way.

"What's going on?!" Deity cried, bullets striking her and harmlessly falling to the ground. She hovered over the ground, turning to look at her mother. "I thought Flash and Flare were heroes here!"

"They are," Kara replied. She frowned, a crease appearing in her forehead "They wouldn't lie about that."

"The people here should be used to metas," Deity continued. "Why are they coming in and attacking us like this?"

Maybe because we're aliens, Kara thought. She had no idea if they had alien detecting abilities or even a DEO, but the thought immediately crossed her mind. What if they already knew and wanted to get rid of the threat as soon as it came into their plane of existence. It became part of her everyday life, wondering what she would have to do that day to prove she was a 'human' rather than an alien who masqueraded as a human and worked as a hero on the side.

"They must think we're coming to attack the city," Kara said instead. She slowed to a stop and hovered over the CCPD. She held out her hands in a peaceful gesture and flashed a warm smile. "We're not here to attack you," she explained, voice booming over the street. "We're here to…" she paused, unsure of how to continue. "We're here to get home! But while we're here, we're going to help you in any way we can."

Technically they were there to get Barry and Cadence back to Central City and they had done that. Now they just needed to turn around and go back to National City. If they knew how. The Tachyon devices attached to their chests seemed to have shorted out as soon as they came through the open portal.

"We're here to help out The Flash and Flare," Deity said.

Still, the CCPD's task force continued to attack them, as if the sound of their ammunition flying drowned out the Kryptonians' voices. She and Deity dodged a few more barrages. "We have to get out of here," Kara said.

"And go where?" Deity demanded. "We lost Barry and Cadence as soon as we came through the breach! We've never been here and we don't know any place that's safe."

There was a sudden booming sound and streak of lightning appeared below them on the street just as a ball of fire erupted on the street corner. No, not just a ball of fire. But a fire hydrant shooting up into the air. A wave of water followed it, cascading up into the air, the pressure of the water knocking over the officers. The arriving officers turned their cars to the side, skidding to a stop just in time to keep from hitting their coworkers. They clambered out and Barry turned towards them, holding up his hands.

"Weapons down!" He called. "Please, weapons down."

"They're not going to attack you!" Cadence added.

"Get out of the way, Flash!" Barry's eyes turned to the side as Chief Paulson pushed his way to the front of the group. He took in a deep breath, mean eyes trained onto Flash and Flare. He knew the man from working at the CCPD but this was different. Chief Paulson's eyes were alive with a fire of hatred, rather than the cool, serious, almost detached flame that flickered on a good day. "You know we're doing what we have to do to keep this city safe."

"They're not your enemy," Barry insisted. A thick lump formed in his throat. He knew how badly this could go and he needed to diffuse the situation as soon as possible. "They're not here to hurt anyone here. They're just trying to find their way home. We need to give them that opportunity. Peacefully."

"You know as well as I that there are precautions we need to take for this City," Chief Paulson said.

Now Cadence stepped forward. She clenched her hands into fists. "We've done nothing but help save the city from all threats that have continued to come its way. You know as well as we do that not all metas are evil. These are some of the good ones as are we, as some of the citizens of the city are. Stand. Down."

Chief Paulson squared himself. "That's not a risk that we can take."

Kara and Deity slowly drifted to the ground, landing behind Barry and Cadence. They watched as their friends continued to appease their police department. Those that stood behind Chief Paulson slowly lowered their weapons, looking from the metahumans to their boss, obviously torn. Kara stepped forward, placing her hands on her hips, lifting her chin. "Who's in charge here?" She asked. Chief Paulson glared at her and Kara blinked for a second. "Yes, right…should've known. Well." She cleared her throat. "We're just here, for a little while, to help you all stop Zoom from terrorizing your city."

"And if we don't let you?" Chief Paulson demanded.

Deity smirked. "Then you'd be an idiot."

Chief Paulson smiled a smile so sinister that Barry immediately felt his heart drop and ice form through his body. He would've thought Killer Frost had suddenly started to attack if it weren't for the voice in the back of his head reminding him that she didn't exist there. "But you came into my city and I'm the one who decides what we do with those with added abilities."

Kara shook her hair from her face. "Okay, it looks like calm negotiation isn't going to work."

Cadence could've told them that. His body language was certainly nothing short of a man who wanted to get the job done his way.

"We could always try forcing him to listen," Deity joked.

Barry and Cadence exchanged a glance, already knowing what to do. In their experience, Chief Paulson wasn't a patient man and barked orders left and right. If it weren't for Vandal Savage attacking him all that time ago, then things may have turned out differently. His vendetta against those that were 'weird', 'not normal' and 'meta' only started when he nearly lost his life. Had that hadn't happened...

Barry shook his head. It was no use. Chief Paulson wasn't going to change his mind anytime soon and they needed to adapt to that. while Kara and Deity clearly thought they were helping, they were just making things worse. Chief Paulson's finger moved toward his walkie-talke to give a command and Barry and Cadence moved at the same time. In a flurry of movement, they grabbed the two aliens and left the streets of Central City.

Chief Paulson sniffed, his frown deepening, finger dropping from his walkie-talkie.

All that ammo and time wasted.

It just proved how much things needed to go his way.

* * *

Brady twisted a paint brush in his hand and smoothed it over the canvas in front of him, finishing up what was to be the bow of a pirate ship. Honestly, to him, it looked more like a tug boat, but it wasn't like they were trying to win some art prize, just finish up the sets of their play. He stood back, wiping paint off his hands onto a paper towel and looked over the rest of the work that had been done.

Beside him, Leah leaned back on her heels and tilted her head to the side saying, "It doesn't look _that_ bad."

"It doesn't look that good, either," Brady pointed. Then he glanced at Conner, who knelt on his other side and his eyes widened, seeing the very good wood planks that he had just painted, using a thin brush and the blackest of black paint. "Wow, Conner, that's great."

Conner sat back, frowning as he pulled an arm across his forehead. "Really?"

"Yeah, it looks like real wood," Leah said.

He shrugged and dusted off his hands. "I don't see why we have to do this anyway, shouldn't we actually be practicing or something?"

Brady smirked at him. "Getting a little anxious to get back into those green tights?" Conner glared and shoved him on the arm, making Brady fall onto his back. He laughed, sitting back up, swiping his hair from his face. "What? I'm just saying, not many other people can prance across the stage like Conner can." His grin widened as Conner rolled his eyes.

"So, anyway, has anyone figured out any other metas yet?" Conner asked, changing the subject.

Brady sighed and shook his head, Leah shook hers as well. Honestly, he wasn't sure what to think other than their original plan of using Harry's meta app. He knew it worked fine, having it on his wrist had it go off every few minutes. So much so that he needed to turn off the sound or else it would've alerted his teachers. But they soon found an issue with it, no matter whether he, Leah, or Conner wore the watch, they were always together so it always went off. They were in the same section of their fifth grade class and sat a few desks away from each other. Had there been other metas around them they wouldn't know for sure.

"Once we do, I can tell everyone at STAR Labs and they can figure out how to keep them safe," Brady said. He tapped his knee with his hands. "We just need to find some of them. But...what if they haven't used their powers yet? Would that make a difference? No one knew I was a meta until my powers started to show."

"But your mom's one, so maybe it was already in your DNA," Leah pointed out.

"Well, when did your powers show, Leah?" Conner asked.

She thought for a moment then shrugged. "I got in trouble and I was crying and one day I was able to start moving things around my room."

"I started showing my powers after a nightmare," Brady said. He thought back to his other classmates. "And Kyle showed his powers when he was scared about having to bring his grades back home." Kyle was never a good student and he was constantly getting in trouble for bringing home bad grades.

"So maybe it's fear that does it," Conner suggested.

Brady frowned. That didn't sound right. Barry's powers hadn't started because he was scared. Neither had Cisco's or Caitlin. They just started. Or maybe it was because they were kids it started differently? He didn't know for sure and his head was starting to hurt from thinking about it too much. Instead, he dipped his brush into another bucket of paint. "I don't know. But we need to find them."

"Find what?"

Brady, Conner, and Leah turned around to find Alicia Paulson standing behind them, clutching a large doll to her chest. Her eyes shifted back and forth over the group in front of her, almost suspiciously. Brady inwardly groaned. Alicia was one of the 'popular' girls in their class and she did everything she could to let others know. She brought in the best snacks during their 'town meeting' every Friday-a way for the class to have down time and speak out their problems withe each other or just have a small party-had the biggest birthday parties, and always some of the newer gadgets that came out, showing them off whenever she got the chance.

"Find what?" she repeated when no one answered her. She always had to be the center of attention.

"Metahumans," Conner replied. Brady and Leah both stared at him, eyes wide. "We're talking about what we'd do if we found a metahuman."

Alicia threw her hair over her shoulder. "I'd throw them all into a cell and leave them for dead. They're nothing but trouble." Brady turned his surprised gaze to her. "They keep ruining the city and scaring everyone. My dad says everyone would be better off if they were just gone."

Anger flared through Brady and he got to his feet to stand across from her. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said.

Alicia lifted her chin. "Yes, I do. My dad is the chief of police, so he knows."

"Then what about The Flash?" He demanded. "And Flare, they've been helping the city."

"They didn't help those little kids that were trying to fight that other metahuman. My dad says they can get in a lot of trouble for it. Because of copy-cats." As Alicia spoke, Brady's upper lip curled in utter disgust. He wasn't a copycat, he was helping out when no one else could. And they hadn't had been hurt by Geomancer _too_ badly. And Barry and his mom were doing everything they could to keep Central City safe. "My dad says-"

"Do you only say what your dad says or is your brain too empty for your own thought?" Brady interrupted. Alicia's mouth dropped open while behind him, Conner and Leah laughed quietly. "Flash and Flare are great! And without them this city would be ruined. Don't talk about things you don't understand, you jerk!" He thought about calling her a bitch, having heard his mother and his father both say it once before, but didn't. It was a bad word, he knew that and he knew the weight of it had he spat it out. But he didn't want her to go running off to tell the teacher on him, he'd already been in enough trouble. He nodded to the doll resting in her arms. "Why don't you go back to play with your doll?"

Alicia sniffed and walked over, placing it by the pirate ship. "It's for the play."

* * *

"Here, these clothes should fit." Cadence handed Kara and Deity a stack of clothes as she left her closet.

She grimaced, looking the two young women over. "Or maybe just fit Debby better. Uh, they might be a little short on you, Kara," she commented, taking note of Kara's 5'8" height compared to her own solid 5'. Luckily Deity wasn't noticeably taller than her so it would be easy for her to fit into the cloths she handed over. Though that didn't stop Kara from reaching over and grabbing a crop-top that sat on the top of the pile before Deity could grab it. She tossed it back over to Cadence who went back to her closet to find another blouse, Deity frowning.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, Cadence," Kara said with a kind smile, taking the others. "Thanks."

"What was up with that police stuff?" Deity asked, getting straight to the point. "I thought these guys were supposed to be kissing your butts or something."

Kara shot her a look. It wasn't like everyone in National City was bending over backwards to accommodate things for them. Deity shrugged in reply. She still stood by her initial assessment, from what Barry and Cadence said, it sounded like things in Central City were supposed to be pretty good.

Cadence brought a hand up and ran it through her hair, briefly closing her eyes. Where was the best place to start? With Zoom, the evil speedster who may or may not actually be the Black Flash and trying to kill Barry just because he could? Or the fact that despite her and Barry stopping whatever metahuman Zoom brought to take them down, Central City seemed to be continuously turning on the heroes.

She looked over at Barry, who was stretched out across her windowsill. It took a little for him to notice her glance. He brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. The universal sign he was mulling over something. "We're heroes here; most of the city likes what we do," he explained. "But there're others who want to eradicate the city from metahumans completely."

"I guess we should've mentioned it," Cadence said.

"It might've been something you didn't remember," Kara said helpfully. "Traveling to our Earth and traveling back…"

"There are people here that don't like metahumans at all," Cadence explained. "They think all metas do nothing but cause trouble and are a safety-risk to the city. All because of a few, they link everyone who has powers to be evil. To being criminals. But we know the real issue they have is that they're afraid, afraid of what's different and afraid that those with powers will take over everything."

"They're trying to come up with a way for the metas to reveal their identities as those with powers," Barry said. Kara's and Deity's eyes widened. "It's called the Registration Act and no matter how many people oppose it, it seems like it's continuing to grow worse."

"You mean, they want to know your identity?" Deity asked. Of course this was hardly surprising to the teenager. Even on her Earth, people were always trying to find out who she and Kara really where, not that any of them ever got close enough to find out. There had to be other aliens that were out there as well, all living in fear of the same thing.

"Not just ours, every metas," Cadence explained. "They want it known who every meta is, what their powers are, when they got their powers, how strong they are, if they're working with anyone else, if they're putting others at a risk... To keep an eye on them. It's all under the Metahuman Registration Act that Chief Paulson is trying to get passed into law. But they're not just targeting older metas, they're looking at everyone…babies, children, animals…"

"Animals?!" The Kryoptonians repeated.

"Guess we haven't mentioned the Meta-Spiders," Barry said.

Cadence shuddered at the thought. God, she hated spiders. It was worse when powers were added to them. "Or Grodd," Cadence said. Barry nodded. "After all of that…who knows what'll happen."

"Joe's metahuman task force has been overrun with Chief Paulson's presence. He'll stop at nothing to make sure every metahuman is gone" Barry shook his head. "Now we have to be even more careful about what we're doing to save the city, and to keep our friends at STAR Labs safe. As soon as you came through that breach, they must've been notified about a new meta—"

Kara frowned.

"—alien," Barry quickly corrected himself. "presence. Different than the ones they already know."

"Unfortunately, our Central City isn't as great as it used to be," Cadence finished explaining. Not that the Central City on Earth-2 was even better where it looked like everyone who was a hero on their Earth was a villain over there. Her eyebrows came together as she thought about her counterpart, Burnout, and what had happened to her. "But we're working to get it there. Between that and Zoom; we have a lot on our plate."

"We'll help," Kara decided. She reached up as if to push the glasses she wore to hide her identity up her nose. She stopped, remembering she hadn't changed into them yet and found herself tapping her nose. Clearing her throat, Kara added, "Against these guys. Zoom."

"No, we have to get you back to National City," Cadence said.

"You helped us take on Livewire and Killer Frost. Besides, it seems like these things took on a lot of power to get you back," Deity explained. She picked up her device off her chest and tapped her knuckles against it before turning it around. "See? They're not glowing anymore."

"Must be the same thing that happened when we went over," Barry said. "We'll need to fix it." He glanced at Cadence for a second. "There's plenty of things we can use at STAR Labs if Harrison and Harry will help us."

Cadence's eyebrows rose in amusement. "You know you can't leave Cisco out of this, Tholly. Especially not after we explain everything that happened on their Earth."

"I don't plan on it. I'm just trying to think of the quickest way to help them. If they believe us," he added. "Knowing Harry, he's going to give me a hard time about it. And Cisco would be geeking out more than actually working, I think."

Cadence's eyebrows rose even higher. "Harry's from another Earth. He can be an ass, but I don't think he has any room to not believe us," she reminded him. Barry smiled and nodded. Suddenly, there was a low buzzing sound and Cadence pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "It's going to have to wait a little bit; I need to get Brady from school." She then pointed to Barry. "And Captain Singh wants some lab results on his desk in the morning."

Kara's eyebrows rose in surprise. She knew Cadence had a young son, just as she had a young daughter. But Cadence seemed to effortlessly balance the different roles she played—human and metahuman—with little issue of switching between them. Kara never had to worry about Deity when she was at school, in that area of her life she took care of herself fairly well. Though if there ever was a problem Kara would be right there for her. But it wasn't anything they kept separate.

Barry nodded, making a mental note to remember the work that needed to be done.

"Why don't you just teleport and get him?" Deity asked, noticing her picking up a set of car keys. "Or run?"

"With as many attacks that have happened at his school there's camera everywhere. Inside and out. I can't get within a mile radius without exposing myself from their security measures. How are either of us supposed to pick him up if they don't see us on camera and he's suddenly gone? Not to mention we've already had enough run-ins with people in our real life being targeted to know who we are." Cadence flipped her phone in her hand, thinking. "I'll let Caitlin know what happened. She's probably worrying."

Barry pulled himself out of the window and reached out, grasping the area between Cadence's neck and shoulder, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. "She's fine, Cade," he said. "Killer Frost doesn't exist here."

"I know," Cadence replied. Though he could see doubt in her eyes. She reached up her hand and laid it on his cheek the same way he did her. "I just want to be sure." Barry nodded.

"Hey, Barry, can we have a minute to get dressed?" Kara asked.

Deity gave her a funny look, knowing they could easily get dressed in only a few seconds considering their superspeed. Barry probably knew that too, but didn't question it, lest he managed to create an awkward conversation in some way. He nodded and left the bedroom.

Cadence looked up from her phone, because she had finished conversing with Caitlin—who had rightfully told her off for running off without explaining what was going on—and looked up at Kara. She gave a small smile. "You want to talk about something?"

"Yeah, kinda," Kara agreed.

"If it has anything to do with the clothes I gave you…I mean, I know my style isn't for everyone—"

"Oh, no, it's not that," Kara said. Almost as if to prove her point, Deity raced into the new clothes and picked up her glasses to put on her face. She strode to the door then stopped, noticing Kara and Cadence both looking at her.

"What?" She asked. "I know when people want to have a serious conversation." She left the room and Cadence waited for what Kara had to say. The blonde was just about to start speaking when her daughter called back into the room. "Is it alright if I raid your fridge?"

"Sure, just leave the steak, it's for dinner tonight," Cadence called back before turning her attention back to Kara.

The Kryptonian hero chuckled lightly to herself before asking, "How do you do it?"

Cadence crossed her arms, leaning against the wall behind her. "Do you want the long version or the reader's digest version?" Kara looked at her funny, as if silently asking 'how did you know what I was going to say?'. Cadence gave a wry smile. "I usually get told how much of a whore or a slut I am, but that's usually quickly followed by asking how I manage to do it all."

"I guess the part that I can't really get over is the whole pregnancy thing," Kara said.

"Do aliens not get pregnant?"

"Yes, but." A flush came to Kara's cheeks and she started to fiddle with her glasses once more. "I mean…" she held her hands out in front of her as if something was protruding from her stomach. "The whole…carrying a baby thing…I never did that with Deity and sometimes I don't even fell like her mom and you manage to change back and forth so quickly…"

"Ahh, got it." Cadence nodded. "Well, being pregnant sucks. Your ankles swell, you get fat, you have the worst mood swings and cravings you could ever imagine. And I think the whole glowing thing is a load of crap. But it's also great because you get to feel your baby growing inside you. You get to feel them kick and kind of get an idea of the personality they have. You imagine if they'll be more like you or the father, or maybe both. You wonder how they'll end up navigating the world, equally thrilling and scaring you." A wistful smile came to her face. "Then your baby's born and you get to watch them grow. You see the first time they sit up, the first time they smile, the first time they laugh. The first time they really look at you and know that you're there for them. The first time they say 'Mama' or 'I love you'…the way they stand up, walk, run, clap...they're born and you get to watch them grow into actual people." She paused. "Then they learn to talk and don't ever shut up."

Kara laughed. "You balance it all so well."

Cadence nodded. "I have to," she said. "Or else the only thing I would ever talk about is being a metahuman. Which, honestly, gets boring very fast. Barry and I made a rule so that when we go on dates we don't talk about meta stuff. It helps that our jobs at the CCPD keeps us busy, and then our similar and opposite interests we can talk about. For the most part of the day, other than lunch and being at STAR Labs, I don't see him much. But it's the same for Brady, too, if we don't separate our lives from being metas then there's too many things that can go wrong. Too many people that can be targeted and then I wouldn't be anything other than Flare. That structure makes things easier for him and me. Just like in my regular life I wouldn't be anything other than a mom. "

"You're much more than a mom," Kara said honestly.

Cadence smiled. "Thanks, it took some time before I really understood that. It's a precaution that we take seriously." Her phone buzzed again and Cadence rolled her eyes. "She says, while planning to take a speedster and two aliens to her son's school."

Fifteen minutes later the group were pulling into Carmichael Elementary. Even with their own powers, Kara and Deity found themselves white-knuckling the seats from Cadence's quick driving. Being invulnerable didn't make the idea of being in a car crash any more appeasing. Still, they listened all the while Barry and Cadence explained everything that had gone on in the city the entire way, talking over each other as they did so. There was so much they had to deal with all the while keeping everyone who was the closest to them from finding out their identities, especially those who were working alongside and against them.

So, their lives weren't so different from each other, despite being universes apart. Deity tried to keep everything straight; the Reverse-Flash, the Assassination Bureau, Zoom…the widespread reach the particle accelerator had been made to create other metahumans, how Cadence had been a meta since she was young…it was a lot to keep straight and wrap her mind around.

Deity looked out the window of Cadence's car as she went in to pick up Brady. Children milled over the grass, talking to each other while waiting for their parents to pick them up. They all looked happy and excited as they talked to each other, some on their phones, some holding cards and other toys. Deity then noticed the cameras that sat on the nearby street lights and on the outside of the school building. Otherwise it looked like any other school but from what Barry and Cadence had told them there had been too many metahuman incidents for it to be considered 'normal' anymore. Not to mention the security that stood around and the students, slowly swiveling their heads back and forth as the seconds passed. Deity couldn't believe the school was still open, honestly.

It looked more like a prison.

Craning her neck, Deity looked over and watched as Cadence reached Brady—she could see their resemblance immediately. Their smiles matched, and their facial structures were the same, though he stood at almost the same height as her, maybe a little taller. He turned and gave his friends a wave-the two friends stopping to give Cadence a hug, which she enthusiastically returned-before giving his mother a hug himself. Brady slipped off his backpack and handed it to her and the two headed back to the car. Brady immediately ran over to Barry's open window.

"Hi, Barry!" He greeted, leaning into the window.

"Hey." Barry reached through the window and gave him a high-five then ruffled his hair. "How was school today?"

"Good." Brady rested his arms on the window then leaned forward, resting his chin atop his crossed arms. His eyes shone with mirth. "I got an A on my history test!"

"Notice how he wanted to tell you first," Cadence remarked when she reached her car. She reached Brady's backpack through the window for Barry to stake and put in the footwell of the passenger seat.

"Don't be jealous, mom," Brady said to her. He backed away from the window and gave her a funny look. "He's your boyfriend, not mine."

Well that explains that, Deity thought. No one had outright told her their relationship status when they were on their Earth, but she sensed there was something between them since they first crossed over. More than being crime fighting partners, anyway. Deity then looked over at Kara, noticing a strange expression come to her face, one a cross of confusion and sadness.

Cadence laughed and opened the door to the backseat. Deity slid over so that Brady could get into the seat she previously occupied. He climbed in, looking at the two women curiously, though with a friendly gleam in his eye. He didn't appear suspicious at all. Not like the way Barry and Cadence had been when they first saw her friends.

"Brady, these are our friends Kara and Debby Danvers," Barry explained. "Or as known on their Earth Supergirl and Deity."

Brady's eyebrows came together. "Did Cisco name them?"

"Not quite, bud." Cadence grabbed his cell phone, having taken it from his backpack pocket and navigated to Iris's blog before handing it back to him. Reader comments were already starting to come in from what they had seen not too long before.

Brady watched the shaky camera footage of what had happened earlier. "Oh." He lowered the cell phone and looked back and forth between Kara and Deity. "So you're Supergirl and Deity?"

"Debby," Deity corrected him, straightening her glasses. "When I'm wearing the glasses people call me Debby."

Brady made a face at the name. "Debby? You couldn't come up with anything better than Debby? Who's called Debby anymore?"

"Yeah, mom." Deity smiled over at Kara, who glared at her in response.

Deity had the same issues when Kara first started to introduce her to her co-workers and friends. Debby certainly wasn't her first choice as a 'human' name, though it had grown on her as time went on. Still, it was very reminiscent of the feeling of bewilderment that Kara and Deity both had to work through at first.

"Why didn't she just say your name is Deity and your birth parents were Greek?" Then it was Kara's turn to get Brady's blunt treatment. "The glasses aren't a good disguise, either. You should try a wig."

Deity burst out laughing, her own glasses almost falling off as Kara frowned at the little boy. Cadence tried to hide her laughter as she admonished her son for being rude, but Barry joined in on it. As soon as they arrived at STAR Labs superspeeded inside, blowing everyone's hair out of their faces. Cadence rolled her eyes then teleported everyone in after him, muttering 'showoff' before she did so.

"The others should be here soon," Barry said, rubbing his hands together as the others arrived in the Cortex. He ran his finger up the bride of his nose and added, "We can give you a tour of the place before then, since you showed us yours."

"You mean considering we left them at the air field with no explanation?" Cadence asked, choosing not to tease him about his poor choice of words. He'd already had enough of that on his Earth. "I'm sure even Caitlin would be burning rubber to get back here."

Barry smiled at the image of Caitlin, who was a very cautious driver, breaking any of the rules of the road. "In the mean time, take a look around." He spread his arms and spun in a quick circle to show off the Cortex. This is where Team Flash operates."

"And practically lives," Cadence said.

"And have super-serious conversations," Brady added with an air of sarcasm in his voice. Cadence laughed and ruffled his hair before gently pushing him away, making him laugh and smile as well.

"Wow!" Kara twirled to look around the equipment that was set up around the Cortex. They were so much more advanced than she'd seen, even from what had been made and utilized at the DEO. Deity looked around the computers and other monitors that were set up, her face glowing from the blue light of the screensavers of each one. "This place is nice."

"And to think, we have to work in a cave," Deity pointed out as she and her mother shared a grin.

"It doesn't have a spaceship anywhere, but it works pretty well for what we need to do," Cadence said.

"A spaceship?" Brady repeated. He turned to Kara and Deity, eyes widening almost to the size of dinner plates. "You have a spaceship?"

"Had," Deity corrected. "It' s a long story."

"I mean, this stuff is really nice," Kara said. She moved over to the medical bay that Caitlin and Cadence both worked out of. "You guys have everything and is…is that?" She pointed towards a treadmill that sat inside an enclosed room. She practically squealed. "Is that your treadmill?"

"Cisco built it to handle my top speeds," Barry explained. "We call it the Cosmic Treadmill. We use it to study the top speed a Speedster can go. Though we use it for other metas as well to see what's changed with their metahuman physiology."

"This is the main area we operate out of. Cisco and Caitlin both have offices on this floor as well. But other floors of the building have different rooms as well. Like our practice room." Cadence led them out of the Cortex and down a floor to another room. She flipped on the lights to show gymnastics equipment that had been set up. "This is my gymnastics center. I use it to keep in shape and work on my fighting style. Not to mention it comes in handy when I'm figuring out stuff for work."

"Fighting co-workers for the last doughnut?" Kara teased.

"No, my job as a Zumba instructor," Cadence said, surprising her even more. Two jobs, a kid, and being a metahuman?

"What's that over there?" Deity pointed towards what looked like a mixture of a space pod and a sauna that sat in the corner of the room.

"Oh, that's my Hot Locker," Cadence said.

"Like the Hurt Locker?" Kara asked, grinning when she got the correct reference. Deity frowned, a little confused. Despite all the movies and TV shows Kara, Winn and her friends had shown her, she still had a lot to learn about pop culture.

Cadence nodded. "If my body temperature gets too high, with or without using my powers, I can go into a coma, have seizures, or suffer brain damage." Kara and Deity frowned, they didn't know that. "So Cisco made this Hot Locker for the others to continually observe my body temperature and power levels."

"And to show when my mom is getting too mad," Brady added, smiling teasingly at his mother. He squeezed his mother's hand before turning to Deity and tapping her on the arm. "Do you want to see the room I use for target practice?"

"Sure," Deity replied.

Brady led her down to the training room that each of the metas used to train the motioned over to the targets that were specifically used for his powers as well as the ammo that was used for his slingshot. He picked up a piece of ammo and rolled it between his fingers before asking, "So, if your mom like super overprotective? Being a superhero, I mean?"

Deity made a face. The question had thrown her off a little. As it was, it probably wasn't the word she would've gone with. But…Kara did tend to go into 'mom-mode' quickly. Especially when a Hybrid came around. Not that there weren't bumps along the way of trying to figure out how to be a mother to a fifteen-year-old who wasn't actually hers. Nor was she really adopted. For all intents and purposes, it was for her to be safe while on Earth but…Kara had been a mom for only a few months let alone to a teenager who, in some areas of her life, should have more freedom.

"I guess?" Deity phrased it as a question. That was a long story, too. "What about yours?"

Brady shrugged. "Yes and no. I got in some trouble lately and…" he shrugged again, changing the subject. "She's my mom so whenever something is bothering me or if I'm having problems she's always there to help. I think I've heard her threaten the PTA sometimes. But she lets me do a lot of cool stuff, too." Brady flicked his hair from his face with a jerk of his head. As Brady talked Deity couldn't help but see the similarities in their parents…besides the PTA threatening. "My mom's cool. What about your dad?"

Deity blinked in surprise. Brady didn't seem like the kind of person who wouldn't have tact. It came out more innocent than nasty, a curious question. Honestly, she hadn't put too much thought into it, she was too busy teasing Kara about Winn as it was. "I…don't have one, I guess. I mean, I did, I _do..._ back on Krypton…what about you? What's your dad like?"

"Ryder or Barry?" Brady asked. Deity's eyebrows came together. "Ryder's my birth dad. He's my mom's ex-boyfriend. But Barry's kind of my dad, too. It's really cool having them both around. I like it! Ryder likes to hang out and help me with my homework and teach me new things. He can kind of be a pushover because he's not used to being a dad yet. Barry's awesome, too. He teaches me all sorts of science things and talks to me. I like having two dads. So you're an alien? Do you have any alien friends?"

His abrupt change of the subject brought Deity out of her consuming thoughts. Though it just amplified the sadness she was feeling. She shook her head. "I guess I did back home. Not so much here. Besides, Kara."

"Why not?"

"Kara says we need to stay as inconspicuous as possible. There aren't many people around that we can trust. Plus every alien I've met has either tried to kill me or…Actually they've all tried to kill me. What about you, any metahuman friends?"

"Mhm. Conner and Leah are my best friends. Conner's not a meta, but Leah is." He frowned, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. "I guess I shouldn't have told you that. No one's supposed to know she has powers. Sometimes we work with her here, but it's hard because her parents don't know."

"They don't?"

"No. They're afraid of metas. They're afraid of getting hurt."

"So they want the Registration Act?" Deity asked. Brady nodded. Deity's eyebrows came together. What would happen once they figured out their daughter was a metahuman once it passed? What would happen to anyone who's families were figured out? What would happen to Barry, Cadence, and Brady? "Well don't worry about your friend. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets." Brady smiled thankfully at Deity and the teenager was more than happy to smile back.

"Guys, we need you up here," Cadence's voice came through the speakers surrounding the room, making Deity jump.

The two headed back up to the Cortex where Caitlin, Cisco, Harrison, and Harry had just arrived. They looked at the newcomers with trepidation, before shifting their gaze to Barry and Cadence.

"Okay, before you guys freak out, they're the reason why we left the airstrip so fast," Barry said quickly. "Kara and Debby Danvers." The two waved as their names were called, showing of their friendliest smiles. In return, these newcomers didn't look so excited to see them.

"They're not from Earth," Cadence said. "Or from _our_ Earth. And we need to help them get back home."

It didn't take long for the reactions to come after the initial moment of surprise. Harry was pissed, Caitlin was worried, and Harrison and Cisco were excited. Barry, on the other hand, was anxious. It wasn't like they hadn't had weird people come into the Cortex before. But now with the political climate of Central City changing, he could understand how any of them would be worried about who managed to find Team Flash's hideout. Not to mention considering the grant research they had been given by Bruce Wayne made it so that there was more media attention on them every now and then. Media attention that Harrison and Tess didn't mind taking care of when the moment arose.

Still, they'd had enough people come in and out that were allies, (let alone enemies) he figured they should've been used to it by now. Besides, Barry wasn't someone who'd bring random strangers into STAR Labs without knowing whether or not they were a friend or foe. Well, maybe once, he reminded himself of the way he, Cadence, and the others had met.

Now, he waited for their response to everything.

"So…just so I have this straight," Cisco said. Everyone watched as he paced the floor of the Cortex. "You're from Krypton, sent here to protect your cousin, Superman, who didn't actually need protecting because by the time you got here he was already Superman? And there are other aliens that come around to try and kill you." Kara nodded. Cisco then pointed to Deity. "And you're a Kryptonian Hybrid that has your Kryptonian DNA mixed in with some other aliens' DNA, but you and these other Hybrids don't remember what happened to you. And to top it all off your fighting her aunt," he pointed back to Kara. "Who is trying to take over the world so she can make it into Krypton 2.0.?"

"On our Earth, yes," Kara agreed after a moment. It was her story, but hearing Cisco repeat it so fast and enthusiastically made Kara have to rethink herself.

Cisco then squealed, making Caitlin's head jerk back in surprise and Cadence's eyes widen as she wiggled a finger in her ear. "Oh, I think this is the best day of my life."

Barry looked at his friend, offended. "I thought me becoming the Flash was the best day of your life."

"Yeah, but you're not an alien." Deity forced a cough. "Or a Hybrid," Cisco quickly added before giving the teenage brunette a double thumbs up.

"He says things are 'his jam'," Cadence pointed out, using air quotes around the words. "Nothing's more alien than that."

"Who cares?" Harry demanded. He turned to his team, gesturing violently towards Kara and Debby. "Do you know what these two have done for our cover? For Central City? Now we have to double down on our efforts to keep the press away from STAR Labs and the government from Central City! _And_ it's interfering with our test of Velocity-9. Remember that? Remember Zoom?"

"Wait, we didn't mean for any of this to happen," Kara said defensively.

"No one ever means for any of this to happen, it just happens. As it is, they shouldn't be here!" Harry continued, ignoring her and speaking only to his teammates. Growling, was probably the better way to put it. "Do you not understand the implications of their being here? For Zoom?"

"I was using the Tachyon device when I went to their Earth on accident and the same thing happened when we were coming back," Barry snapped back. "Now it's not letting them get back. A breach won't open."

Harry rolled his eyes. He stated to pace. "Let me see." Cisco reached out to take the device and looked it over. He tapped his fingers against the sides of it, even fiddled with the wires, but nothing happened.

"We used that thing to get here and feel fine, but when Barry and Cadence came over they forgot a lot of stuff," Kara said.

"That's a possible side-effect of moving through numerous Earths," Harrison pointed out, finally speaking up after his cautious glances of the newcomers. "The more Earths you travel through, the harder it becomes to deal with the dimensional strain as we on Earth-2 call it. For example, Harry and Jesse had no issues going from my Earth to theirs and vice-versa as it was only one dimension to move over. However, this Kara is from Earth-38."

"So because of the Tachyon device Barry's and my memories were only affected a little bit from the dimensional divide," Cadence said to her father, who nodded in agreement. "That makes sense." Still, there was something in the back of her head that was warning her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"And possibly due to your healing powers," Caitlin added.

"Does that mean that Kara and Debby-" Brady made a face at her name, he still wasn't found of it. "-don't exist on this Earth?"

"I know of a Supergirl on this Earth," Cadence said.

Kara looked at her in surprise, then remembered Cadence mentioning her before. "Really? You do?" She started to feel a little excited. If she existed on this Earth than she had to be a great hero, too. Maybe she had been able to find Kal-El—though he was probably known as Clark on this Earth, too—and fulfill the mission she had been destined to do.

"Yeah, but she's kinda…" Cadence trailed off, spinning her finger by her head and made a whistling sound. That made Deity burst out into hysterical laughter while Kara glared at her. "Also here she's known as Kara Kent not Kara Danvers."

"So…we're not related to Alex," Deity reminded Kara, quickly sobering up from her laughter. Kara frowned as she nodded, prompting her daughter to frown in return.

"Apparently none of us exist over on Earth-38 either," Barry relayed to his friends. "So chances are if there's no Kara Danvers, there's no Alex either. Or Winn or Hank..."

"Again, circumstances on different Earths…" Harry pointed out with a careless shrug. Kara frowned at him. She had gotten a quick introduction of Caitlin, Cisco, Harrison, and "Harry" and while it was s surprise to see both incarnations of the same man in the same room, it wasn't so hard to see the differences between the two of them. She just couldn't understand why Harry would be so…cold.

"Don't mind him, he's just a dick," Cisco called over. Cadence and Brady shared a smile. Cisco didn't even have to look to reprimand Harry on his social skills anymore.

"So…what happened to the Supergirl on this Earth?" Deity asked.

Cadence took in a breath. "She disappeared about four...five years ago," she said. "Metropolis was really starting to see her as a superhero along with Superman…but then one day she never came back. I think that was around the time the Vigilante Registration Act was passed."

"And now they're trying to pass the Metahuman Registration Act?" Deity asked. "You'd think they would've gotten the hint the first time."

Kara slowly nodded at Deity's statement. Then she quietly asked, "What did this Supergirl look like? Did she look like me?"

"As far as we've come across there have been Doppelgangers of everyone from Earth-1 on other Earths with the exception of your own," Caitlin said. Her words made Barry and Cadence grimace, giving each other a look. For Caitlin's on peace of mind they'd agreed not to tell her about her Earth-38 doppelganger. Killer Frost had tormented her enough as it was there and on Earth-2.

"I want to see," Kara said firmly. She motioned towards Barry and Cadence. "They said that the Superman on our Earth didn't look like our Superman. Maybe it's the same here?"

Caitlin nodded and walked over to her computer panel. She moved through the database of known metas that they'd put together and pulled up a picture of Supergirl. Deity gasped, her eyes widening as she moved closer to the wall mounted monitor. There was no way…the Supergirl on Earth-1…she looked exactly like Indigo. Well, minus the blue skin, orange hair, and triangle piece on her forehead.

Startled, Deity looked over at Kara to find her lips pressed together, eyes staring at the picture in intense concentration. Then she turned her head away, bringing a hand up to rub her temples. This was really starting to get very confusing.

"Is this someone you know?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes," Kara said, but she left it at that. It was hard to think about, how on a different Earth she, even though it wasn't really her, had been a hero but then on her own she turned into someone else so…evil.

"Mom, it's not you," Deity reminded her, taking her mother's hand in her own. "This is a different person."

And Kara understood that, but in a way…she felt it was like a part of her that she never knew.

"Got it!" Cisco suddenly called. He walked back to the group, holding up the Tachyon device. "This device, when you guys went over to Earth-28—"

"—38," Harry corrected.

"Whatever, Harry," Cisco shot back. "When you guys went over to Earth-38—" he glared at Harry, who waved a hand—"it short circuited due to the dimensions you moved through and sent an energy shock through your bodies, making it affect your minds more than what your healing powers could keep up with. But,"—he held up a finger—"when it broke coming back over here, it didn't affect anyone. Probably because the technology is from this Earth."

"And because it's from this Earth, it managed to hold the power source enough so that it wouldn't alter their memories," Caitlin said, immediately understanding. "What does that mean with the Velocity-9 though?" She turned to Barry and started to rapid-fire questions towards him. "Any changes in your physiology? Nose bleeds? Healing not working? Any changes at all?"

"Can you fix it?" Brady asked.

"Of course I can," Cisco snorted, offended. "The only thing is with the way it was patched up over there, there's some…questionable materials in here I haven't come across very much before."

"Oh yeah," Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "I got some help from Winn to fix it."

"Another acquaintance of yours?" Harrison asked. His eyebrows rose curiously though his eyes shifted back and forth as if he were mentally calculating something.

"Yeah. Actually, he sort of reminds me of you, Cisco," Barry said.

"They've got the same sense of humor, anyway," Cadence said.

"Maybe he is me," Cisco joked. He flipped the device in his hand and winked. "If not, then you have good taste in friends and even better taste in handsome men."

Cadence smiled while Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Don't encourage him," Caitlin warned her. "You won't hear the end of it. Ever!"

"So this Registration Act thing…that's what you're working on?" Deity asked Harrison.

"Yes, Tess and I have focused our studies on metahumans and how they're treated socially as well as understanding their behaviors as a whole," Harrison said. He brought his hands up and rested them atop his head. For a moment, he closed his eyes, letting out a long breath. "However, with this Act coming closer and closer to fruition our research has added the legality of it being made as well. So far our progress hasn't been as substantial as we'd hoped it'd be."

"If there's anyone who can figure this out and stop it, it's you Dr. Wells," Barry reassured him. "You and Tess have already managed to push it back a few times; you can have it stopped completely."

"I don't know, it might help if Zoom had to register too," Brady said with a wry smile, looking very much like his mother with the expression.

"Yeah, if only our lives were that easy, bud," Cadence remarked. "We'd be lucky if we can go through the rest of today without him sending out another meta to kill us."

"Don't jinx it," Barry warned.

"I'm just saying, I can basically set my watch to it now."

"So…how long do you think it's going to take to fix this thing?" Kara asked of the Tachyon device.

Cisco shrugged as he turned it back and forth. "I'm not sure. Like I said, there's a lot of different materials here that I'm not really familiar with—"Harry suddenly pulled the device from Cisco's hands and stared to examine it himself, his forehead creasing as he did so. "Rude!"

"These materials aren't so advanced that alternate sources to hold its power can't be figured out to return to their own time," Harry said in his rapid-fire mumble.

"Yeah, but how long will it take to fix?" Deity repeated with a little attitude. She took a step back towards Kara when Harry fixed her with a steely gaze. He really didn't like having them around.

"I can't say," he said.

"Don't forget, we were in your city for two days," Cadence reminded her. "It might not actually be that long." Time seemed to have moved differently when they were on Earth-2, almost at the same speed but slightly different. The frequencies between Earths but affect memories and time as well, she realized. Especially with as big a gap as going 38 Earths over.

"Cadence is right," Kara said to Deity. "Chances are with the device not working properly it doesn't help to process time differently either." She shrugged. "So I guess we're stuck here for a while."

"In that case…" a sly smile came to Cisco's lips as his eyes darted around the superheroes in the room. "Maybe you'd like to show us the sort of things you can do. I mean, 'cause you're Supergirl and Deity and everything."

"Cisco, they just got here, let them rest," Caitlin warned. But she had a mischievous glint in her eye as well, though had more skill to hide it than her best friend did.

"We don't have anywhere to stay," Deity pointed out.

"You can stay with us," Brady offered. He looked to his mom for confirmation, realizing he'd offered it without getting permission first. He smiled as she said, "Just so long as you don't mind sleeping on a fold out couch."

"Or they can stay at my place," Caitlin also offered.

Kara smiled, glad that they trusted them enough to not mind staying with a couple of aliens they had only just met. "We can figure that out later." She turned back to Cisco. "What kinds of things did you want to see?"

"Well, are you as good as Superman? Being his cousin and all, I'd assume you'd have the same power set."

"Ha!" Deity laughed. "She's even better."

Kara blushed at her daughter's praise. "Well, I don't know about being better…but, yeah, I think I'm pretty good."

"Better than Barry?" Cisco asked.

"Cisco," Barry warned.

"Oh, she's way better than Barry," Deity said confidently. Barry shot the teenager a bewildered look while Kara continued to blush and Cadence snickered a little. "I mean, she's not as fast as him, but she has way more powers than him." Deity paused, thinking for a moment before saying, "Although now that I think about it. During the race we ran, it looked like we were pulling ahead."

Barry started to say something then stopped when Cadence lifted a finger and pointed at him. "You were the one who insisted on carrying me when I can teleport. It's all on you if you're slowing down Mr. I-Like-To-Eat-Big-Belly-Burger-Every-Change-I-Get." Then again, she wasn't sure how far her teleporting could take her, in terms of crossing through to different Earths. That was definitely something they'd need to test.

"Well, not to brag but I did stop a plane from crashing my first time out," Kara said casually as she played with her glasses.

"First of, that's totally bragging," Barry pointed out. "And second, my first time out I stopped a tornado." He couldn't stop the smug smile that came to his face.

"Ooh, a tornado, so scary," Deity said patronizingly.

"Ignoring the threats we've all faced, we could totally take you in a fight," Cadence said as she waved a finger between herself and Barry, a confident air appearing around her. She reached out her and she and Barry fist-bumped then gave Brady a high-five. "And not even break a sweat."

"Oh, really?" Kara said. She folded her arms as she stared down Cadence. "You think a little fire could hurt us?"

"Firstly, I don't do little," Cadence said with a grin. "Never have. Secondly, fire's not the only thing I bring to the table."

"Plus, fire melts steel," Brady added.

"Yeah, but super strength breaks bones," Deity countered smugly.

"Not if you can't touch us," Brady's new expression then exactly mimicked his mother's

"I'm pretty sure we could catch all three of you," Kara said.

"Now that sounds like a challenge," Barry said stepping forward.

Kara and Deity looked to each other with matching grins. "You may be fast, Barry," Kara started.

"But we're in a whole other league," Deity finished.

Cadence's eyes shifted back and forth between the two. Barry, though, couldn't hold back his competitive nature. Either that or, as evidenced when meeting Oliver and other vilgilantes, his excitement was getting ahead of him. "You want to bet?" Barry asked. "Loser buys lunch. Preferably Big Belly Burger." He ignored Cadence's snort and Brady's laughter.

"Really? Cause I was thinking some more ice cream," Kara teased.

"Aw yeah!" Cisco cheered. He squeezed his hands into fists and placed them against his chest. A wistful sigh escaped his lips, the expression on his face resembling someone about to swoon. "We've got a fight coming on, I can't wait to watch."

"We have more important things to worry about!" Harry pointed out.

Harrison cut him off, placing a hand on his shoulder. He motioned for his doppelganger to leave the room and the two left to get started on the Tachyon device. They'd seen what happened when vigilantes and superheroes got together; at some point, it ended up in a conversation of who was better. And it was always better to get it out of the way.

With that, Caitlin and Cisco led the group down to the training room, leaving Harrison and Harry to work on their projects. Opting not to change into their suits—after Brady's tirade of whether Kara and Deity knew that capes meant an increased chance of decapitation or suffocation and hadn't they ever watched The Incredibles with Cisco speaking up in agreement. Deity had then snapped at the two about spoilers pointing out she hadn't gotten around to watching the movie yet—Barry, Kara, Cadence, Deity, and Brady all got ready on opposite sides of the room, speaking quietly to each other before getting into position.

"Is everyone ready?" Caitlin asked.

Barry glanced over at her and Cisco, smiling when he saw that Caitlin looked as excited as Cisco about watching the fight, though was holding herself together considerably better than Cisco, who was practically bouncing up and down. All he needed was a pair of pom-poms.

"Just let us know when you want to quit," Cadence said.

"Not going to happen," Kara replied.

"Let me know if I hurt you," Deity said to Brady.

Brady pulled back his ammo in his slingshot. "You won't," he replied.

There was a klaxon sound and they started. Brady turned his slingshot away from Deity and towards the ceiling. He immediately let go of the ammo, watching for a second as it arched through the air, then raced towards the Hybrid. Deity used her enhanced speed to shoot towards him as well and swung her fist…and continued to follow her momentum in an arch as she passed right through him.

"What?" Deity turned around in time for Brady to smack her in the knee-cap with a well-placed kick then a straight jab to her nose. _Oh right, he can phase_.

There was a sudden explosion sound and a blast of bright light shot illuminated the room. Brady's slingshot attack.

Barry twisted his head away, shielding his face from the light, allowing Kara the chance to send a flurry of punches and kicks into him. Barry lost his footing and fell backwards with Kara following after him. Kara's opening was then closed by Cadence's sudden appearance and disappearance around her as she rapidly teleported, giving herself multiple openings to punch her. Kara finally managed to block at hit, grabbing Cadence's arm and punched her in the face. There was an immediate cracking sound and a cry escaped Cadence's lips

Kara's eyes widened and she clasped her hands over her mouth as Cadence stepped back. She'd wanted to fight, not break anyone's bones. The fire-metahuman grimaced, her right eye beginning to swell, cheek split open, a drip of blood rolling down towards her chin. Then Cadence flicked her head as her skin started to heal, the wound disappearing instantaneously. That wasn't what had caught Kara's attention more than the orange hue that Cadence's eyes suddenly started to take, almost lizard-like. Then she sent out a heat vision blast which Kara quickly counteracted with hers; blue and red, locked in battle.

Deity and Brady continued to swirl around each other in their fight. Deity continued to try and punch him but he would either use his phasing ability to make her attacks move though him, or sink into the floor and up behind her to start it all over again. However, this time, when Brady sank into the floor, Deity flew up into the air to prepare herself. She had noticed a pattern to his movements, particularly when he sank into the floor. After a split second of thinking, combined with a little guess work, Deity picked the spot where she was sure Brady would come up through. With eyes locked onto the spot, Deity used her energy vision to break the ground open. As it turned out Deity had been right. Brady shielded his face with his hands amongst the dirt and debris that blew up around him as well as to block out the bright yellow light emitted by Deity's energy vision. Then before he had a chance to recover he was struck with Deity's blinding speed. He started to fly backwards, but Barry raced around and caught him out of the air, setting him back to the ground.

Quick as a flash, Brady suddenly seemed to disappear before everyone's eyes. Barry then started running towards Kara and phased through her before turning around and superspeeded around the room over and over. Once Barry got to a high enough speed, he pushed himself off the wall and propelled himself into Kara, punching her hard in the side of the face, knocking her into Deity. The two girls stumbled but then planted their feet firmly against the grounded as the skidded to a stop. Cadence took the opportunity to bring flames up along her arms and throw giant balls of fire towards the two Kryptonians.

Kara and Deity took a deep breath and blew out super breath to knock down her flames before they could get close enough to do any real damage. Cadence brought up her arm to turn away from the strong gust of wind as Barry quickly moved in front of her and rapidly spun his arms to send an air vortex back to Kryptonians. Then Cadence stuck out her hand and used the air Barry was generating to increase the size and heat of the flames along her arms. Kara used the opportunity to race forward and strike Barry and Cadence with the same attack, a strong arching kick that knocked them into the wall behind them.

Cadence lifted her feet and planted them against the wall, using it as a springboard to flip herself back over while Barry collapsed at her side in a heap. Brady pulled a piece of ammo from his pocket and looked it over for a second before throwing it to the floor as hard as he could. As soon as it broke an ear-piercing screech filled the air, making Kara, Deity, Barry, and Cadence cry out in pain as they grabbed their ears. Due to their super-hearing Kara and Deity got it worse, leaving them to crouch on the ground as the sound continued, viciously assaulting their ear drums.

Brady pulled back on his slingshot once more and aimed a piece of ammo towards the ceiling. Noticing it, Deity quickly fired off her energy vision and two beams of golden light knocked the slingshot from his hand…and towards Caitlin and Cisco who quickly moved out of the way to keep from getting hit by the flying weapon. But it wasn't fast enough as the ammo Brady had smacked into the sprinklers in the ceiling, dropping water down on everyone.

With the water dropping down to soak them, Barry superspeeded around the room once more and threw a bolt of lightning towards Kara and Deity. They responded by sending out both a blast of heat vision and energy vision that connected with the bolt of lightning and imploded, sending the meta-humans and aliens flying apart from the energy that was created. When the dust cleared they all laid quietly on the floor.

"THAT WAS THE BEST!" Cisco shouted, punching the air with his fists. Caitlin, on the other hand, quickly moved to get the First-Aid kit and hurried to administer it. "Oh my gosh, it was like Gladiator on speed. Oh my gosh." He pressed his hands to the sides of his face. "I can't think. That was amazing. My head. My mind. Oh gosh… Please tell me we recorded that!" Cisco then cried in a sudden panic as he began looking over the computers in front of him.

"Calm down Cisco, we don't want you to have a heart attack," Caitlin said. She opened the First-Aid kit and kneeled next to Brady, who was holding his nose. "Are you okay?" She asked gently.

"I think so," he said, voice muffled by the hands cupped around his face.

"Let's see," Caitlin said, tilting his head back. Blood dripped form his nose.

"And I thought you said I wasn't going to hurt you," Deity said, coming up beside him. Brady laughed. "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean it."

"That's okay," Brady said nonchalantly to his new friend. "I've been hurt worse and I'm still alive."

"Did I break any bones?" Deity asked, looking to Caitlin.

She smiled, sensing the playfulness in the teenager's voice. "No, nothing's broke."

"Oh, well. There's always next time," Deity teased making Brady smile before taking the ice pack Caitlin handed him and pressing it to his face.

"Thanks, Aunt Caitlin," he said and hugged her.

"You're very welcome, Brady," Caitlin replied, accepting his hug.

"I'll get started on finishing organizing the medicine," he said to her.

Oh, right, his most recent punishment. Caitlin shook her head. "That won't be necessary. Dr. Allen's helped me to finish the job." She closed the First-Aid kit and turned to Cadence. "Just wait until the swelling goes down a little, to make sure nothing's been too damaged then you can heal him."

"Thanks, Cait. You're a lifesaver," Cadence said. She smoothed her hair back from her face then sank to the floor to stretch out her legs. She then pulled one leg back until she was in a split and stretched forward to grab her ankle. "Did Cisco pass out yet?"

Caitlin laughed as she looked over her shoulder, finding Cisco sprawled out over a desk a loving smile on his face. "I think he may be in a bit of a coma, but he'll be back to his normal self, soon. You know he can't have Harry take all of the glory of fixing the Tachyon device."

"Mm, remind me again why we didn't take them to the superhero fight club," Cadence muttered as Barry walked her way.

Honestly, he wondered the same thing after their sparring, but all the same knew there were too many reasons. Most of which being unable to get them out of the city without Chief Paulson tailing them in some way. It was bad enough that there was a specific bounty on his head from his boss. "Because if I told her what it was Oliver would kill us," Barry replied.

"Oh yeah, that's right."

He held his hand out towards her. "Are you okay?"

"Absolutely. You know I'm much stronger than that." She took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "Promise," she added, noticing the look on his face. The two came together in a quick kiss. "You worry too much."

He smiled back. "Can't help it."

Kara smiled as she dusted off her glasses on the bottom of her blouse. Then she re-arranged them on her face and walked over to Cadence, who had leaned forward, balancing on one leg and pulled the other up by her head. "So," she said. "Looks like you lied to me."

Cadence looked alarmed for a second; unsure of what Kara was talking about. Then she understood and smiled back, lowering her leg back to the ground before stretching it up behind her until her leg nearly touched the back of her head. Kara had no idea how she could do that with ease and without pain—and even she didn't feel so much pain. "Yeah, I guess I kind of did."

"So you and Barry…?"

"Uh." Cadence reached back and rubbed the back of her neck, similar to what Barry did when he was nervous about something. But the giddy expression that wormed up couldn't be kept down and she practically swooned. "Well, we said we love each other."

Kara beamed and grabbed Cadence's wrist. "That's great, Cadence! I knew there was something there between you. I didn't think you went on just one date."

"And I know there's something with you and Winn," Cadence replied, making Kara's grin falter a little. "You might not be together now but…I have it on good authority you won't be apart for too long."

"Why? Can you read minds?" Kara joked.

"No, I watch people and I can sense changes in body heat." Cadence waved a hand and grinned, noticing the flush that immediately worked its way up Kara's cheeks and neck. "You can take that however you want."

Kara laughed.

* * *

"So, what's this Superhero fight club and how do we join?" Kara asked once they'd made it back to Cadence's apartment. The others decided to stay back at STAR Labs to fix the Tachyon device, Caitlin insisted Barry stay to look over his powers, but he'd quickly fended her off, saying he'd come in if he felt anything different. She blinked when she noticed Barry's and Cadence's eyes both sought each other's. Kara's eyebrows came together, noticing the movement. Brady even made a show of moving his notebook up to cover his face. Okay, clearly that was a secret no one was supposed to know.

"Come on," Deity pressed. "What is it?"

Cadence held her breath, thinking back to what Oliver would say had he been there. Chances are, he would've killed them both with a glare let alone with a barrage of arrows. He really was that secretive. Even if he had managed to calm down some since having brought Conner into his life. Cadence made the mental note to call him again, to see how things were going over there.

Barry started to stammer. "H-how, uh, how—"

"Super hearing, remember," Kara said tapping her ear.

"You might want to get a handle on that," Cadence warned. She looked over at Barry, who looked back at her.

Maybe one day they could bring their new friends along to the training arena, but for the time being it had to be a secret. Oliver didn't trust anyone he didn't know and it was his prerogative who he kept in and out. Not even Harrison, Harry, Caitlin, or Cisco could trace its location, even with all the tracking technology at his disposal.

"Besides, it's nothing," Barry said as convincingly as possible. He waved his hand, rubbing it over the back of his neck. "Just an inside joke."

"Uh-huh." Kara and Deity didn't seem like they was going to give up anytime soon, but Kara was then quickly distracted by the board games set up on a nearby shelf, Barry immediately asking if she wanted to play Operation, saying he was the best at it. Competition clearly seemed to rear it's head whenever heroes were together.

Cadence glanced at her watch and walked into the kitchen to check on the food that was cooking. She found Deity rummaging through her cupboards and frowned. She stood behind the teenager, folding her arms and tilting her head as she waited for Deity to notice her presence. It was a few seconds later Deity pulled away from the open, and now messy cupboard, and turned to face the home owner.

"Cups?" Deity asked.

"Other side." Cadence pointed to the correct cabinet before opening the oven and reaching inside to take out the pan of steak. She dropped it on the counter and moved to check the pot of boiling water that held the vegetables. "Now, to get the—" She blinked as a stack of plates suddenly appeared beside her and Deity sat on the counter, kicking her legs back and forth, drinking water from a glass. "You know, I hate it when Barry does that."

As if knowing his name was called, Barry shouted, "Hey Cade?" His voice sounded nervous, as if he was trying to stay calm. There was a low shushing sound and Cadence could also hear Brady trying to say something but sounded like he was being cut off.

"Yeah?" She called back.

"Uh, where's the duct tape?"

 _What could he possibly need duct tape for when playing Operation?_ The sound of a constant ringing buzz, Brady's laughter, and Kara's apologies reached her ears. Oh, that. "In our room," Cadence called back.

Deity's eyebrows rose. "He lives here?" She asked, eyes shifting around the more feminine pieces that were used to decorate the kitchen, and the rest of the apartment that she'd seen. Cadence noticed something flash in her eyes but didn't question it.

"Not officially, he's not on the rent," Cadence said. "But it comes in handy when I need electric work done. It's helpful when it comes to other things around here that needs fixing…if he doesn't make it worse first."

Deity shrugged then put her cup down. "So, you gonna tell us about this fight club thing?"

"No," Cadence said shortly. She moved about the kitchen, setting up the rest of dinner.

"Oh, come on." Deity playfully wiggled her shoulders. "If we're going to be hanging out here for a bit, then we'll need to know this stuff."

"Why?" Cadence asked with a critical look to the teenager. There were plenty of things about their life on Earth-38 and the DEO that she and Barry did't have the clearance to be told. Why would it be any different over here? Deity went to speak only to then stop when she realized she didn't really have much of a case instead she whined, "Just tell me about it. It sounds so cool."

"Deity," Cadence warned.

"Please? I promise I won't even tell Kara if you tell me. Well, the whole super-hearing thing may not work things out but—"

"Deity, I said 'no'!" Cadence said firmly. "Please respect that I may have a reason for it." She eyed the teenage girl for a moment. "And try to no to throw your teenage pout and bad attitude at me." She knew by experience hat it never really worked.

"Jeez! Calm down. I'm just curious is all," Deity said with the exact characteristics Cadence had just described.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Cadence said with a smirk, the tension leaving the air as she did.

Deity's nose wrinkled. "Why would I want to kill a cat?"

"It's just an expression." Cadence laughed. There really was a lot that Deity needed to catch up on if she hadn't heard the age-old idiom that'd been thrown around since she was a kid.

"Dumb expression."

"You're telling me, and this is coming from the girl who was called 'Cadey-Cat' all the time growing up. So my classmates found it fun to tease me with that one time and time again."

"Cadey-Cat. That's kinda funny," Deity said with a teasing grin.

"Don't get any ideas, Cadence said with a raised eyebrow as a warning. Besides, only her parents called her that. The memory alone made her heart hurt. Cadence continued to move around, preparing dinner. Then she looked at Deity curiously. "Speaking of, how's school going for you?"

Deity shrugged again. "Fine, I guess. School's school. It's much more fun fighting aliens."

"I don't doubt it, fighting metahumans is usually the highlight of my day." Cadence leaned against the counter beside her, crossing her arms. "But...I was saying to Kara earlier...it's probably a good idea to get more into school and your friends and everything. Having a separate life from fighting makes things easier. And it can't be easy, being a kryptonian-hybrid trying to pretend to be a normal human." If she were being honest, she thought Deity was scared of all of the pretending she had to do. Scared of what'd happened if she were ever her true self. Whoever that might be.

A frown graced Deity's features. She had been telling the truth. School was school. She had her friends, Sam and Casey, but she could deal without everything else. Being told what to do when to do it, having to have things done a certain way, and, of course, there were the mean girls. She could easily knock them all out with one punch that wouldn't use up half of her power and yet she had to sit back and take what they said to or about her. All because she had to be 'normal'.

"Normal is overrated," Deity finally said.

"It's always better than the alternative," Cadence said. "Trust me, I get it. You and Kara have to hide who you really are, so did I. So does Barry. But I never let it completely take me over." At Diety's sharp look Cadence continued with, "Kara's got a a chip on her shoulder, one that's hard to break out of. She had her job to help Superman, to protect him, but things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to and that's always stuck with her. I want noting more than success for her, but from what I've seen you'd both rather rely on your strength and that doesn't always work. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it needs to be learned fast."

"That guy wasn't going to listen to anything else," Deity defensively, in reference to when they had first met Chief Paulson.

Cadence took a breath. With the threat of the MRA looming overhead, it was hard to keep calm with an unknown future. "With Chief Paulson, that could've turned out a lot worse if we hadn't left."

"It was just a joke," Deity pressed. She was starting to get annoyed, not understanding why Cadence wouldn't see it her way.

"There's a time and a place, Debby," Cadence said firmly. "Did you not listen to what we were saying about the MRA? Within the next five minutes Barry, Brady, and I could be taken away and...experimented on, tortured, killed, all because one person doesn't want us around and thinks we're a danger to society. And it looks like it's going to happen."

"Yeah, because you're so perfect," Deity replied with a low level of spite to her voice. She didn't care to much about what Cadence said about her, she knew she still had stuff to learn. But taking shots at Kara was something she wasn't going to let slide, particularly after everything she'd done for her.

"Excuse me?" Cadence exclaimed. Fire started to flicker in her eyes. That was a joke. She was far from perfect.

"You think your so good a reading people, yet you didn't even notice my mom was hurting back on our Earth, because of what happened with Indigo."

"Oh, I noticed. But I can't force people to accept my help," Cadence replied.

"But rather than calmly tell her what you think you have to make a big show out of it! 'Oh, look at me! I'm right and you're wrong!'" Deity threw her hands in the air.

"I'm trying to keep people alive," Cadence shot back.

"And excuse us for trying to help with your problems! Sorry we mucked up with Chief, what's his face, but at least we tried. First time we asked you for help you wanted to run off. If it wasn't for Barry you probably would have. Coward!"

"I wasn't the only one who wanted to run, Barry thought it was a good idea to. I'm not Barry's sidekick, we make our own decisions and agree to follow each other if there's a better course of action. We had no plan; running into a fight without a plan and swinging fists only causes trouble." Cadence snapped. She was more annoyed of the conversation turning on its head than being called a coward. She didn't care much what anyone said about her, being disrespected annoyed her more when she spent her time and energy to help someone. Honestly, she'd thought of calling Deity spoiled, but knew it wasn't the best idea. After having called Barry a jackass for voicing his own opinion on something he turned out to be right about had at least given her the mental pause to understand how she handled people. "For all we knew, Zoom could've gotten to you on that Earth." She folded her arms. "Besides, you'd think you'd be a little more grateful to someone who saved your life."

Deity frowned.

"Cade?" Barry called again.

"What?!" Cadence snapped back, directing her anger towards him.

"Did you close the window?" Barry asked, a little startled.

"I always close it when you're here," Cadence said as she closed her eyes and sighed, letting out some of the built up anger.

"You might want to come here then."

Cadence turned off the burners with a wave of her palm and hurried to the bedroom.

Deity hopped down from the counter and went to follow her. She passed through the living room, following Kara when Brady's voice made her jump. She'd almost forgotten he was there.

"My mom's not a coward, you know," he said. He looked at her with so much contempt that Deity folded her arms and looked away. "She goes to help anyone, even if she can't use her powers to do it. And she doesn't get the recognition she deserves but does it anyway because she cares more about helping people than the glory."

"She was insulting Kara, she doesn't know what she's talking about," Deity said stubbornly, refusing to back down to the ten/eleven year old.

"Or, she's telling the truth and you don't want to hear it," Brady said. "My mom isn't a mean for no reason."

"Well, she doesn't need to lecture me, she's not my mom," Deity mumbled.

"Then let her be your friend," Brady said. He lifted his chin. "And don't call her a coward again." He turned on his heel and ran to his mother's room with Deity following. They stepped into the room and looked around, eyebrows coming together seeing the mess that was made with clothes and books strewn around the floor.

"I know I can be messy, but I didn't do this," Barry said, gesturing to it. He shrugged. "I mean, yeah, I did just take a quick lap around but—"

"Someone broke in?" Brady asked. Then he noticed his backpack lying on the floor and frowned, knowing he had put it in his room when he'd gotten home.

"If they did, I don't know what they'd be looking for," Cadence said. "I'm not that wealthy."

"Yes, you are," Brady pointed out, tearing his gaze away from the floor. "Or else the house that Mamaw lives in belongs to, like, Shane Dawson, or something."

Cadence gave him a look. Then she stood up straight, running her fingers over each other, running them over the rings adorning her hands. She stopped then thought for a moment and went to her jewelry box. The second she lifted the lid there as a mini explosion as a lithe man unfolded himself from the space, throwing his hands into the air.

"What the frick?" Barry blurted, then looked confused as to why he had used that particular phrasing.

"Ta-da!" The man cried. "Ragdoll at your service to fit into your hearts as well as I fit into tiny spaces. But as for you, there's something I'm much more interested in getting." He looked over the metas and aliens in front of him as they all tensed up, moving into a fighting stance. "In this case, it's the satisfaction of knowing The Flash can be taken down."

"Man, we're so bad at keeping that a secret," Barry murmured. There were too many people who knew who he was and too many others that had an idea. It was starting to get very difficult in remembering who was the one who did and didn't know and why he should tell others.

Cadence rolled her eyes. "He knows who you are, he didn't say anything about me."

"What do you want?" Kara demanded.

"As I've said, I wanted to see The Flash. Batman and Joker had their turn and I figured I'd get a shot before the motley crew came to Central City. But then I got distracted by some more important things." Ragdoll held up his hands, showing off the necklaces that dangled from them. "Some much more important things."

"How'd you know we were here?" Cadence asked.

"Seeing two incredible streaks flying across the skies, understanding that they may be one of the others with powers, STAR Labs being open for metahuman research…" Ragdoll listed. He placed his hands on his hips. "There's always ways to find things you want. Especially when it's all left out in the open for little creepy crawlies to take. Now if you'll excuse me."

Brady leapt toward Ragdoll. Ragdoll lifted his leg and extended it out to the floor. Brady wrapped his arms around Ragdoll, holding him in a bear-hug. His eyes widened in surprise when Ragdoll lifted his arms up through Brady's grasp, placed his hands on Brady's head, and used it as leverage to pull himself up and away. Brady whipped around, jaw dropped in surprise.

"That was a nice try, I have to admit," Ragdoll said, patting him on the head. "Why don't we all try a group hug?" He held out his arms. Kara, Deity, and Cadence all charged forward. Ragdoll turned to the side and they crashed to the floor in a heap. "Oh well, I guess maybe not." Lifting a leg, he extended it towards the window, holding up his arms as he went. "Gotta run. I'm sure you can appreciate that humor, Flash."

Barry glared and raced forward. He grabbed onto Ragdoll and flung the two out the window. Ragdoll twisted away from Barry and Barry grabbed him before running off through the city. Ragdoll wasn't as speedster, didn't have any enhanced speed in his abilities at all, but no matter how fast Barry could grab him once more, Ragdoll would maneuver away.

Barry raced through the city with Ragdoll in his clutches. Cadence teleported to his side and grabbed onto Ragdolll's arm. She twisted around and threw him hard, following it with a fire blast that shot him across the street. The two then followed his arc as he fell to the ground, rolling head over heels. Landing on the street, Barry ran grasped Ragdoll and rammed him into the side of a building. Then he raced back, back, back as far as he knew was needed and with a sonic boom ran forward, fist extended in front of him.

Barry supersonic punched Ragdoll in the stomach, pushing him further into the side of the building. Gasping for air, he backed away a few steps, jaw becoming slack when Ragdoll continued to move. Barry shook his head. "I don't know who you are, but you need to leave," he growled.

"And how would you get in that practice to stop Zoom?" Ragdoll asked.

Barry's blood went cold at the mention of his rival. So this was another guy who had more information on Zoom than he did. Working with him maybe? He needed answers and he needed them _now._ Barry's eyes flashed with lightning. "What do you want?" He growled into Ragdoll's face. "What do you know aboUT Zoom? Did he send you here?"

"Temper, Flash, what would the rest of the city think?" Ragdoll taunted. He frowned, eyes growing wide when Barry got into his face and roared, "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

Ragdoll raised his arms above his head and slipped out from beneath Barry's hands. He crawled out from between Barry's legs before twisting around and kicking Barry in the back. Barry braced himself from hitting his forehead into the brick wall behind him and turned. His eyes widened in surprise and slight horror when he saw Ragdoll's form.

His body should've been turned in the position where he was on his hands and knees. His lower half was in that position, his upper half, however, was turned so that he faced Barry, grinning at him like a deranged clown. Where his spine should've been keeping him from turning so far, it didn't appear to be any painful for him.

"Not fast enough, Flash," Ragdoll taunted. Kara swooped in out of nowhere, crashing into the side of Ragdoll's face with a punch. He rolled away then righted himself. "Ow, ow, please, please don't hurt me," Ragdoll cried mockingly. "It stings."

"Too late." Deity came from the opposite direction and punched him as well. She shrieked when Ragdoll's head twisted around, making his neck wrap up as well. Then he grabbed onto the sides of his head and lifted, allowing his body to rapidly spin around as well until he was back on his feet. "What?"

Then there was a puff of smoke that appeared over him and Cadence landed on top of him, driving her foot into his back and him to the ground with enough force that the ground quaked. Ragdoll's body smacking into the ground created a crater beneath him. Ragdoll wiggled out from beneath her, leaving her kneeling on the ground, staring in shock. "That's the way to put your best foot forward."

Brady phased up from the ground and grabbed onto Ragdoll, dragging him down back with him until he was up to his shoulders in the asphalt. Then he came up once more and sucker-punched Ragdoll in the face with repeated jobs and hooks from a boxing combination. Ragdolls's head whipped back and forth as he pathetically cried, "No, please, it tickles."

Finally, Ragdoll, once again, slipped form his enclosure and jumped backward along the street. He landed in a low crouch and did a bow. "Don't mind me, thank you so much for the opportunity to see what you can do. But I have more scenic experiences to check out around here. I must be going."

He slipped over to a storm drain and disappeared down it with a flamboyant wave of his hand.

"Okay, how was he doing that?" Deity asked.

"Considering how well he could move, I think he was a gymnast at some point," Cadence remarked. "If not a contortionist. He had massive control over his body. I've never seen someone's head and move like that. The last time I saw someone twisted like that was when Zoom popped my head like a grape on Earth-2."

Kara and Deity exchanged a surprised glance.

Brady ran a hand through his hair, frowning. "What's his power then? Being able to bend?"

"I don't think that's it," Barry said slowly. He pursed his lips, mind moving a mile a minute. There were so many factors that had to be figured out but one was staring him right in the face. He wasn't quite sure how it was possible, but it was the only one that made sense. "I think he's a normal human. A circus sideshow, but a normal human."

"A normal human can't withstand getting punched like that," Kara said, her arms crossed. The line was back in her forehead. "Not many things can, but not a normal human. The first punch should've killed him."

"Heck, Barry driving him into that building should've knocked his head open," Deity agreed.

Cadence turned to Barry. "We should get to STAR Labs and see what's going on there. Maybe there's another Ragdoll on Harry's Earth. He can give us some clues to figure out how to beat this guy." She tilted her head. "Or find a way to make it that our punches actually have any effect. I've never seen someone shrug off the Supersonic punch like that."

"Nice name," Kara remarked.

"Thanks," Barry agreed with a light chuckle before going serious again. He nodded at Cadence's suggestion. "Let's go."

The group went back to STAR Labs, quickly explaining everything that'd gone on. Harry made a sound of overt annoyance, almost dropping the tachyon device he, Caitlin, and Cisco were fiddling on, onto the desk they crowded around. "I assume you've heard of this guy before," Cisco said sarcastically. "Please, oh please, tell us more."

"You don't need to be rude, Cisco," Caitlin chided him. Cisco gave her a look, the stark opposite of the curious one Harry gave her, and said, "I think we all know by now that Harry doesn't like to keep information from us unless it's really important."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, if you must know, this Ragdoll character is named Peter Merkel. On my Earth, he is a criminal thief who uses his contortionist abilities to get into the parties of the rich and famous and rob them blind. He can squeeze through a hole of any size and get out of anything that may hold him. The police on my Earth can never hold him for too long."

"Mhm, yeah, I hear what you're saying, I totally get it," Cisco said, tapping his chin. "But what is it about him that makes him called Ragdoll?"

"On my Earth he dresses up in a costume and uses it to be transported between the places he'd want to rob from the inside out."

Caitlin's mouth dropped open while everyone else looked at him in horror. "And I thought I hated clowns," Brady murmured. Then his eyes widened. "Alicia's doll!" All eyes turned to him. "She's in my class. Alicia brought a doll to school as a prop for our play. I noticed it in your room, mom, when we were seeing what happened with the break in. I thought I had put my backpack in my room..."

"Okay, so if he can get into any tight space and get out of anything, even things the police throw his way, how are we going to stop him?" Cadence asked. "None of what we did was able to even give him a scratch. If we can't use our strength, what can we use?"

"I don't know. If his outfit is made from a scarecrow suit, you could probably set it on fire," Cisco pointed out.

"That was on my Earth, on this Earth that'd be constituted as murder," Harry snapped.

"Actually, it'd be aggravated arson," Cadence rattled off, having had to read through multiple law books when training for her position at the CCPD. "Especially considering you wouldn't be able to explain it away by saying I thought it was a scarecrow in a cornfield. Not unless we drop him in Smallville."

Barry ignored the two of them. "So, you said he's on your Earth. This one isn't a breacher? He's not working with Zoom?"

"Did he say something about Zoom?" Caitlin asked.

Barry nodded. "Somehow he knows who we are, knows what I'm about, and knows about Zoom. Maybe if we can catch him we can figure out a way to get to Zoom through him. We've already seen what's going on with his reign over Earth-2, if we can keep him from doing it here, stay one step ahead of him, then we can find a way to defeat him."

"That's an abysmal idea considering he has absolutely nothing to do with Zoom, trust me," Harry dismissed with a snort. "He has absolutely no drive other than wanting to get as many riches that he can get and being very, very smug about it."

"I wonder where he got that from?" Brady teased.

Harry smirked. He went back to the tachyon device that sat on the table, twisting a screwdriver into it. "Ragdoll is harmless. Annoying, but harmless. The only thing he's going to do is figure out what Central City has in store for him in terms of riches, and as soon as they're gone he'll move onto the next city."

Barry didn't quite believe it. He'd been there when Ragdoll taunted him. He knew something about Zoom, he was sure of it.

"He did mention something about Batman and Joker," Kara pointed out. "So maybe he came from Gotham before coming here. Maybe we should wait until he passes by."

"We'd have to deal with him anyway," Cadence murmured. "CCPD would be tracking him as long as they can."

"Chief Paulson would be, anyway," Barry agreed. He let out an annoyed sigh. First, they had to figure out how to get Kara and Deity back to their world, the next they needed to figure out where Ragdoll was going. And most importantly, what he had to do with Zoom. It was really starting to worry him how much Zoom could control every aspect of his life. Every time he thought he had a reprieve, even just for a moment, there he was again.

His nightmares had stopped coming so consistently, but that didn't mean his mind didn't keep shuffling back to him. Captain Singh had been getting on him for his performance lately, saying in the somewhat controlled tone of his that he was starting to worry about Barry. He had been going on enough patrols of the city to keep him from sleeping much before having to go back into work. Zoom was taking control of his life much more than the Reverse-Flash ever did. All because he had taken away so much within a short amount of time.

"Where's Harrison?" Cadence asked, her voice breaking Barry from his thoughts. It was then Barry realized that he man wasn't along with the rest of the group. Lately, Harrison and Harry worked closely together, Harrison being the rational and patient side of the man they knew as Dr. Wells, with Harry being the irrational one. They were the only ones who could work together without resulting in some sort of verbal spar.

It always was hard to argue with yourself.

"He went to campus to get information that Tess wants us to read," Caitlin explained. She crossed her legs at the knee. "There may be some information in there that'll make it so that we can defeat the Registration Act once and for all."

"Go, mom," Cadence cheered.

Caitlin smiled back. She leaned down to open the drawer by her feet when Cisco asked for a pencil. "Yeah, there's some stuff that has to deal with—"She cut herself off, screaming when the drawer shot open and Ragdoll appeared out of it.

"Whoa!" Cisco quickly backed away, grabbing Caitlin's arm and pulling her with him. He moved in front of Caitlin, flinging his arms out so that his body resembled a 'T'. "What the heck is that?"

" _That_ , is Ragdoll," Harry explained.

As he had done before, Ragdoll did a deep bow. "Ragdoll at your service. And I must say you've got some really expensive stuff in here. Just ripe for the picking." He wiggled his fingers, gaze lowering down towards the tachyon device that sat on the desk. "Ooh, like that."

Harry lunged forward to swipe up the Tachyon device, but Ragdoll got to it first. He scooped it up in his hand and use his free one to press down onto Harry's head, the rest of his body crashing against the desk. Ragdoll used Harry's head for leverage and flipped over him, landing cleanly on the ground. "I hate this guy," Harry growled.

"I'm starting to understand why," Barry said.

"What is this?" Ragdoll twisted it back and forth in his hands. "I've never seen anything like it before." He shook it in his hand then held it up to his ear. "What does it do?" He pressed his thumb into it and a shimmering portal opened beside him. "Oooh!"

"You got it working?" Cadence asked.

"Not exactly," Cisco said.

Ragdoll stuck his hand through the shimmering vortex just as Barry raced forward to stop him. He crashed into Ragdoll's back and the two went through the portal and fell….out of the ceiling and back to the ground. Barry groaned and, laying heavily on his side while Ragdoll got back up.

"This could be fun." Ragdoll opened another breach and disappeared through it.

Cisco looked at the group in surprise, holding his arms out wide. "How…why…why are you all standing there? You've gotta stop him or something."

"Well, he keeps getting out of our grasp when we try to hold onto him and, oh yeah, we can't punch him," Brady said. "He even withstood a supersonic punch?"

Caitlin's eyebrows rose. "Really?" Barry glared at her. "I mean, I know it's not the right time. But maybe that information could be useful to us."

"Yeah, that we can't use what we're all good at," Kara said.

"Ragdoll's body is absorbent enough to withstand concussive forces all due to the contortionist abilities he has." Harry thought of a way to explain it, rubbing his sternum as he did so. None of the group had ever seen him so mad. "Almost…like his cells manage to contort themselves around the forces that's used against him."

"Does that mean he can heal, too?" Deity asked.

"No, thankfully."

"It just means we can't use our strength," Barry said.

"Well, that just blows out half of the things we can do," Kara said. Deity gave her a look of agreement. That was the way they dealt with things, hand to hand combat with plenty of punching. Their heat and energy vision, flying abilities, healing abilities, and super breath were just icing on the cake. They'd fought plenty of enemies stronger than them but never one that was immune to their physical powers.

"So we just have to find a way to get him to hold still," Brady said.

"That's about as impossible as Brady or Cisco on a sugar high," Cadence said flatly.

A lightbulb went off in Barry's head. His eyes lit up an idea starting to form. He turned to Cadence, pointing at her. "You remember what I said to you on Earth-2 about relying on your strength to get you through everything?" Deity's eyebrows widened and her head jerked back in surprise. Kara looked at her and Deity shook her head. Cadence bobbed her head then nodded. "I think I know how we can stop him."

* * *

Deity and Brady raced around the rounded corner of the hallway, chasing after Ragdoll as he laughed hystericalyl. They pumped their arms and legs as they went. Deity put on a burst of speed, pulling ahead of Brady so that she was hot on Ragdoll's heels.

Ragdoll looked over his shoulder, his smile widening. "I see you've dropped your sense of humor," he said. "Fine, I guess I should start being serious, too." He turned around, coming to a stop. Deity, running so fast, was unable to stop before crashing into him. Ragdoll's body bent backwards with the blow before he straightened and shot her back the way she came.

Brady phased her through him and Deity crashed to the ground. "Sorry," Brady called as he ran.

"I'm good," Deity called back. She then leapt up, ready to do a super leap onto him, to knock him to the ground, but crashed into the ceiling and fell.

Brady looked down at her. "You do know that we have low ceilings, right?" He asked, pointing to them with his index finger. Deity glared, barking at him to run, before rubbing her head.

Brady turned on his heels and sprinted after Ragdoll, catching up to him after a few seconds. He leapt forward and pulled Ragdoll through a wall, phasing him just enough so that he got stuck halfway while Brady moved the entire way through. Deity followed it up with a burst of speed, tackling him from the front. The force of her push smacked Ragdoll through his entrapment and towards the ground. Ragdoll opened a breach and fell through, landing on his feet when another opened from behind them.

"Boo!" Ragdoll kicked them to the floor then kept running.

"He's headed for you guys," Brady said, pressing his finger into an ear-piece that sat nestled in his ear. "Get ready."

"You got it," Cisco said. He, Caitlin, and Harry stood in the weapons bay, watching as Cisco rapidly looked through the safety lockers that held all the inventions he'd made over the years. Finally, he'd found the locker he was looking for and pulled out three guns. He handed one over to Harry and one to Caitlin. "You might want to be careful with these things, I can't guarantee they're going to work right."

"What are they?" Caitlin asked. "I don't think I've ever seen them before."

"They're gatling guns," Cisco explained. He looked his over, lovingly blowing dust off the top of his. "Minus the literally heavy machinery. They can rapid-blast whatever pieces of ammo you put in there. It should work out on our resident Slenderman considering all of the injectors I've managed to put inside."

"Muscle relaxing?" Harry asked.

"Mass increasing," Cisco said.

"Ah. Impressive."

Caitlin and Cisco exchanged a glance then Caitlin started to smile. She reached out and gently prodded Harry on the side with her gun. "Did Harry just pay Cisco a complement?" Harry lowered his gun, eyes half-lidding. "It must be the end of the world."

"It's just…I was just saying…Crisco isn't always…"

"Aww." Caitlin prodded him again.

"Stop it." Harry said.

"Don't let me ruin your fun," Ragdoll said as he flipped into the room. Cisco turned his gun towards him and fired off multiple rounds of the mass increasing bullets. Ragdoll twisted his arms and legs together, lowering himself to the ground until he was only a few inches high. "Oops, missed me!" He shuffled forward in the same position, maneuvering himself out of the way of the bullets that Harry shot before standing up, wrapping his arm around Caitlin's neck.

Caitlin lifted her gun but Ragdoll tightened his grip around her. "Ah, ah, ah," Ragdoll warned. "I could wrap my arm around your neck three times before you'd even know what happened." He then shifted his gaze to Harry, noticing he had his gun pointed directly at them.

"Let her go," Harry snarled.

"You wouldn't want to accidentally blow off her leg or anything would you?" Ragdoll taunted. "Or, you know, make her fat? I heard women don't like that."

Harry shifted his gun slightly to the side, but still didn't fire.

Ragdoll said, "Now, why don't you drop your guns and—"

Caitlin shot her hand down and curled her fingers. An icy mist formed from her hand, creating ice around Ragdoll's lower half. It crackled and snapped as the air around him changed, freezing within seconds. Caitlin then lifted her elbow and drove it back into Ragdoll's face once, twice, three times before he released his grasp on her. Then she turned around, catching him in the face with her gun. She whipped around and glared at him, brandishing her gun.

Ragdoll's head jerked back and he let go of Caitlin, moving his hand to his face. Harry reached out and grabbed Caitlin's arm, pulling her to his side. Cisco eyed Ragdoll warily. "He's not going to pull off his nose and replace it, is he?"

"You could only be so lucky," Ragdoll said. He kicked Caitlin's gun from her hand and pointed it at them. He waved it back and forth, backing from the room. Once he reached the door, he dropped the gun and ran once more. This time, he went down to the Pipeline, cornered by Kara, Deity, Barry, and Cadence, making him skid to a stop. He held up his hands nervously. "Hey, hey, you think we can talk about this?"

"Not until you tell us what you know about Zoom," Barry said.

"And give back that tachyon device," Cadence added.

Ragdoll flicked it between his fingers. "This? This isn't so valuable anyway." He tossed it to Cadence, who caught it in her hand. "Not like this!" Ragdoll reached out from behind his back and pulled out a glowing green stone seemingly form nowhere. Barry's eyes narrowed for a second before recognizing it as Metallo's Kryptonite heart.

With a guttural groan, Kara immediately fell to the ground as the Kryptonite in Ragdoll's hand glowed brightly. A scaling sound filled the air as her veins rapidly turned green.

"Oh, come on! Seriously! You guys have Kryptonite here!" Deity exclaimed in annoyance before kneeling down next to her mother, helping her up to her knees. Her own veins had turned green from the radiation but were nowhere near as bad as Kara's. One benefit of being a Hybrid, the Kryptonite only took away her powers, it didn't hurt her physically.

Ragdoll turned to them, holding the Kryptonite high over his head. "Let's see what happens when they get a big dose of the green machine."

Barry glanced at Cadence and started running. He ran in a fast circle around Ragdoll, knocking the Kryptonite from his hand and onto the ground next to the Kryptonians. Deity quickly grabbed it, throwing it into a nearby pod-which held Metallo's body-before Cadence teleported next to the controls and sealed the pod, blocking the Kryptonite's effects. Deity shot her a thankful and appreciative smile and Cadence smiled in return.

Almost instantly Kara's veins returned to normal and she gasped as her strength returned. While that was going on, Barry had started rapidly punching Ragdoll, making his head twist around and around as he did so. Then Cadence tagged in and leapt atop of Ragdoll. She wrapped her legs around his neck and fell back, using her body weight to flip them backwards to the ground. He flipped them over but Cadence continued to hold onto him; with animalistic fury she pummeled him with fire blasts and strong punches until, eventually, Ragdoll slipped out of her hold and straightened himself back up.

But now Kara was back in the game. She charged forwards from behind Ragdoll, ramming her shoulder into his back. He flew over Cadence and was met with Barry's ready fist as he flipped over in the air multiple times before hitting the ground.

"You guys really know how to make a guy feel welcome, don't ya?" Ragdoll said sarcastically from the floor as Barry, Cadence and Kara surrounded him.

He then began to climb up Barry, keeping his body as small as he could. Kara and Cadence jumped into action trying to knock Ragdoll off him with their respective heat visions but only succeed in making Barry squeal from the burns that ravaged his body. Kara and Cadence quickly apologized for each failed attempt and Ragdoll leapt form Barry and over to Kara. Doing the same thing, he began crawling all over like a monkey on a tree while Barry and Cadence tried to grab him or punch him off.

From down the hallway, Deity watched, still crouched by the ground as Ragdoll jumped from Kara to Cadence, from Cadence to Barry from Barry back to Cadence and so on. She lifted her fist above the ground and waited patiently for the right moment. When she saw Ragdoll jump of Barry and land in the middle of the three she knocked her fist on the ground to the agreed rhythm.

Brady then phased up from the floor and threw his yo-yo around Ragdoll. It did one complete turn around him, in circling him in the tight wire before Kara caught the other end. Then in a flash, Barry ran over, grabbed the other end of the yo-yo from Brady and started to run circles around Ragdoll. As he did, Kara flew over him, doing the same with the other end of the yo-yo. One went low the other went high and when they were done Ragdoll was tied from head to toe in the tight restricting wire. No matter which why he tried to slid out, the wire caught him and prevented his escape. He wiggled back and forth on his toes before his eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Anybody want to give me a hand?" He asked.

"How about two?" Deity asked as she super speed in front of Ragdoll and Cadence teleported next to her. Both lifted up their fists and swung at the same time punching Ragdoll in the face and sending him stumbling backwards into the open pod where he collapsed onto his back. Brady then hit the close button and the pod they all watched the pod closed, while Ragdoll flopped around like a fish caught in a net.

"Everybody's a comedian," Ragdoll grumbled.

* * *

Kara took in a deep breath before removing the oxygen mask from her face. She handed it over to Cadence who held her hand out for it then regarded the readings beside her.

"Congrats," Cadence said. "No trace of Kryptonite managed to get into your system. Though you may still feel a little wobbly even because of the small amount of exposure."

"Because we're not as good, right?" Deity snapped from across the room.

Cadence smiled over to her. "No, because it was sitting directly in front of her." She patted Kara on the shoulder. "You should be completely fine after a couple of hours."

Kara looked back and forth between the two and Barry raised his eyebrows before crossing his arms. "What'd you do?" He asked Cadence. She placed her hands on her hips and made a 'um' sound before Barry interrupted, already knowing the answer and motioned to Kara. "You know how many times she's done that shoot first ask questions thing later? I've got it twice."

"Really?" Kara asked. She'd already been on the brunt of Cadence's frustration and they'd managed to work through that. She knew something was going on with her and Deity too, things having changed between them quickly before Ragdoll showed up. She sensed it. That and she'd heard them shouting at each other while she destroyed the operations game board. "How bad?"

"She called me a jackass."

Deity couldn't keep quiet at that. "You?"

"Oh, but I think that's the nicest thing she's said," Barry said. He reached out and placed his hand on Cadence's shoulder. "She has a habit of saying things wrong when she feels passionate about it, but it always comes from a good place."

Deity dug her finger into the table she was sat on. She sighed and said, "Well, I guess it wasn't entirely her fault this time. I was…really pushing about the superhero fight club thing."

"And digging through my cupboards," Cadence pointed out.

"And digging through her cupboards," Deity repeated in agreement.

"And you insulted me," Cadence added with a smirk.

"Can I take back my confession?" Deity asked with the usual teenage attitude as the other laughed. Barry then gave Cadence a peck on the side of the head before leaving the medical bay. Kara followed him, wanting to give the two some time to work things out. Once alone, Cadence turned her gaze to Deity, waiting until she could look her in the eye.

"Barry's right. I say what I mean, but when I'm passionate about it, it comes out wrong. My friends and I…we've gotten into some disagreements before and its's because I usually tell the truth, which is something they may not want to hear." She still remembered the way Barry had told her off when she'd implied that he didn't actually have feelings for Iris but was afraid of her leaving him. "I apologize for the way I say things but I'm not afraid to say it. Life is too short to be afraid and I've always tend to live a bit more realistically."

"I know," Deity said. "I think I get it. It's like…being a Hybrid…all other ones we've come across have been monsters. Or criminals or just…a bad guy in every sense of the word. And sometimes I feel like I'm as bad as them. Maybe like the way you worked with the Assassination Bureau? It just makes me wonder…being a hybrid myself…what's it going to mean for me? And I going to become bad, too?"

"Bad people are made, not born," Cadence said as she stepped over to the the teenage brunette.

"Do you know that for sure?" Deity asked with uncertainty in her eyes.

"Considering everything I've done while being in the Assassination Bureau and where I am now? Yeah, I think I'm the poster child for it. Often I think realistically and ruthlessly and I worry every day that I'm not better than all of the other criminals and evil metas we've gone up against."

"How do you deal with it?"

"By remembering I have an entire team of friends who, if it does happen, will do everything in their power to make sure I come back. They remind me every day that things like that are a choice." Cadence waved her hand. "Well, when you're not being mind controlled anyway." They both chuckled at that.

"I am sorry," Deity said.

"So am I. But the way I see it, we're all going to mess up, so repeated apologies are never needed. Just so long as you can acknowledge what you did wrong and work to be better. That's something that I'm really trying hard to do."

"That really work?" Deity asked.

"About fifty percent of the time I find," Cadence said with a grin. "Sometimes you need to be taught a lesson twice to make sure it really sticks with you."

"Thanks," Deity said suddenly.

"For what?" Cadence asked with a confused look.

"For saving my life. For the blunt honest treatment. With me holding Kara up on a pedestal and not to rely on my strength all the time. You're right. I shouldn't hold her up to such high standards, it's not fair. And maybe I should learn to use my head instead of my fists all the time," Deity said as she nodded her head. "Sometimes…I guess I need the blunt honest."

"You're welcome," Cadence said with a smile. "And if you ever need more of it I'm always willing to give it away."

"The rest of the stuff you said about my mom was complete crap though," Deity said defensively as Cadence sighed.

"So, are you friends again?" Brady asked. Cadence made a face and looked at him over her shoulder as he leaned against the wall behind them. His eyes widened when he noticed her look. "What? I've been here the whole time; did you not see me?"

"Don't try the innocent eyes, bud, it doesn't work anymore," she said.

Brady smiled.

"What about us?" Deity asked him, waving her finger between herself and the young boy.

Brady shrugged, the smile leaving from his lips. "Don't call my mom a coward," is all he said. "She's done a lot for me since she moved to Central City." Deity nodded. Alien or not, it was hard to believe what her life would be like if she was pregnant at her age. And Cadence took everything that came her way in stride. "I just hope I'm as good a hero as her."

"Oh yeah? What about your obsession with Barry?" Cadence teased him. Brady grinned in response.

"Well, you've got a lot to live up to. She's pretty heroic," Deity said as the three shared a smile. She turned back to Cadence. "So, am I cleared to leave?" Deity asked.

"You're as healthy as a horse," Cadence said.

"Is that a good thing?" Deity asked with a confused tilt of the head.

Barry examined the tachyon device that rested in his palm. It looked as tiny as ever, but it still packed a lot of power. Even from the small currents of electricity running it, harbored from his speed from the speed force, Barry could practically feel the power inside it. And as Cisco said, it looked to be working fine now that they had the speed force within it.

"Looks like it's time for us to go home," Kara said from beside him.

"Yeah, looks like it," Barry agreed. He handed the device to her. "Or we have a bad habit of premature goodbyes," he joked. "So how much time do you think has passed over there?"

"Well, we've only been here for a day so probably only a minute?" Kara guessed face scrunching up. She crossed her arms over her suit. "But, even a minute seems to go by really slow for me so, I could be wrong."

"Oh, so you've got jokes, huh?" Barry asked with a laugh. "Well, for me, it feels more like a decade goes by. Sometimes I can't remember how I managed to do anything in my life when I didn't have my powers. Being able to do everything so fast, having all of that power inside is just so…" he made a sound. "I can't explain it."

"I know, it's like when I'm able to punch through a thick wall or lift a building or a plane, it's really feels like I can do anything and…I only wish more people could feel it, too," Kara said. The light faded from her eyes and her hands dropped to her side. She must've seen the pained expression on Barry's face. "This whole Registration thing…everything's going to be okay. Metahumans deserve their humanity just as everyone else does. And you're going to stop Zoom and bring peace back to this city. I know you will."

"If anyone can understand that, I'm sure it's you," Barry said. "Because you're anything but human."

"Kind of, like, superhuman?"

"Yeah, I think we'll go with that." Barry opened his arms and he and Kara walked into each other and hugged tightly, rocking back and forth. "Stay safe, Supergirl. You're going to be a great hero for your Earth."

"You, too, Flash," Kara replied. As they parted, Barry looked over, lifting his chin in question when Cadence, Deity, and Brady left the medical bay. Cadence lifted her chin and nodded, too. He smiled. "Looks like you're going to have to wait to see who's truly better another time Cisco."

"Ah, I know the answer to it already," Cisco said with a wave of his hand. He turned away and said something sounding like, "I just wanted to sell tickets, make a little profit off it, no harm no foul," under his breath. Caitlin shoved his shoulder and the two shared a look. "Just saying."

"If you ever decide to set that up, give me a call," Deity said over to him before looking over to Kara and Cadence who both gave her critical glares. "Right, yeah. Really need to work on the whole eavesdropping thing," Deity mumbled to herself as she walked over to join her mom.

"Let's go, we've got a lot of stuff to do," Harry said impatiently.

"Right, well…" Deity clasped her hands together. "Great meeting you all, except for Mr Grumpy over there," she said with a nod to Harry. "But we've got to go."

"Well with that baby, you'll be able to come back whenever you want," Cisco said proudly.

"And we'll be glad to have you," Caitlin added.

"You still owe us Big Belly Burger, though," Brady pointed out. "It was three against two, you weren't going to win." Cadence reached out and wrapped her hand around her son's mouth before kissing him on the side of the head.

"It'll be our treat," Kara said. "If you get us more ice cream when you come back to our Earth."

"Deal," Barry agreed as Kara and Deity attached their individual tachyon devices causing a breach to open up in front of them. Cadence waved to the two and they waved back before turning to the breach before them.

"There's no place like home," Kara said before the raced into the swirling blue cloud of energy. The breach closed and winked out of sight, leaving the Cortex silent for a few moments. Then the metahuman warning system started to blare around them.

Caitlin hurried over to a desk. "Looks like we've got a robbery on maple."

"You know, if Ragdoll wasn't in the Pipeline I'd think it was him," Cisco said. "That guy is slippery."

"There's no chance of him getting out of there, trust me," Barry said. He looked at Cadence and said, "I got this one," before racing into his suit and out of the Cortex.

* * *

 **A/N:** I really hope I got Ragdoll right. Taking other villains and whatnot from Batman is always fun to show them being done in the Flash but I do worry about getting them right. So let me know. Also, did anyone notice the little hints that ties into the plot with Zoom between this chapter and the last one? I might've made it too vague, but if you get it right, I'll give you a sneak peek into the next story. Speaking of which, thank you so much for getting this story to over 300 reviews, it really means a lot that you'd share your thoughts of this story with me, good or bad. Every writer needs feedback!

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Guest:** Yep, you were right, but there's also another reason for it.

 **PowerHero432:** And this part wasn't written that long ago, lol.

 **josephguy217:** I'm glad it worked out that way, was a little nervous, really. 'Cause, like it was mentioned in this chapter, Cadence is the part of Team Flash that thinks realistically and a little ruthlessly. She's not afraid to say what others are thinking and won't say. So I'm glad it brings out a human side to her, it may was well as she's usually a lot more happy, enthusiastic, and engaging. I guess that's the difference between Cadence and Flare like there's a confidence difference in Barry and Flash.

 **DarkHelm145:** Hope you liked this one as well. I really enjoy taking in Batman and Superman/Smallville characters so if there are any others you'd like to see, please suggest them. Also, your meta is coming soon, I didn't forget.

 **yummers:** Haha, well it was explained but at least now they remember they love each other. Do you have a guess as to why?

 **babyj:** Thanks a bunch, glad it worked out!


	45. Flash Burn

**.:45:.**

 _Flash Burn_

* * *

Zoom skidded to a stop, papers flying in all direction.

He glanced down at them with an absent glance then took long strides towards the woman that stood in front of him. She twirled her white hair around her finger, trying to appear as calm as she could. But he could see the fear in her eyes.

The fear that anyone who tried to cross his path would see. The fear left in the eyes of those that had perished in front of him. All because they didn't know their place. How much fun was it to throw his weight around every now and then? But now he had an entire other Earth to take over, he'd waited long enough.

"Are you sure this…Trajectory girl knows what she's doing?" Killer Frost asked.

Zoom turned a glare to her. "Are you questioning my judgement?"

Killer Frost stepped back, briefly lowering her gaze. She frantically shook her head, white-blonde tresses drifting in the small breeze. Zoom grabbed her face in his hand, forcing her to look him in the eye. Killer Frost's eyes shifted, unable to let him see her tears, her fear. Still, he held her steady gaze until she had no choice but to look at him.

He smiled a soft smile. Deathstorm's murder had taken more out of her than he had anticipated but it was enough to keep her loyal. The threat of her own death hung over her head, if she tried to attack him, if she tried to undermine him…she'd be dead even faster than her body could recognize it. As frozen as the rest of her victims.

"I know you would never want to cross me," he whispered, feeling Killer Frost tremble under his grasp. "Don't put any ideas in my head." He shoved her, making her stumble to the ground. Killer Frost lifted a hand up to her cheek, as if Zoom had actually struck her, before turning away, lowering her head in shame.

Zoom turned. The sounds of a struggle had caught his attention. His eyes scanned the streets before landing on the heap that was suddenly plopped in front of him. Earth-2 Barry wiggled back and forth, trying to pull his hands free from the restraints that had them behind his back. His grunts were muffled by the gag covering his mouth, hair askew and glasses threatening to slip off his face. Next to him was another man, a co-worker from within the CCPD, Earth-2's Chief Paulson. Though on that Earth, Eric Paulson was no police chief, instead he was the CCPD's Desk Sergeant.

The two struggled to be released from their confines while a pillar of flames suddenly appeared in the street. Burnout stepped out of them, stretching her arms over her head. She rolled shoulders, cracked her neck with a few jerks of her chin, and folded her arms.

"I got what you wanted," She said.

"Excellent," Zoom replied.

Zoom walked over to the CCPD members and stood in front of them, glaring down at them. Eric Paulson shrank back under Zoom's gaze while Earth-2 Barry continued to struggle against his restraints. He shifted hard enough that his glasses started to slip down his face.

Earth-2 Barry would've done his usual gesture, using his index finger to push them back up with a slow ascension of the bridge of his nose, but Burnout got to it first. She carefully, almost delicately reached out her finger and pushed them back up before kneeling in front of him to press her hands to the sides of the frames, resting them firmly on his ears, her eyes searching his.

Earth-2 Barry shrank back from her initial touch then watched her, eyes willed with wonder and worry. Burnout looked back at him then abruptly turned away. She walked over to Killer Frost and grabbed her hand, heaving her off the ground. The moment their hands touched, steam erupted between their hands, filling the street around them, dissipating the second the let go.

Zoom continued to watch his prisoners, eyes shifting back and forth over their faces. Then, as if suddenly bored, he stood up and turned away, addressing Killer Frost and Burnout. "We'll be leaving soon," he said.

As soon as the words escaped his lips, a breach opened up beside him with Trajectory coming to a stop. She lifted her domino mask to wipe sweat from her forehead, to double-check her make-up as she peered into the sideview mirror of the car she stood next to. Then she nodded to Zoom.

"Ready," she said.

"And the Velocity-9?" He asked.

Trajectory nodded.

Zoom nodded back and curled his fingers into his palm. He started to move forward then stopped, hearing screams. He swiveled back towards Eric Paulson, who was now on his stomach, trying to wiggle away. He screamed fruitlessly behind his gag, continuing his attempts to get away. Earth-2 Barry sat still, not daring to make his chest rise and fall more than necessary.

Burnout's gaze shifted to the side, looking from Zoom to Eric Paulson. Her eyes took on a lizard-like orange glow as she held up her hand. Without uttering a word, she sent out a blast of inky black fire so strong that it immediately reduced the sobbing man to bone, the bone falling apart to ash only seconds later, swept away by the wind when it blew.

She curled her fingers into her palm and turned back to Zoom.

Zoom's lips curled back into a sinister smile. "Hell was invented to scare to death the unruly human mind and bring it to obedience." He drawled the quote with unbridled glee. "I've been there many times. Suffice to say I've never experienced hellfire and never intend to." He took a step towards her. "You have the information?"

"Since I've first mind-melded with my doppelganger I've gotten all the information you've needed," Burnout explained. "We know of their relationships with each other, I know exactly what they plan to do to take you down. They're trying to stay one step ahead of you, mentally. But you can take them down."

"Good, I've got something I need to take care of," Zoom said. "Trajectory will lead you back to Earth-1 once I've done what I need to do." With that, he turned and raced forward so quickly a breach opened and he was back on Earth-1.

Two figures stood before him. The man on the left held two katanas in his hands. When Zoom arrived he replaced one in a holster strapped to his back and the other to his waist. Zoom looked him over, trying to find any discernable features but found nothing. Black and gray armor covered his body very much like a ninja suit. The young woman standing next to him was a little different, her clothes icy blue and pastel purple. Her platinum blonde hair blew around her skin, hands covered in blue fire.

"Ah. Black Blade, White Hot," Zoom said. "Glad you could make it."

Black Blade lifted his chin. "You have loyal followers here," he said.

"Why try to prove metas aren't a danger when they're going to get rid of us anyway?" White Hot asked. "It's more fun to let loose."

"Precisely," Zoom said.

With that, he raced off with leaving a trail of lightning behind him.

* * *

 _Poompf._

 _Swish._

"Come on, that's not fair!" Brady whined, jogging to the soccer ball that sat in the corner of the goal. "Your legs are longer than mine."

Cadence chuckled, placing her hands on her hips. Sweat beaded her forehead but she made no move to wipe it away. "You're taller than me, bud, I don't think that argument holds any weight." She smoothed back her hair. "Besides, I only have, what?" She pretended to think. "Ten, eleven years of soccer playing over you. It never was fair."

"Ha ha."

Brady spun the ball in his hands then dropped it. He snapped up his foot, catching the dropping ball with the toe of his cleats, sending the ball high in the air. Cadence turned, watching the ball arch through the air, seconds before she felt her body quivery strangely. Then she watched the back of Brady's head as he bobbed away from her, sprinting directly towards the ball and made a face. She hated it when he did that.

The feeling of being phased through was nothing to get used to. Almost like simultaneously being punched in the stomach and back. With a smile pulling to her lips, Cadence took off after her son. Brady dribbled forward, charging towards the soccer goal that stretched in front of him. Cadence quickly caught up to him and, with a long stretch of her legs, tapped her foot atop the ball and pulled I away from him. Brady turned, watching his mother's feet while Cadence started to juggle the ball from foot to foot. Every time he reached out to nab it, she'd move it to her other foot.

Cadence's smile widened, backing away from her son, shifting the ball up to juggle on her knees. But Brady continued to stick on her, face screwed up in determination, legs moving as quickly as hers. Finally, Cadence kicked the ball over her head and turned around to run after it. Brady kept up with her, the two shoving each other on the arm to get to the ball first. Brady cut in front of Cadence, sticking out his foot in a slide tackle. She did a grand jeté to make sure she didn't trample him—wouldn't that be a strange case for CPS—before stopping on a dime and pivoting to run after him.

Brady surged ahead and kicked hard at the ball with the flat of his right foot, dragging his left one behind him, creating a divot in the grass. The ball flew into the goal, bending from the straight shot to curve into the upper corner with a resounding _Swish_ making him grin.

"Nice one!" Cadence came up behind him and ruffled his hair before hugging him to her chest. Brady wrapped his arms around his mother, hugging her back. "You got a really good bend on that one, too."

"Thanks," Brady replied. "We've been working on our corner kicks for practice lately." Stepping back, he ran an arm beneath the reddened tip of his nose, breath condensing in front of his face. Now that he'd stopped running, the cold was starting to seep into him again. He pulled he long sleeves of his shirt over his hands, stomach growling loudly. "I'm hungry. Can we eat now?'

With a laugh, Cadence nodded and walked him over to where they had set up their things before running off to play. _Boys and their appetites,_ she thought. Only ten years old and he was already eating her out of house and home. Brady sat down on their blanket and grabbed his sweatshirt to pull on, shoving his hands into the front pocket, hunching over to protect himself from the cool wind that blew.

It was spring and while the weather should've been turning warm again soon, there seemed to be a list ditch effort to hold ono winter. _Or maybe Zoom's presence is really starting to create a hold on the city,_ Cadence thought. She pushed it out of her head a few seconds later. They hadn't seen Zoom since leaving Earth-2 and while many would think it was good thing, they were savvy enough to know that unless Zoom's body was seen, he wasn't gone.

Still, they had to keep moving forward, as if nothing was wrong. So when Brady suggested that he wanted to go play soccer and have a picnic in the park for his day for them to spend together, Cadence jumped on the chance. It was a tiny request, certainly less extravagant from the other times they'd traveled, but one she was very glad to participate in.

"I love you," Cadence said to Brady.

He smiled and-Cadence wasn't sure if it was from the cold or if he was embarrassed-flushed, saying, "I love you, too."

They ate their food in silence for a few moments, before Cadence's phone rang. She looked it over for a few moments then set it aside. There must've been a strange expression on her face for Brady asked her what it was. "Just asking for some stuff I need to get back to people," she explained.

He tilted his head. "Like homework?"

"Sort of." She took a breath and looked her son in the eye. "I'm thinking of leaving my job at the CCPD and going to do a new one," she said. Brady looked back at her. "What do you think of that?"

"Well, what would you be doing?"

"I don't know, yet."

"Don't you like working at the CCPD?"

"I really do like working there, but…it's not something that gets me up in the morning. Not like my Zumba classes or when I was working in residency." She rested her chin in her palm. "Sometimes in life you have to do things you don't want to. But you also have to know when your own happiness is more important." Brady opened his mouth and Cadence held up a hand. "Except for school! You need an education to fall back on. After that, I don't care what you do."

He pouted and turned away.

"But what do you think about changing my job?"

"If it's a job you like, then go for it," Brady said. Then he paused, eyebrows coming together. "What about the money and stuff?"

"You never have to worry about that, bud. That's something I need to deal with."

As it was, throughout his life, she never let him in onto what financial status they were in. When he was very young and she was very poor, she never let him know how bad things were. If there were times where she needed to forego her own food for him to have more she gladly did it, saying 'Oh, I'll eat later' or 'I already had something, that's for you' as she worked on their finances. Now, she was telling the truth; it wasn't something they ever needed to worry about. The stress of changing careers was the hard part.

"Are we going to be moving again?" She hoped not. It'd be the third time in two years if she were remembering correctly. Though moving to a place that was closer to STAR Labs or even the CCPD wouldn't be too bad. "I don't want to move again."

"I don't think so, but I can't guarantee it."

Brady nodded, as if he'd gotten all the information he needed to know. "Whatever you do you'll be good at it, mom." He dusted off his hands and stretched out onto his stomach, resting his chin in his hands. "What did Ryder say about it?"

"I haven't talked to him yet. I haven't really talked to anyone about it but you, just to see what your opinion was. I don't think Ryder would care too much."

"If we move again, would he come with us?"

Cadence then mimicked Brady's previous expression. _Why would he—oh!_ He was wondering if they were going to be leaving Central City. Suddenly, Cadence felt a wave of pride wash over her. Brady loved being in Central City, had lived there for most of his life and was really starting to fit in and he wasn't questioning or complaining about potentially moving away. All so that she was happy.

Feeling a tear come to her eye, Cadence quickly wiped it away and said, "That'll be up to him, but I don't think he wants to miss out on any more time with you."

"Are y'all still fighting?"

"We were never fighting, Brade," Cadence explained. "We were just disagreeing about how to handle you being a metahuman. He thinks it's better if you have more time as a kid and I think it's better not to ignore the fact you're a meta. We're trying to find a middle ground."

"Did y'all fight when you were dating?" He started to pull at his bottom lip, green eyes focused directly on her. "Back in high school I mean?"

"No, we never fought, not really." Cadence slowly stared to smile. "Well, except the one time he didn't ask me to homecoming." She noticed Brady's eyes light up at the prospect of a story and she laughed. "We were dating for two years by then, I think, and we'd gone to homecoming and stuff before. So when _this_ homecoming came around I waited for him to ask me to go with him. But he thought because we were already dating that he didn't need to ask me. So we fought about it until he asked me the day before. I'm still mad about that, actually."

"What else? What were you like in high school?"

Cadence snorted. Did he want the short version or the long version? "I was the cheerleader who bust her ass to get good grades and only cared about hanging out with my friends and my boyfriend."

Brady rolled his eyes and motioned to himself. "I think that's obvious," he said.

"Oh, so you got jokes, huh?" Cadence reached over and dug her fingers into his neck. Brady's head twitched to the side, trying to fend her off. Then she reached over with her other hand and dug it into the other side of his neck. Brady laughed and rolled onto his back, trying and failing to keep his mother from tickling him. Finally, when tears were falling from his eyes, Cadence stopped and asked, "Why are you so curious?"

"You never talk about it," Brady said. He wiped at his eyes, the cold starting to make them water.

"There's not much to talk about. But I never knew you wondered so much, if you want to know more, I'd be glad to tell you. Just say the word and I'll spill my guts." Cadence smiled and held out her hand. Brady slapped his into it and she pulled him up into a sitting position with a sharp tug. "It's getting kind of cold, let's get going."

"Can we get ice cream on the way back?" Brady asked.

"So long as no one notices I'm melting it faster than I can eat it," Cadence said. "I said you could do whatever you wanted today, so let's get some ice cream."

"in that case…" a mischievous smile came to Brady's face. "Can I get a dog?"

That was an easy one. "No."

"You _always_ say 'no'," Brady whined.

" _I_ don't say 'no'," Cadence defended herself. "The apartment says no. They don't want pets living there."

"I'm sure they don't want metahumans living there either, but _we_ do!" He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. "Can I…get my ear pierced?"

"No."

"Can I shave my head?"

"No." Cadence folded up their blanket and threw it atop of Brady's head. He laughed and pulled it down, waiting for Cadence to pick up the picnic basket before motioning for him to follow her out of the park. "Why would you want to shave your head?"

"I don't. I just wanted to see what you'll say 'yes' to." He twisted his mouth to the side then asked, "Can I dye my hair?"

"Sure."

That made him pause for a moment. He regarded her carefully. "Really?"

"Yeah. What color were you thinking of?"

"Blue."

"Blue's fine." Brady squinted his eyes at her and Cadence said, "I've done a lot worse things to you than let you dye your hair, blue."

"Like what?"

Cadence grimaced, realizing she had backed herself into a corner. How many things had she said she'd never tell Brady until he was old enough? Sure, he was ten, but that didn't mean she was ready for him to hear it. Or look at her funny considering some of the questionable things she'd let him do. What other mom would let their five month old baby go sledding anyway? Or go to a trampoline park with them? Or held them over the side of a fountain and accidentally drop him in? The point was, there were many things that she didn't plan on mentioning.

"Like dress you up like a girl so I could get a cheaper mani pedi from the spa," Cadence said. She laughed when Brady gave her a disgusted look in response. "There was a special promo—if it helps at all, you made a pretty girl."

Brady gave a small smile and shook his head. The two came up to a street corner and waited for the light to change so they could cross the street. He brought his hands up and hugged the blanket tighter to his chest. "Conner wasn't at practice yesterday," Brady said suddenly, almost as if it were an afterthought.

"Really?" She asked. Brady nodded. "Maybe he's sick."

Brady shook his head. "He would've told me if he wasn't going to be there. The coach, too." That was very true. Cadence knew Conner to love playing soccer as much as Brady did, often having to pick the two of them up from practice, still buzzing about whatever they had managed to accomplish that day. When they had sleepovers one or the other insisted on bringing a soccer ball so the two could play. And she and Samantha had spent enough time at early Saturday soccer games conversing between goals and fouls that she could mentally play back an entire game even when watching out of the corner of her eye.

If he'd missed a practice, it had to be big.

"Can you call his mom?" Brady asked. "To see if she knows anything?"

"I'm sure he's just sick, Brady."

"Please, mom?" Brady looked at her, eyes filled with an expression that Cadence had never seen before. "I have a bad feeling."

Cadence watched him for a long moment, once again struck by how much he had changed and matured over the last two years. She still reeled, knowing how close he'd come to death without her being there to help him, she knew he was still suffering from it as well. He'd been glommed onto her the last little while when he was around her. So much so that her mother even asked if he was okay, noticing his normally independent personality do a quick 180.

If she were being honest, she had a bad feeling about it, too. The second the words came from Brady's mouth something struck her that she couldn't quite place. Oliver hadn't been in Connor's life for too long. Only her, Barry, Oliver, and Brady knew about his relation to Connor. So what was it that would make him disappear if it was nothing short of having to do with his mayoral campaign? She didn't think Oliver was crazy enough to want to kidnap him on his own.

 _Where did kidnap come from?_ She asked herself. Her mind flashed back to when she was tangled up with the Assassination Bureau, with how easily Breathtaker had managed to control her, mind and body, using Brady as his pawn.

For a moment, she wondered if Breathtaker was behind it. He had that sort of power, she knew. He was more powerful than anyone gave him credit for. At that moment, her worries of him being in the pipeline came back. He and the rest of the Assassination Bureau had gone in there with ease. Maybe too much ease. What was it that he was doing? What did he want now?

She felt Brady's hand slide into hers, holding it tightly.

It broke her out of her trance. Cadence nodded and pulled her phone from her pocket, putting in Samantha Hawke's number. She put her phone to her ear and Brady leaned close, trying to hear what was being said. The phone continued to ring all the way up to voicemail.

"Hey Sam, it's Cade," Cadence said. "Brady mentioned to me that Conner hasn't been around much and I'm just calling to make sure everything's okay. Call me back as soon as you can, okay? Bye."

She hung up and Brady frowned, shoulders slumping in disappointment.

"It's okay, bud, I'll keep calling until I get her, okay? He didn't give up on you before, when you were fighting against Geomancer, and we're not going to give up on him, right?"

Brady nodded back. "Right."

* * *

Barry grinned as he shot around Central City; faster than a bullet.

Once, twice, three times in the space of five second and he continued to run. The Velocity-9 in his system continued to pump through him, the Tachyon device on the front of his suit continued to hold it separate from the speed force, making him go faster and faster as the seconds passed.

Finally, he ran back into STAR Labs, pulling off his hood as he did so. "Well?" He asked.

"You just annihilated your old record," Cisco said.

"You just went four times faster than you've ever run before," Caitlin said. Even she couldn't keep the smile from her face. "The Velocity-9 and that Tachyon device…I don't know what it is, but your body hasn't had any adverse effects to the drug in your system."

"So what was it about that that made it so different from when Jay used it?" Iris asked. She leaned against the computer console, her arms folded as she looked over Caitlin's computer screen. "You said it was killing him? And that it was too dangerous for Barry to even use Velocity-6."

Caitlin shrugged, at a loss for an explanation. "Like I said before, if anything Barry's cells should be collapsing, his body working hard to figure out how to keep himself stable. But there haven't been any adverse side-effects on him. The only thing I can say that would make sense is that his body has grown used to it as quickly as Brady had injected him with it."

"Speaking of which where are your partners in crime?" Iris asked. "I figured they'd be here to train, too."

"They'll be by later," Barry explained. "Cade said she wanted to spend some time with Brady today." He tried not to let a smile worm to his face. There were some things the others didn't need to know about. Not that he wouldn't tell them if asked, but there were some memories he'd preferred to keep to himself to push himself forward when he needed a pick me up.

He'd felt something when he woke up earlier that morning. A warm feeling, almost like a brush of the hand against his cheek. He wasn't sure if he truly believed in ghosts, but he knew it was a sign from his mother. A sign that he was to have at least some good memories for the day, maybe that he wouldn't have any for a long while. The somewhat negative thought had only briefly came into his head before he pushed it away.

Barry rolled to his back and stared at the ceiling for a long moment, wondering what it was that his mother would've been saying, would've been advising. She always did give him the best advice, the first one he would go to when he needed to talk about something. She felt…safe. The same way that Cadence made Barry feel. He didn't have to look over in the middle of a fight to know she was there next to him, backing him up every step of the way. He didn't have to ask some of the toughest questions because he knew she already had an answer before he had a question.

They communicated their thoughts and idea when taking care of metas and other police activities. He had to go into work that day but felt like calling in late, saying he had a doctor's appointment. It was the kind of morning that made you want to stay in bed a little bit longer and that was what he was going to do. When else would he have the time, when he wasn't patrolling the city, training, or working?

So he called her when he was sure she was on her way to class and convinced her to skip it so that they could talk about what to do with Zoom. And they'd talked…and they'd argued. It started out as a simple conversation of what they could do to be mentally ahead of Zoom. There was only so much they could do with running around in circles to tire him out. They'd needed to set up a trap.

Then Cadence had pointed out that he may have a trap set out for them. "It's not like Zoom's just going to roll over and take it," she said, arms wrapped around her legs, bringing her knees up to her chest. "He's going to have something for us that'll make sure we die. There's going to be other metas or _something_ that he'll send against us. We'll have to be prepared."

And Barry heard the tone of her voice, noticed the way she wasn't looking at him and something rolled in his stomach. The warm feeling was already starting to go away, slowly ebbing away like a wave pulling from shore. "What do you mean?" He asked. Though he knew exactly what he meant.

"I mean, if it comes down to it, we may have to kill the metas that are coming after us," Cadence explained. Barry started to protest and she held up her hand. "He sent Atom Smasher after you before you even knew who Zoom was! He was trying to _kill_ you and you had to do that to him."

"Because I had no choice," Barry said. He rested his cheek in his upraised palm, his other hand clutching the blankets under his hand. Every now and then he glanced at the door of his room as if afraid someone would burst in on their conversation, but knew them all to be at work. He was getting restless; the conversation was always a hard one to have. He thought about it enough. Talking about it… "Atom Smasher would've continued to wreak havoc over the city." Cadence lifted her eyebrows when he proved her point. "I didn't want to do that, I wanted to put him in the pipeline!"

"If that happened, Barry, what would that do to stop any of the other metas Zoom's sent over?" Cadence shot back. "Sand Demon? He's stuck down in the pipeline, so is Hydro Hunter. But they're not doing anything to help us. They won't say anything when we ask."

"If we can rehabilitate them—"

"—We can only rehabilitate those on our Earth, Barry!" Cadence shook her head, smoothed her hair back from her forehead. "We've seen all of the doppelgangers on that Earth, they're all evil. Why else would the CCPD be so against them, rather than working with any meta that could stop them. The Flash couldn't have been the only good meta in that city, so what do you think happened to them? Zoom wouldn't hesitate to kill them."

"Zoom wasn't trying to kill them, he just wanted The Flash's powers," Barry reminded her.

That made Cadence stop for a moment and tilted her head back, staring at the ceiling. Then she took a deep breath and lowered her chin, using her thumb to scratch her eyebrow. "What do you think Zoom wants to do with you, Barry? Are you just going to sit back and let it happen because you don't want to kill Zoom?"

"I want Zoom gone," Barry insisted. He finally sat up and swung his legs around to mimic her stance, arms wrapped around his legs, and knees brought up to his chest. He grasped his wrists so tightly that his fingers turned white. "But killing isn't the only way to do it!"

"If that's the best option then it's the only one we have!" Cadence snapped, slapping the mattress under her hand to emphasize her words. "Anything less and he won't hesitate to take on anyone we're close to! And somehow Zoom knows who all of them are!"

"Murder isn't a starting tactic, Cade, it's a last resort!" Barry snapped back.

"Where do you think we are, Barry? In Disneyland? Everything we're doing now is our last resort! Or can you tell me that the more you punch Velocity-9 in your body that you'll be able to get faster than Zoom and not have anything happen to you until he's gone. Can you tell me that 100%?"

Barry bit his lower lip and turned away for a moment. He took long, deep breaths through his nose, making his chest heave. He worked hard to keep calm, briefly closing his eyes before he finally managed to regain composure. He brought a hand up through his hair and clasped it on the back of his neck, rubbing it. Then he dropped his hands once more and said in a much calmer voice, "I don't want to have to lost my humanity to do it."

And Cadence nodded, much calmer as well, and said, "I get it. But there's nothing about losing your humanity to kill when you're in self-defense. Anything else, when you do it because you have to…that's where things get harder. But you can make it through, you can look yourself in the mirror afterwards and say, after you made it, that you made the right decision. It's hard to look yourself in the eye but when you finally do it, things only get better from there. It's when you still can't look yourself in the eye that you have a problem."

And the two had lapsed into a long silence. Long enough that they felt their own tempers slide away and the tension around them slip and slide away until the feeling of being safe returned; ten-fold as Cadence's own feeling of being safe around Barry matched his. She leaned forward onto her knees to give him an apologetic kiss on the cheek.

"I love you, Barry," she said, reminding him.

"I love you, too," he said.

Barry wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her long and hard, letting his emotions with everything over the last year wash over her. So much so that when he leaned back and stretched out across his bed, rolling onto his side, Cadence felt sad for him. Felt it in her chest all the way down to her toes and back again.

All the pressure put on him as well as what he put on himself was slowly breaking him, she could tell. He pushed himself hard, harder than he'd ever done before when trying to get faster. Decided o takea drug that he didn't know whether or not it'd kill him to do so. He needed to be that hero the city was looking up to. It must've gotten to him more than he was letting on.

Instead of saying anything else, Cadence lay down behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist, cuddling against him to reassure him. They laid there until Barry had to get up to go to work an hour later but he felt much better getting it all out in the open.

It gave him a clearer head. All through work he made sure he got done what was needed to be done before racing to STAR Labs to get started on some new training.

With the new progress, he was feeling better than ever. "Now that we got him going faster than Zoom, we have to figure out what it is we can do to get ahead of Zoom," Cisco said, rubbing his hands together. "Which, of course, is easier said than done."

"Yeah, but if anyone can do it, you guys can," Barry said. "I don't know anyone else I'd rather have behind me for this stuff."

"Barry, I still want to make sure your vitals are okay," Caitlin insisted. She held up her hands before he could protest once again. "We never know how long this stuff will take to show up. If there's _anything_ that's going to happen, I'd like to catch it ahead of time."

"Cait." Barry grasped her shoulders. "I promise you, I'm fine. But if you're really insisting on it, I'll sit quietly and let you take as much blood and cell samples as you like. But Iris and I are having lunch with our dads and Wally."

"What about Francine?" Cisco asked.

Iris let out a long sigh. "She's…she's not been around much since she first came back to Central City. I don't know what to do anymore, honestly. I guess it's just too hard for her to see dad." She bobbed her head. "I mean, I guess it's sort of good that Wally still wants to come around, though. I guess he really wants to get to know dad."

"Trust me when I say that's something you don't want to miss out on," Barry said. He changed out of his suit and into the clothes he'd worn earlier that day. "Let's go," he said to Iris and the two bid goodbye to Cisco and Caitlin and left STAR Labs, walking back to their house after Barry made a stop in Keystone to get some pizza.

"I don't think I've seen you so happy in such a long time," Iris said, walking beside him. She nudged him on the arm. "It's good to see you smile again, Barry."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked. "I haven't been _that_ bad."

"Ever since Zoom showed up you've been pretty surly. Not the happy, smiley Barry Allen that I know and love." She clasped her hands together in front of her. "I guess all of this progress you've been making has really been helping you out lately, huh?"

"Yeah, I've had a lot to think about," Barry said. He took in a deep breath, let it out again. "There's a lot of things in my life that are falling apart and I don't know how to fix it."

Iris watched him as they continued to walk to their shared house. "We're not just talking about Zoom here, are we?" Barry shook his head. "What's going on, Barry? You're my friend, we can tell each other everything." And Barry heard it there, how she referred to him as 'friend' no longer 'best friend'. Just as he hadn't said 'best friend' in reference to her since he had started to keep his secret as The Flash from her. Or since he had slowly fallen out of love with her.

Sadness hit him for a second, but it was quickly replaced with a sense of happiness. She was still there for him, no matter what. He needed to return the favor. "It's our dads," he said. "Now that my dad's out of jail, he's really trying to figure out how to navigate life and everything again. But, he's not really getting how to be my dad when—"

"—when _my_ dad has been there for so long," Iris agreed. Barry nodded. Iris continued with, "And now that Wally's here and _he's_ dad's son, it's harder for him to let go of you and figure out how to be there for Wally like he was for you. He can't see the difference, either." She looked at Barry once more. "I get it, Barry, I've seen it, too. With Wally's illegal racing career, dad doesn't know what to do. Wally's old enough to make his own decisions, even if we know it's a bad one, so how can dad act like a dad when he hasn't been one to _Wally_ for so long. How can I be a sister to him?"

"Hey, if he wants to miss out on a new sister, then that's Wally's fault," Barry said. "And the same for Joe if Wally decides not to try." He reached out an arm and put it around Iris's shoulder, hugging her to her side. "The same for Francine as well."

"Aww, thanks Bare." Iris wrapped her arm around his waist and hugged her back. "It's just as well, I don't think I'd know what to do with a mom, anyway. I mean, we already missed the prom and I don't plan on being married anytime soon."

"Todd Bridges, right?" Barry guessed, remembering her obsession with him when they were young.

"Shut up!" Iris shoved him, the two laughing as they went into the house.

Joe and Henry, who were sitting apart from each other, not talking, both got to their feet. Joe grinned, noticing the pizza box in Barry's hand. "Keystone Pizza, I take it you went on another training session today." He took the box from Barry's hands and whisked it off to the dining table in seconds.

Barry blinked at his now empty hands. Iris laughed, patting his shoulder. "You know never to get between dad and his Keystone pizza." She stopped to give Henry a warm hug before following her father.

"Yeah, I should've," Barry said. Then he turned to his father and wrapped him up in a tight hug as was his ritual as of late. "Hey dad, what's up?"

"More paperwork," Henry replied with a small smile. He rubbed the back of his neck. "So much so that I remember why you hated to write papers so much."

"The boy you couldn't tear away from school hated papers?" Iris asked, sitting down around the table, prompting the others to do so as well.

"I was never really good at writing them," Barry admitted. "The first drafts anyway. I just…got my ideas out in a pile and Iris helped me figure out how to put them together in a coherent form."

"Yeah, and you know how long it took? You should've paid me for my time."

"I kept giving you those chocolate bars you liked so much."

"And thanks to you I had to work double time to work off the extra weight I added because of it."

"Well, you weren't supposed to eat them all in one sitting," Joe said. He laughed when Iris tossed a napkin at him, pouting. He picked up a beer and took a long swig before gesturing to his daughter. "Do you know the strange places I found the wrappers for those things? She had a problem, she became a hoarder because of it. It's no wonder I couldn't get rid of her Barbie dolls."

"You needed to keep the family together," Iris defended herself.

"I can certainly understand that sentiment," Henry said, bringing a sobering silence around the table. "Nothing's better than family. "He picked up a piece of pizza and started to eat.

Unlike Barry who nearly inhaled everything on site, Henry ate slowly. Barry'd watched him since he was released from prison and deduced it was because of what he'd learned in the prison system. The more food you had, the more others would try to get to what you had so you had to eat fast. What Henry was given in his own cell was enough so that he wasted time by eating. The slower he ate, the longer he could make a meal last, the less he needed to eat all together.

It was a terrible cycle, Barry still watched him struggle to gain some of his weight back.

Midway through lunch, the door to the house opened and Wally walked inside, carrying a duffel bag over his shoulders. "Hey, sorry I'm late," he said, walking into the dining room, depositing his bag in the den. "I was trying to convince mom to come but…no dice."

"Well, the door's always open for her," Joe said.

Henry's smile widened wryly. "Good ole, Joe West. The door's always open." He lifted his beer and took a long swig, keeping himself from having to respond.

Wally glanced at him and said, "Well, she's not a huge fan of pizza anyway."

"You know, I almost didn't date her because of that," Joe said.

"Nuh-uh, you didn't," Iris cried, her shocked laughter immediately filling the room. Soon Joe and Wally joined in on her laughter as well. Barry started to laugh as well, but one glance at his father made his smile slowly fade. "Dad, that's so mean."

"In my opinion, nothing in life is better than pizza." Joe looked around at Barry, Wally, and Iris then quickly added. "Other than you guys of course."

"Of course," Henry agreed.

Another strange silence filled the room. Henry continued to eat quietly, almost as if he were unaware of what he was saying. Joe took in a deep breath through his nose and sat up straight. "Okay, Henry, it looks like there's something you want to talk about, you keep making jabs at me like that. So let's talk about it now."

"Wait, we're here to have lunch," Barry interrupted. "To have some fun, not to—"

Henry lifted his hand. "It's alright, Barry, this is a conversation we should've had a long time ago. I've had it with you, but I haven't had it with Joe, that's who I'm really mad at."

Joe's eyebrows rose. "So, you're mad at me. What did I do to you, Henry?"

Henry leveled his gaze at Joe. "It's what you _didn't_ do that's the problem, Joe," he explained calmly. Barry knew that tone, even in the most stressful situations Henry tried to be calm. It wouldn't take long for that calm to go away, wouldn't take long for it to break.

"We're just going to…" Iris started to get up from the table. Barry followed her lead, moving as fast as he could, but not fast enough for Wally to know he was The Flash. The tension surrounding the two was already starting to get to him. Even from the way Iris grasped the edge of the table, he could see she was worried about it as well. _I wonder if Joe had been venting to her, too,_ Barry thought.

"You weren't there for me, Joe," Henry said, making Barry freeze in his seat. "You weren't there for me in the beginning and you weren't there for me at the end."

"What are you talking about?"

Wally reacted quickly to his cell phone starting to ring. He answered it and backed away from the table, giving Barry and Iris the chance to catch each other's eye before taking his lead and leaving the table. Wally went towards the front door while Iris and Barry went to the kitchen. Iris leaned against a counter and tilted her head.

"And I thought when you and I argued it was bad," she said.

"This…this is worse," Barry said. "And it's all my fault. As most of the things surrounding my life has been lately." Iris looked at him in confusion and Barry quickly explained what had been going on. "I guess it's good they're talking about it now."

"I guess it's what my mom is thinking, too," Iris said.

Barry started. Of course! _That's_ why Francine didn't want to be around them. Watching Wally be with Joe and then Iris be with her…it must've felt like they were being replaced. Add in the way they had all found out about each other again…it had to be even more than a slap in the face. The two could hear the low rumblings of their father's conversation from the dining room, it didn't sound like they were having a good one.

"Uh, let's give them some privacy," Iris said. "Maybe Wally will want to play a video game or something. You still have those, right?"

"Yeah, in my room." Barry knew it had to be bad if Iris, who was terrible at video games, was the one suggesting they play a video game. He led the way to the front hall, stopping only when Iris grabbed the back of his shirt. He turned to face her and she brought a finger to her lips, motioning towards Wally, who paced the floor, phone to his ear.

"Linda," Wally said. His voice sounded hoarse, head hanging low as he went. "Linda, I'm sorry but…I don't…can't do it anymore. No, it's not you. I just…there's a lot I'm dealing with right now and you wouldn't understand. I'm not pushing you away, I just want you to be with someone who has baggage. Not baggage like mine. Linda, I…maybe after a while we can figure things out, but right now's not good. I'm sorry, okay? I know. I'm sorry. Bye, Linda."

He hung up and brought his phone up to tap against his forehead, sighing heavily.

Barry turned back to Iris, who frowned and hugged her arms to her chest.

* * *

Caitlin tilted her head, watching Cisco bring a small dumbbell up and down over his head. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm trying out this workout plan that Jesse showed me," Cisco said, nodding over to the young girl who stood across from him, nodding in agreement. "I figured if we're going to come across other metas like Ragdoll, then we may need to have some more manpower around here."

Caitlin looked over at Jesse who added, "Being held in Zoom's captivity for so long, crying eventually got boring so I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least do some exercises." She shrugged. "It gave me something to do and kept my mind working."

"And that is one of the things I love the most about you," Harry remarked from where he was tinkering with Barry's tachyon device, working to make it smaller to fit his suit better. "But there are more things that you can be doing around here instead of indulging Crisco in his fantasies."

Cisco glared at Harry.

"Well, what else do you expect me to do?" Jesse asked, turning to her father. "You don't let me go anywhere anymore."

"The last time I let you go somewhere, you were trying to get alcohol even though you're underage and, oh yeah, your identity, credit cards, and debit cards were stolen," Harry reminded her. Jesse sighed heavily and plopped into the seat next to her father, crossing her legs as she did her arms. "Yes, we got them back, but think of what else will happen the moment I let you out of my site. Zoom knows you're here and Zoom is one who works on vengeance."

"In my defense, none of that was my fault," Jesse said.

"I don't think that's going to help you much, Jesse," Caitlin pointed out. Harry turned to catch her eye and Caitlin smiled back at him. Something flashed along his face and he nodded to her before turning away. Caitlin felt something in her stomach stir, something she hadn't felt in a long time and turned as well. She changed the subject to speak to Jesse. "What do you want to do?"

"Anything but stay in here all day," Jesse said. "Not that I don't like this place, but I'm only allowed on a few floors and it gets boring fast." She sighed, shoulders slumping. "You'll have to indulge _my_ fantasies, Caitlin. What do you do for fun around here?"

Caitlin noticed Harry's movements stop, and his shoulders tense as if he were listening for her answer. _No, he's just thinking,_ Caitlin reassured herself. She cleared her throat and answered Jesse's question, "I like to read. I like to window shop. I like to do yoga. I—"

"—spend as much time as she can with that Earth-2 hunk, Jay Garrick," Cisco teased. Caitlin felt her cheeks turn red as Jesse laughed. She glared at Cisco and he shrugged, saying, "You were thinking it, I was just saying it out loud. Well," he cast a sidelong glance to Jesse, "The PG version, anyway."

"Cisco!" Caitlin snapped.

"I'm just saying." Cisco dropped his dumbbell and held his hands up defensively. "I've been telling you for years that you needed to stop being so uptight and now that you've got a man you're finally doing it. Can't say I blame you. Jay's done a lot to help you, you have your life back." He turned back to his computer program, leaving Caitlin to think.

She _had_ been spending an awful amount of time with Jay since they met. So much so that she hadn't been spending nearly as much time with Barry, Cisco, or Cadence as of late. Every minute she wasn't working she was with Jay, explaining the differences between their Earths and getting to know him more. Sure, they spent some intimate time together and that was always great, too, but she liked to listen to what he had to say. And seeing how he figured out how things on Earh-1 worked was pretty cut sometimes. When he wasn't teasing her about what existed on _his_ Earth, anyway.

"That's it? There's nothing else to do?" Jesse asked, breaking Caitlin from her thoughts.

"If you want fun, you have to ask me and Cadence about it, we're the fun ones of the team," Cisco said.

"Over my dead and rotting corpse!" Harry said, voice taking on a gruffer snap than usual. "I'm not letting her get corrupted by you, Crisco."

"Hey, everyone knows it's the brothers and sisters that are the corrupters. That being said, you don't want her around Cadence, I'll be the one that makes sure she doesn't get in too much trouble. What kind of trouble can I get into?"

"You?" Cadence teased as she and Brady walked into the Cortex. "Plenty." She leaned against the computer panel while Brady went over to Caitlin to give her a hug and to greet Jesse. "How many times have you needed me to stop a fire you started lately?"

Harry turned in his seat and glared directly at Cisco, who smiled sheepishly. "I've been working on a lot of things that involve welding, don't blame me blame science." Their group was joined once more with Harrison and Tess walking into the Cortex, but this time Maya followed along with them a purse hanging off the crook of her elbow, diamond earrings glittering against the fluorescent light.

"Mamaw!" Brady raced over to hug his grandmother.

Caitlin glanced at Cadence and nearly burst out laughing, seeing the absolute stunned expression on the fire meta-human's face. She continued to stare, even when Maya hugged her tightly, pining her arms to her sides. "Mom, what are you doing here?"

"If I'm going to help you, then I'm going to need to know where you and my grandson are working out of," Maya said. She spun on her heel, looking around the Cortex with a dainty smile. "I love what you've done with the place. Blue and gray, very good colors for the space."

"Wait." Cadence held up her hand. "What do you mean you're trying to help?"

"Mrs. Nash, may I take your purse?" Caitlin offered, holding out her hand.

"Thank you, Caitlin," Maya said, handing it over. She then shot Cadence a wink and said, "You're still bisexual right? If you and Barry ever break up, then you could always think of Caitlin." Jesse's eyes widened in surprise and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth as she laughed. Caitlin blushed at the praise.

Cadence, on the other hand, smirked. "Been there, done that, she's so oblivious she didn't even notice I was flirting with her."

"Wait, what?" Cisco asked.

Cadence's eyes widened towards him. "Are you _all_ that blind?"

"Excuse me!" Brady thrust his hand into the air. When all eyes on were on him, he turned back to his grandmother and asked, "What do you mean you're here to help."

Now Maya's eyebrows came together in confusion. She brought a hand up to rest under her chin, as if she were deeply disturbed by the notion that they didn't have advanced knowledge of her presence. Caitlin gave a wry smile, suddenly seeing the similarities between Maya and her own mother. Most of which being how much warmer Maya was in comparison. "Tess didn't tell you?"

"Well, with all that had been going on with Zoom and Ragdoll these past few incidents, I wanted to be sure things were confirmed before I explained," Tess said. She turned back to the group, looking around. "I was hoping Barry would be here when I explained."

"Oh, that's easy." Cisco made a show of holding up his phone before typing on it with his thumb. Seconds later Barry whooshed into STAR Labs, pulling down the bottom of his shirt. "The Flash on speed-dial. Too bad everyone can't experience this."

"What's going on?" Barry asked. Then he saw Maya and his eyes widened. "Mrs. Nash? Uh…I didn't expect you to be here." He looked to Cadence for explanation and she held up her hand, indicating she was working on getting a response. "Well, as usual, it's nice to see you."

Now that everyone was there, Tess finally explained. "Recently, Harrison and I were reaching our wit's end with the Metahuman Registration Act. No matter what it was we could think of that would potentially give us the upperhand in keeping it from being passed, we concluded that we wouldn't be able to defeat it." She clasped her hands in front of her. "That was until we started to research the Vigilante Registration Act that was nearly passed years ago."

"For those of you that don't know, The Vigilante Registration Act, much like the Metahuman Registration Act, was a legislation that was promoted by the United States Department of Domestic Security that require vigilantes to register themselves within the US federal government," Harrison took on the explanation. He slid one hand into the pocket of his slacks, the other being used to gesticulate around him. "The Department of Domestic Security created the Vigilante Registration Agency which was an enforcement arm of the DoDs."

"Like what Chief Paulson is trying to do with Joe's taskforce," Caitlin realized.

"Exactly right, Caitlin," Tess agreed.

"It was first commanded by the former Army Lieutenant General Slade Wilson," Harrison said. At the name, Barry started, but waved off all glances that went his way, focusing entirely on what Harrison was explaining. "A man named Gordon Godfrey was on a campaign to smear the names of every vigilante that showed up in Metropolis, which made things difficult for those living with powers of any sort. It didn't take too long before others, like Cat Grant, to follow his lead and besmirch them."

Another look, but this time it came between Barry and Cadence.

"Soon it became evident that the bill would be brought to the Senate. General Sam Lane and Slade Wilson were for the bill being passed but Senator Martha Kent opposed the bill. Things were continuously tense on both sides until the VRA was passed shortly after Thanksgiving of 2010, however it wasn't known until then that there were other parts of the VRA that were being followed, such as prisons were being created where Slade could torture and kill those who agreed to register under the VRA."

"Do you think that's going to happen to us?" Brady asked, his eyebrows coming together.

"Not if there's anything we can do about it," Maya said firmly, that mischievous twinkle still in her eye.

"Multiple Vigilantes had been taken captive through the VRA but had been broken up numerous times as well," Harrison explained. "Because of this, there was a nation-wide vote that was taken. What the Senate hadn't expected was for the citizens of the United States to end up disliking the VRA. The majority voted for the VRA to be repealed, thus stopping the VRA completely."

"But I don't understand, what does that have to do with mom?" Cadence asked.

"Oh, I can explain that," Maya said with a casual wave of her hand. "When you first started to exhibit your powers as a metahuman, your father and I knew there was a chance there were those who weren't going to react well to your abilities. So we thought it would be best if you kept it a secret. But because of it, we kept a close eye on any instances where there might be someone like you, the closest being to the meteor shower that had fallen in Smallville. We've kept a close eye on the strange cases that came out of Smallville that had to do with kryptonite as the years went on. So much so that there were those we were able to confide in and keep in touch with over the years. Once the VRA started to come to fruition your father and I went to see what we could do to help and ended up being a very big reason as to why the VRA ended up being dismantled."

"Kent and Maya donated a massive sum through one of their organizations to persuade news and media to publish the articles by Chloe Sullivan and Lois Lane that was a catalyst in VRA's dismantling," Tess said.

"And you're going to do the same with the MRA?" Cisco asked.

"Bruce Wayne's not the only one who can use his money for philanthropic opportunities, sweetie," Maya replied. "You're going to need more than a grant to study metahumans to convince people that The Flash and Flare are here to stay."

"Chief Paulson's going to have a field day with that one," Cadence said with a grin.

"Thank you, Mrs. Nash," Barry said with a grateful nod. Caitlin could see he was doing his best to find the right words to accurately portray his gratitude. He gave a sweeping glass around the room before looking at her once more. "I don't know what else could've been done. Any help you can give us is greatly appreciated."

"I'm glad to do it, Barry," Maya replied.

"Well, with all of that money, you don't think you could figure out a way for us to figure out who Zoom is, do you?" Cisco asked. "Buy us some super teched out facial recognition programs? Pay someone off to tell us who's beneath the mask?"

"If things were that easy, Zoom would probably kill us all," Jesse sighed. She shook her head. "There has to be _something_ that we can get on him? There's a doppelganger of everyone but there's no doppelganger of Zoom?"

Caitlin shrugged. "I've looked into the doppelganger theory, but there's nothing out there that would even indicate there's a Zoom here. So far we only know of Eobard Thawne and Barry being speedsters that have doppelgangers."

"When'd you look into that, Aunt Caitlin?" Brady asked. He plopped himself down into the seat next to Cisco and leaned forward to look over the programs that were still running.

"When Jay and I were looking for his doppelganger, when I was looking for a cure. It was when I was just starting out the Velocity series to try and figure out a cure for Jay. I figured finding his doppelganger would be the best thing. But…his doppelganger is named Hunter Zoloman, he was adopted after being in foster care and—"

A cry escaped Caitlin's lips when Harry flung himself across the room and grabbed onto Caitlin's shoulders, sticking his face close to hers. "What did you say?" He demanded. "That name! What did you just say?"

"Whoa, whoa, Harry, ease up!" Cisco grabbed onto Harry's arm, moving to pry his hands-off Caitlin's. "We know you have a hair trigger temper, but this is getting a little ridiculous, now." He moved his arm in front of Caitlin and used his other hand to hold Harry at arm's length.

"Harry, what's going on?" Barry asked, eyeing him warily.

But Harry continued to keep his piercing blue eyes on Caitlin, forcing her to look at him. "That name," he repeated, much calmer now. "What name did you just say?"

"H-Hunter Zoloman," Caitlin repeated. "His doppelganger's name is Hunter Zoloman."

"Hunter Zoloman," Harry repeated. He took a step back. "Are you sure?" He licked his lips. "Caitlin, I need you to be sure."

"Dad," Jesse intervened.

"Yes, yes! I'm sure," Caitlin said. She continued to watch Harry, heart hammering against her chest. The way he'd reacted, it was much worse than he had throughout everything they'd seen before. He was completely distraught, on the edge of breaking down when Jesse was taken but now he looked completely unhinged. A crazy light filled his eyes, as if he had stumbled upon the greatest discovery of humankind. "That's what Jay told me, that he'd found his doppelganger before and his name is Hunter Zoloman."

"Why? What's the problem, Harry?" Cadence asked. She eyed him warily, hands tightly clasping her elbows. She tapped her fingers up and down her arm, of what Caitlin knew was her nervous habit. "You look like you're about to kill her."

"It's not _her_ I want to kill," Harry growled. He flipped open his metahuman watch and started to tap his fingers against the face. "It's _Jay."_

"Jay? Wh-why Jay?" Barry asked.

Harry continued to type then motioned to the TV screens across the Cortex that projected a mugshot. A mugshot of what could only be described as a crazy man. His eyes were wide, as wide as could be, bright green and holding a manic light. Face gaunt, almost skin and bones, hair as stringy as the scraggliest of beards he sported. And Caitlin stared at the image, stared at the fact that the serial killer being showcased in the image looked almost exactly like Jay.

Almost.

If the hair was cutback, perfectly coifed, if he had a shower, if he had kind eyes…No. It couldn't be true. There was no way it was true. Jay wasn't a serial killer, Jay as their friend. He was _her_ friend, her _boyfriend—_ well, they hadn't gotten so far as to say that yet, but they'd done everything _but_ say it. He'd all but said he loved her and she loved him. No. It wasn't him.

" _That's_ Jay?" Maya asked, her voice filled with disgust.

"No, that's Hunter Zoloman," Harry denied. " _That_ is the last public photo of Hunter Zoloman, instantly recognizable. Oon my earth serial killers are an anomaly. When Hunter was eleven his father killed his mother right in front of him, father went to prison, Hunter went to foster system."

"He was convicted of 23 counts of murder," Barry murmured, reading the article out loud, eyes growing wide with disbelief as the seconds passed.

"23?" Cisco breathed. He shook his head. "That's some real Hannibal Lector type level."

"No shit," Cadence agreed.

"After the trial, Hunter was sent to a mental asylum for the criminally insane and given electroshock therapy daily, to cure his rages," Harry said.

"Until the night the particle accelerator exploded," Jesse realized.

"That's right," Harry said. "The dark matter seeped into the mental asylum. I thought the piping could handle it, I was wrong."

"Just like how the Meta-spiders were created," Barry said. Cadence shuddered at the mere mention of the spiders alone.

"Exactly," Harrison agreed. "I…or rather Eobard, I guess, thought the piping of the Pipeline and the sewer system of the Particle Accelerator was reinforced enough to handle the massive output of dark matter in case anything were to go wrong."

"Hunter was being given his daily dose of the electroshock therapy when he was struck by the wave of dark matter from the explosion," Harry concluded. "Since then he's…been able to run as fast as Barry."

"Wait," Caitlin said. "We don't know for sure that this is Jay."

"Caitlin, it's the only thing that makes sense," Harry said, almost shouting at her. He gestured violently towards the screen, making her flinch. "He looks the same as the man in the picture!" Caitlin closed her eyes and turned her head away from the mugshot. She couldn't look at it anymore. She could still hear Harry yelling at her. "Caitlin, open your eyes and see that this is Jay! He's been feeding Zoom, he _is_ Zoom! He's been working against us this whole time!"

She could hear Tess yelling back at him, "Harry, we don't know that. Don't put words in people's heads."

She could hear Cisco saying, "Cait, don't freak out on me. We're going to figure everything out, okay?"

She could hear Brady innocently asking, "So Jay's been working against us this whole time?"

She could hear Cadence saying, "That son of a bitch!"

She could hear Barry saying, with the most controlled rage she'd ever heard in his voice, "He's not unstoppable. Jay doesn't know we know who he really is, he thinks his past is a secret. And we'll use it to get a step ahead of him."

Caitlin could hear it all before there was a flash of blue lightning and everything went black.

* * *

Cadence had to blink a few times before understanding what it was that had just happened. They'd _just_ had a breakthrough in figuring out who Zoom was…and the next thing she knew it was being flung across the room by a source of power she didn't see coming. She landed hard on the ground and flipped her hair up in time to see that the others had been hit as well. All but Caitlin.

Jay stood behind her with an arm around her neck and a hand over her eyes while Zoom stood in the middle of the room, blue lightning wrapping up his arms and legs. For a moment, she thought they had figured out everything, that they knew who Zoom was and how to stop him. But if he was there and Jay was there, too…it didn't make sense at all.

"Jay," Barry growled, getting to his feet. "Let her go!"

Zoom raced forward and grabbed Barry by the throat, slamming him against the wall. He squeezed his hand around Barry's neck, causing his face to immediately turn red, veins bulging along his face and neck. Maya gasped and turned away. Harry moved slowly towards his desk where his rifle sat. If he could get to it quick enough. Then he spotted Jesse kneeling next to him and hesitantly glanced at Caitlin once more, torn.

Cadence pushed herself to her knees and clenched her hands into fists, flames swirling along her arms as her eyes blazed. She moved to send a burst of fire towards Zoom but Cisco stopped her. "Don't," he said. Then she turned her gaze to Jay, who tightened his grasp around her neck. "Cade, don't," he repeated.

"He has Caitlin," She snarled. "And Barry." _Kill him,_ the words whispered in her head. _Kill him before he kills Caitlin._ "We have to stop them."

"If you hurt him, he might kill Caitlin," Cisco said. There was a low guttural sound and Cadence felt her heat hurt as Zoom tightened his grasp around Barry's neck. "What?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"Your speed," Zoom growled in Barry's face. Then he turned and pointed towards Caitlin. "For her life."

"No," Caitlin whispered. Even without being able to see, she knew what was going on around her. "No, Barry, don't do it! Don't worry about me! Don't give him—" she cried out when Zoom threw Barry across the room. He struck the computer panel and flipped over it, falling to the ground. Zoom was back on him in an instant and punched him again, this time an arching blow under the chin that flung him into the ceiling and back down to the floor. Zoom walked over and slammed his foot onto Barry's throat. Caitlin quickly changed her tune. "Stop it!"

"Cisco!" Cadence shouted. Her fingers twitched at her sides. _Kill him. Kill him._

"No!" Cisco said. He held his hands out to form the shape f a T, putting himself between her and Zoom. "Don't move."

"Jay stop!" Caitlin cried. "Please." At the sound of her voice, Zoom turned towards Caitlin, his foot still sitting on Barry's throat, pressing further down as each second passed. "Leave him alone! If any thing you ever said to me was true, if anything we ever shared was real then please just let him go. Please? I know some piece of you did care for me, so if you have any humanity left then please, let him go."

Zoom backed away from Barry, releasing his foot placement on his throat. Barry sucked in a deep breath of air and curled up into a ball, coughing. Cadence took the opportunity, she couldn't wait any longer. With a scream of effort, she sent a brilliant blaze of heat vision from her eyes that crashed into Zoom at the same time she launched herself at him.

 _Kill him. Kill him._

With her teleportation abilities, it gave her time to get a few, solid strong hits against Zoom, knocking him into the wall and pinning him in place with her fire blasts. Then she got close enough to him to rely on her strength, solid strong punches that pressed him further and further into the wall as she did so. Then Zoom caught one of her punches, holding her arm above her head, then punched her hard in the chest before sticking her in the stomach with a vibrating hand.

Zoom flung Cadence back to the floor and nodded over at Jay. Harry lunged for his rifle. Then the three were gone in a flash of blue lightning. Harry shot his rifle towards Zoom, too late.

"CAITLIN!" Cisco shouted after her. He ran to the door of the Cortex and stared after her in vain. Then, eyes wide with shock and pain, he turned back to Cadence. "What did you do?" He demanded. "I told you not to— _he has Caitlin_!"

Cadence watched him, eyes growing wide as her realization slowly came to her. The consequence of the decision she'd made. He had Caitlin. He had her best friend. She leaned back on her heels and looked over at Barry. She could feel blood dripping down her stomach, it had to be a mess, but she didn't feel the pain. The pain of seeing Caitlin in trouble and now gone was painful enough. Barry coughed again, pulling himself to his knees, chest heaving. He looked over and his eyes locked with Cadence's.

He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. Cadence was already thinking it. If she hadn't…if she didn't…if, if, if…all of the pain and emotions she'd been holding back over the past few years boiled over. The horror of seeing the dead body of her first kill while in the Assassination Bureau, the horror she felt stuck in a paralyzed body that moved on its own under a mind control, the absolute terror of the first time she'd killed on her own, the anger and devastation of when Brady had been kidnapped, the sheer disgust of knowing she was a pawn in trying to kill Barry and the rest of Team Flash, the desperation of trying to be better than what she had been, the pain of losing her father and all of the held back emotion that came along with it…the sheer agony she felt every single day of her life came out.

Cadence screamed.

She grabbed the sides of her head, fingernails digging into her scalp so hard it bled, and she screamed. Oh, she screamed. Loud, high-pitched blasts of fury and tragic sadness that her body wracked. Her back arched and flattened again and again as she screamed. She screamed so loud and so hard her entire body shook. Then she was running, running out of the Cortex and as fast as she could. She made it in a few seconds, to the pod in the pipeline. She jabbed her palm against the program, keying in her handprint.

The pod slowly came around, Cadence could hear footsteps coming her way. The pod finally came into place and Cadence was on it even before it could open to reveal Breathtaker sitting inside. She slammed her hands against it, clawing at the glass.

"WHY?" Cadence screamed, slamming her fists against the cover of Breathtaker's pod. His glowing eyes shone back at her. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? _WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME_?" She lowered her hands and backed away just enough so that she could see him clearly. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

Breathtaker slowly stood up until he was hovering in front of her. His hands were tucked tightly inside his cloak, only his eyes visible as he hovered in front of her. "Nothing that wasn't already destined to you," he said.

Cadence closed her eyes. She fell to her knees, clasped her hands over her face and sobbed. Harrison, Tess, and Maya knelt beside her, wrapping their arms around their daughter as she continued to cry.

* * *

 **A/N:** Everything must come to an end and the end of the story is coming soon. Things are certainly picking up and I can't wait to know what you guys think of it all. Very dramatic, huh? Oh, but I really loved the part with Cadence and Brady, they don't really get much time to themselves and I thought it was cute that Brady was asking more about his parents and that they got to share their love for soccer.

Black Blade is owned by DarkHelm145 after he suggested a meta for me, and White Hot is owned by my friend Mandy who I asked to give me a meta, lol. Also, what do you think I'll add to Brady's abilities: Metal Manipulation, Darkness/Shadow Walking, Flight/Levitation, Telepathy/Telekinesis?

Please remember to review; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Spinquin142:** I hope this held up for you! :)

 **Josephguy217:** Thanks again, as usual. I really should do a free one-shot for you or something since you've been a massive support since the begging.

 **PowerHero432:** Yeah, he's a jerk. Worse than a jerk, but we all know that. And we'll see what happens with the play.

 **Yummers:** Yes, for a short while they didn't remember they loved each other. This chapter should make it more clear as to why they didn't remember that as well as some other things.

 **Guest 1:** Thanks! Glad it worked out.

 **Guest 2/DarkHelm145:** Your meta was first seen here, but he'll be bigger. Just a quick introduction for him.

 **Ethan:** Yep, Alicia is Chief Paulson's daughter. And who knows how bad she'll be. So far it looks like she just parrots what her dad says and sort of uses his status as power to be a popular in their fifth grade class. Yeah, Brady has been learning a lot from his training with Oliver. I'd show it more but as everyone knows, you can't show everything. There's going to be one more chapter with a happy ending, a legit happy one, but since the story is winding down it may take a bit to get there. Well, that depends on your thought of the end of the last chapter, too. It may be seen as bittersweet.


	46. Resolve

**.:46:.**

 _Resolve_

* * *

Oliver sucked in a deep breath as he entered his office, right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of his mayoral campaign. Samantha Hawke immediately rushed to him, grasping his arm. "Have you heard from Conner?" She asked, voice high-pitched with panic. "Have you seen him? Have you found him yet? Do you know where he is?"

"I don't," Oliver said firmly, trying to keep his voice steady. He found it hard, feeling his breath start to catch in his throat. His son was missing and he knew the reason why. "But I'm doing everything I can to—"

"I knew it!" Samantha broke in. "I knew the second I realized he was gone, I knew you had something to do with this. What did I think of letting you into his life?"

"Samantha, I need you to tell me exactly what happened," Oliver said, holding up his hands. He tried to keep his voice calm and steady, but found himself unable to do so. Not when he knew the truth. But he had to get Samantha's version of things, first.

"No, Oliver, I need _you_ to tell me what the hell happened," Samantha shot back. "And tell me where you have my son."

" _Our_ son. And I don't—" Oliver quickly cut himself off. He took a step back and looked Samantha in the eye. She glared back at him. "You think _I_ had something to do with this? You think I kidnapped Conner away from you?"

"What other explanation is there, Oliver?" Samantha spat. "I introduce you into his life, I let him know he has a father out there that I was afraid of him getting to know because I know your world. I let you get to _know_ him the way you asked and the next thing I know, he's gone! What was it? Not enough visits? Are you trying to get back at me? I didn't think one weekend a month was too unreasonable."

"I don't have anything to do with this, Samantha," Oliver insisted. That was a lie. He did have something to do with it, but not in the same capacity Samantha thought. "The only thing I want for him is the same thing you want for him. To be safe and protected. I'll admit you were right in hesitating in having me in his life and him around my world, but he's _my_ son, too and I don't want anything to happen to him."

"So _what happened?"_ Samantha demanded.

"I need you to tell me what you saw and I can tell you," Oliver shot back. He kept his voice even but he was starting to lose his patience. There were too many things he didn't know for sure and not having information was one of the things that he couldn't stand.

Samantha shook her head, emotion overrunning her. Tears came to her eyes and quickly slipped down her cheeks. "I went to get him for dinner and he was gone. No note, no sign of struggle. Gone. I've called the CCPD but nothing. And then Cadence called and said that she and Brady were worried—"

"Cadence called you?" Oliver interrupted.

Samantha was starting to get impatient. She needed to get answers, not more questions thrown at her. She glared at Oliver and huffed through her nose before growling, " _Yes!_ They called and said they were worried because he wasn't at practice. I didn't realize he wasn't because, lately, I've been taking extra shifts at work and Conner takes the bus back if she or Ryder don't take him. I thought he was in the house and when I went to get him…"

Oliver glanced towards the ceiling, everything starting to click into place. Lord, why did everything have to be his fault? Why couldn't things just be normal and simple for more than a few days? "Samantha, I'm going to do everything my power to get him back and—"

Samantha shook her head, backed away from Oliver. "What can you do, Oliver? What can you do that the entire police force hasn't done?"

Oliver sucked in a deep breath, weighing his options in his head. It didn't take long for him to decide. This was his son, the most important thing in his life. There was no choice to make. "Samantha…" He said slowly, eyes searching hers. " _I'm_ the Green Arrow."

He expected her to laugh, to shake her head, to do anything she could to prove him wrong. Instead, he saw something in her eyes light up, as if she'd had her suspicions. Then she said slowly, almost as if grasping at straws, "That doesn't make sense."

"I'm not the person I used to be," Oliver said quietly.

"After five years on an island I wouldn't expect you to be," Samantha murmured. She continued to gaze at Oliver. "But…the Green Arrow?"

"I'm telling the truth. And I can prove it." He reached out and gently grasped Samantha's arm, leading her from his office. They passed through his campaign headquarters, and to the service elevator at the back. The elevator that was off-limits to everyone but him and Thea—so much so that no one outside of Team Arrow knew it was there. The went inside and Oliver pressed the buttons to lower them all the way to the sub-level basement, to the Arrow Cave.

The doors opened and Oliver motioned for Samantha to step out fist. Hesitantly, she did so, swiveling her head back and forth as she scanned the ArrowCave, taking in the silver technological affects with green hues. She looked over his suit and the holder where his bow was precariously resting. Looked at all the gadgets and equipment that aided Oliver in his work as the vigilante that protected Star City night after night.

And she took it all with wide eyes and a hanging mouth. Turning back to Oliver, who looked away from her pleading eyes, she shook her head and murmured, "This doesn't make any sense."

"Like I said, I'm not the person I used to be," Oliver murmured. He looked up as his team came his way and nodded to them. Placing his hand on Samantha's shoulder, he lead her over to Felicity, Thea, Diggle, and Laurel. "Samantha, these are my friends." He cleared his throat, locking eyes with Laurel, knowing the past they shared and how Samantha fit into it. "You probably recognize a few of them, but they're going to help us get him, okay?" Oliver said.

"Okay," Samantha whispered. She clasped her hands together and took a step towards Team Arrow. "I know…there are some awkward things that need to be said but…I really want my son home. If you can do that, I'll forever be grateful to you."

"Don't worry." Laurel reached out her hand and grasped Samantha's in her own. Oliver watched as she gave a small smile, a reassuring one that everything between them was okay. That Oliver's and Samantha's affair so long ago was in the past. "We'll get him back. I promise."

Oliver then turned to Felicity and asked. "Does CCPD have any leads?"

"No, it was a clean grab," Felicity said.

"Do we have any other angles we can work other than Malcom?" Thea asked. Oliver had quickly given them the rundown over everything that had gone on since Conner's disappearance, including Oliver's relation to Conner, shortly after he'd been kidnapped. So far their best lead was to get into contact with Malcolm Merlyn, which certainly was the last thing any of them wanted to do.

"Finding Conner isn't the problem," Diggle pointed out to her. "Beating Damien Darkh is. Every time we face him we get beaten. Royally."

"That's because we can't go up against his magic," Thea reminded him.

Oliver let out a harsh sigh. Damien Darkh. The simple mention of the man's name was doing nothing more than causing his blood to boil and his rage to manifest. Darkh was already a bloody thorn in his side, but now that he had his son? Oliver was only a few steps away from going on the warpath.

"We just need to fight harder," He said. "Smarter…"

"No, Oliver," Felicity said dryly. He could hear the hurt still in her voice, at being one of the last to know about Conner being Oliver's son. About his lies about him since he found out. "Insanity is doing the same thig over again and expecting a different result. We need a different plan."

"What about Constantine?" Diggle suggested, speaking of the mythical man that had helped them one time before.

"He's in Hell," Oliver said flippantly.

"Why? What's wrong?" Thea asked.

Oliver's eyes shifted back and forth, knowing the reaction he was bound to get in response to his admission. "No, I mean, he' really, literally in hell." Samantha turned to him with an expression he couldn't quite place. She had just been thrust into a world she didn't understand and now she was right in the middle of it. "But there may be someone else who can help,"

There was a sudden flurry of movement that made Oliver grab for his bow and arrows. With the speed of a precision archer, Oliver strung an arrow and pulled back the bow, pointing the weapon directly toward the figure that had suddenly dropped from the ceiling in between his team. Diggle reacted as quickly, pulling a pistol from the holster that sat at his waist and pointed it at the figure.

The figure stood up from his crouched position on the floor and pulled back his hood, holding up his hands defensively. "You wouldn't shoot a kid, would you?" Brady asked Oliver.

Startled, Oliver turned his bow to the side at the exact moment he let go of the bow. His arrow speared the air and embedded itself into the wall across the ArrowCave with so much speed that only the tail end stuck out.

"I guess so," Brady said, looking over at the arrow on the wall.

"Brady, what are you doing here?" Oliver demanded when he found his voice.

"Better question, _how_ did you get in here?" Felicity leaned back, her eyes squinted behind her glasses as she examined the ceiling.

Brady's eyebrows rose and he pointed to the ceiling. "I phased in. It wasn't hard to get by the people upstairs, they were so busy they didn't even notice I was here." Then he looked at Oliver with a raised eyebrow. "You're actually going to be the Mayor?"

"Brady," Oliver warned. He noticed Diggle still had his gun drawn and, like Felicity, was examining the ceiling, and motioned for him to put it away. Diggle quickly reholstered the gun and started to rub his temples, saying something about, "Little kids and metas, my life was better before I met any of you."

"Sorry," Brady said. Then he saw Samantha standing beside Oliver, staring at him with wide eyes. His eyes widened in response as well. "Miss. Hawke?" Then he realized what was going on and smiled sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. "Oops," he murmured.

"Brady." Thea walked over to the young boy and squatted down so she was at his height. "What are you doing here?"

"Something's wrong with Conner and I want to help find him," he explained. He turned back to Oliver and Samantha. "I knew something was wrong but no one was listening to me. And when Zoom—or, _Jay—_ came in and kidnapped Caitlin—"

"Zoom has Caitlin?" Felicity asked.

Brady nodded. "I knew it was the best time to come here." He licked his lips, lowering his chin. "Mom and Barry can handle Zoom and Jay. I know they can. But, I needed to help Conner. Aunt Caitlin would want me to."

"Does your mom know you're here?" Oliver asked, folding his arms. He had an idea he already knew the answer to the question and was correct when Brady shook his head.

"Well, she probably knows now," he conceded. He took a step forward. "Please, Oliver? I can help. I know I can. I've been practicing all the training you've showed me. I can help. I can phase, no matter what Damien Darkh…or whatever this guys' name is, does, he can't touch me." Oliver started to respond and Brady continued with, "Conner's really helped me. He had the idea of finding other meta kids in our school to protect them, and he came up with the idea of assigning levels to the metas we've come across. He saved me before, I need to save him now."

Oliver pressed his lips together, looking back at the young boy. Samantha took a step forward and looked at her friend's son. Then she lifted finger and pointed, "You're Shadowhunter," she said slowly. "You were the one on TV fighting against that meta." Her eyes widened. "So that was Conner who…?"

Brady nodded. "Conner and Leah were out there, trying to help me." He looked her in the eye. "I'm sorry, Miss. Hawke, that Conner got brought into this. But he's my best friend and I'm going to do everything I can to bring him back."

"You can't be serious," Felicity brought in. "It's one thing to have had him around when he was fighting Victor Savage, but Damien Darkh? And, Oliver, you've been training him?"

Brady glanced at her impatiently. "It wasn't a secret that he was doing it, don't be stupid. I don't have speed or elemental powers, no one else could help me. Flash and Flare brought me to Oliver for some help. And it's been helping. I can hold my own, I've gotten better." He looked at Oliver with a hard stare and said, "If you don't help me, I'll do it myself."

Oliver was struck with how familiar his words were. Brady had said it to him years before, when they were trying to stop the Assassination Bureau and the Suicide Squad the first time, when Oliver had said he wasn't going to help Cadence. Brady'd stood up to him then the same way he was now. Oliver could see a lot of Barry in Brady, even when he didn't have his powers, Barry did his best to help people in Star City and Oliver even when he'd only just found out about Oliver's identity. And he'd continued to do nothing but be a good influence of everyone to Central City. There were going to be other people that would come after them as heroes and vigilantes to their cities and that day would come sooner or later.

"Fine," Oliver said. "But you need to listen to what I say." Brady nodded. "Good." He folded hi arms. "Then there's one _other_ person I know can help us. Her name is Mari, but her codename is Vixen."

* * *

STAR Labs was silent. Quieter than it had ever been. Even the sounds of the machinery that were usually a background noise sounded deafening. In the Cortex, Barry looked over the screen in front of him a map of Central City projected. His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked over the map. So many places to look and yet, he couldn't kind Zoom, Jay, or Killer Frost.

"Barry, she's not here," Cisco said, sitting behind his computer.

"You don't know that," Barry replied. "She has to be here somewhere."

"Barry." Cisco pressed his lips together and stood up from his seat. The sound of the wheels rolling across the floor of the Cortex squeaked loudly. "Caitlin's not here. Wherever Zoom has her, it's not somewhere that—"

"—We need to keep looking," Barry insisted. "Everywhere. We can't leave any place unturned. If Zoom has her—"

"—If Zoom has her then she's probably on Earth-2," Cadence called from the medical bay. She sat on the end of the examining table, gently kicking her legs back and forth as she stared at the wall across from her as if in a trance. She spun her cellphone in her hands. "He wouldn't be dumb enough to leave her here."

"You don't know that!" Barry snapped.

"Barry, we've been looking all over Central City since she was taken!" Cadence snapped back. "And we've found _nothing_. The most logical answer is that she's on Earth-fucking-2!" She threw her phone into the wall where it crashed and clattered to the ground.

Barry closed his eyes and turned away from her, bringing his hands up to rest on his head. He could still hear Caitlin's screams of fear in his head, could still hear Cadence's screams of grief, could still feel Zoom's punches reigning down on his body before he'd been released. Could still hear Cisco shouting after Caitlin despite how fruitless it was.

And Barry had turned on his heel and raced after Zoom. Ran in all direction of the city, cutting back and forth whenever something moved. And yet, he couldn't see anything, no sign of Caitlin, no sign of Zoom, no sign of Jay. He ran until he became exhausted, coming back to the Cortex to find it empty. "I can't find her," he said. "I looked…I can't…"

Now Barry opened his eyes and looked around the Cortex. Their team was split apart. Caitlin was gone. Brady was gone. And it didn't look like there was anything they could do, to even get an answer of what was going on. He placed his hands on his hips. "If she's on Earth-2, then we'll have to get her out of there."

"And how do you propose we get back there?" Cisco asked. "I can barely open a breach long enough to do it and you haven't been able to run that fast."

"I'll use more Velocity-9," Barry said.

Now Cadence looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You know what Caitlin said about it. About Jay? That stuff if killing him?"

"It won't kill me," Barry insisted.

"You don't know that."

"You don't know it won't, either." Cadence ran her hands over her face. "If it's killing Jay, then it might just be taking its sweet time before it kills you. And if that happens, then Zoom. Wins. He'll take over our Earth and…probably kill us all."

"It's killing him, too," Cisco reminded her. "If Jay or Hunter Zoloman or Zoom or whatever his name is, is taking it…" He rubbed his hands together. "At least we've got something to look forward to. We could probably see him run into a pile of dust or something. What a happy day it is!" His sarcasm wasn't lost on the other metahumans.

Barry folded his arms. "How would he be able to be here and there. We saw them in the same room at the same time."

"Speed Mirage?" Cadence guessed "Like I'm able to do a heat mirage?"

The gears in Barry's head rolled. A speed mirage? The last time they'd come across one of those had been when Eobard Thawne was still around. When they were dealing with him right after the Assassination Bureau and Suicide Squad. It explained how he could be the Reverse-Flash and who they thought was Harrison Wells. _And he had to be running really fast to be able to do it,_ Barry thought. _But they were never in the same room at the same tie._ He shook his head. "No, this was different. They were both right there."

"It's not like it's two version of Zoom then," Cisco said. He waved his hand back and forth. "Cait already explained it, it's a doppelganger."

"Then how do we know this one isn't either?" Cadence asked. "Jay, I mean. Caitlin and Jay found the Earth-1 Jay and if he's not a speed mirage, then maybe he's a doppelganger form another Earth. Or—"

"—Another timeline," Barry broke in. "A time remnant." His eyes shifted back and forth. "Just like Eobard Thawne when he came back that one time. He explained he was a time remnant from before Eddie killed himself. From an alternate timeline. Jay, I mean, Zoom, must've done the same thing and used that time remnant to study us so Zoom knew what to do to attack us."

"But we never told Jay anything so how could they have possibly…" Cadence trailed off. Her eyes grew wide and a loud gasp escaped her lips. "The mind-meld. It's the mind-meld."

"What are you talking about?" Cisco asked.

"Barry and I touched each of our doppelgangers on Earth-2. And something…with our minds happened. Burnout, when she grabbed my hand, I saw everything that happened in her life. I saw what would've happened if I made different choices here; if I gave up Brady I would've been living on the streets and I'd still be working with the Assassination Bureau. All of that, I saw it in Burnout's life. She had to have seen my life, too, because she said something. Killer Frost asked her 'did you get it' and Burnout said she did." She looked at Barry. "After that, Burnout posed as me to trick you, Barry."

Barry nodded slowly. She _had_ tricked her, too. Everything was the same, all until she attacked him. And then, he had mind-melded with Earth-2 Barry and in his mind he could see everything that had gone on in that Barry's life. Everything from the day he was born to when the two met each other. He'd seen how his life would've turned out with his mother alive, saw how things were when he wasn't living with Joe and Iris.

"And if that's the same thing that Jay and Zoom can do, if they're the same…then they were able to mind-meld as well," Barry understood. "Jay's been around this entire time, he's known everything we've known before we were going to do it." He turned and punched the wall. "That's why he was able to get ahead!"

"Okay, but doesn't that mean that you'll be able to know what _they're_ going to do, too?" Cisco asked.

Barry started to answer but Cadence's phone started to ring. She whipped around and dove towards her phone as it clattered on the ground along with its ring pattern. "Hello?" She asked breathlessly. "Hey Sam." Barry could see her shoulders slump in disappointment when it wasn't Brady.

He felt disappointment hit him a well. As afraid as he was for Caitlin, he was also afraid for the little boy, unsure of what had happened to him in the time it took for Zoom and Jay to kidnap Caitlin. In the ensuing chaos, Barry had gone down to the pipeline to check on Cadence. By that time, she had stopped crying and sat in front of Breathtaker's pod, now closed, with Harrison, Tess, and Maya sitting around her, gently rubbing her back. They made space for Barry as he appeared beside them and he knelt wrapping his arms around her.

Cadence didn't respond for a moment, then she turned and rested her face against his chest. He could feel her shaking as she did so. "Everything's going to be okay, Cade," he murmured, rubbing her back. "I promise, everything's going to be okay."

But it wasn't. Harry and Jesse had returned from chasing after Zoom and reported that Brady was gone. Cadence had immediately stiffened and when she pulled her head back, he could see her eye ablaze with fury. First Caitlin was taken by Zoom and then Brady? It was the only thing they had to go off of…but Barry didn't remember seeing Zoom take him. He had an enhanced ability of perception and he had seen Brady still there when Zoom and Jay streaked out of the room.

He'd said that to Cadence and she nearly took his head off, demanding to know where he was then if Zoom didn't have him. And none of them could respond. Since then, they'd all been walking on egg-shells around each other. That is, when Barry wasn't running around the city even more than he had before. Still, he found no clue to where any of them would be.

Now, he held his breath, listening to Cadence's conversation with Samantha. Then Cadence's eyebrows furrowed together. "What?" Barry whispered.

She held up a finger and brought her phone away from her ear and put on speakerphone. Cisco came over to stand with her a well. "Sorry, what?" She asked.

They all could hear Samantha take in a deep breath and say, "Is there anything you'd like to tell me? Anything at all? Because I just found out something very interesting today."

"Is it about Conner? Did you find him?" Cadence asked.

"No, but Brady wants to find him." There was a short pause and she said. "Here's here."

The relieved sighs that went through the three of them were audible. Cadence nearly collapsed to the floor, bringing her other hand to her chest. "He's there? He's really there? Can I talk to him, please?" There was a shuffling sound of the phone being passed over. "Brady?"

"Hi, mom," Brady said, his voice sounding sheepish.

"Thank God," Cadence said.

"Brady, where are you?" Barry asked.

He paused. "I'm in Star City. I had to come help Conner. Something happened to him, I had to come. But, uh, I revealed myself to Miss. Hawke. She knows I'm Shadowhunter. She knows Conner and Leah were there when I was fighting against Geomancer. She knows everything, even that Oliver is the Green Arrow."

"But are you okay?" Cadence pressed.

"I'm fine. Oliver said he'll look out for me. I'm sorry I left but…I needed to know Conner's okay." He paused again. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"No way." Cadence shook her head. "No. You did what you have to do to save Conner. If it were Barry or Cisco or Caitlin, I would've done the same thing. But do me a favor. When you find Conner, give him a hug for me, okay?"

"Okay."

"Let me talk to Sam."

Samantha got back onto the line. "So, I guess I know what this means. He's Shadowhunter and you're Flare, right?"

Cadence looked at Barry. He nodded back to her. There was no need to have everything a secret anymore, not when too much of it would be difficult to disprove. His secret identity was the least of his worries at the moment. "And Barry's the Flash."

Samantha let out a low laugh. "I should've guessed. I can't believe I didn't figure it out when you all showed up at my house to talk me into letting Oliver be around Conner. If I knew that would happen, I wouldn't have allowed it. He's been _kidnapped,_ Cade. By this Damien Darkh guy."

"The same Damien Darkh whose wife is going for mayor of Star City?" Cisco asked. He shook his head. "That was the _last_ thing I saw coming. I mean, there are smear campaigns and then there's…" he trailed off when Barry and Cadence both glared at him.

"Sam, I'm sorry for everything that's happened. But if Oliver's working on it, then he'll get Conner back. And Brady, too. Conner's his best friend, they've proved that many times. They're going to get him back, Sam, I _promise_!" Quieter she added, "I'm sorry," before hanging up.

Barry let out a long breath. Finally, they got a little bit of a Brightside. Zoom hadn't captured Brady, he was safe in Star City with Oliver. As safe as he could be. As it was, Barry probably would've sent him to safety anyway. Just as he would do to the others when the time came. This was about Zoom and Barry, no one else needed to be caught in that crossfire.

Cadence returned her phone to her pocket and muttered, "I'm sorry."

Cisco and Barry exchanged a glance before Cisco asked, "For what?"

"For getting Caitlin kidnapped. For letting Zoom take her. I should've listened to you, Cisco, and waited for what Zoom had to say. If all he wanted was Barry's speed…maybe we could've figured out something that would've given us the upper hand against him.

"We still have that upper hand," Barry insisted. "We know Zoom's identity. They don't know we know that."

"But the mind-meld—"

"As far as we know, the mind-meld started and ended once we got back from Earth-2. We don't know the lasting effects of it. We don't know if they know that we met Supergirl or Deity or any of that. We don't know if they know what we're planning against them. We still have a chance to make a plan against Zoom and stop him once and for all."

Footsteps caught their attention and they turned in time to find Clark Kent stroll through the doors of the Cortex, his blue eyes shifting over each of the remaining members of Team Flash. "Cisco Ramon, Barry Allen, Cadence Nash. I need you to come with me," he said.

"Where are we going?" Cadence asked.

The corner of Clark's lips turned up. "We're going to see a friend."

That friend, to their surprise, was Bruce Wayne. It took Clark a few minute to convince them that STAR Labs would be okay while they were gone. The moment he told Cisco he'd fly him to Gotham City, the mechanical engineer was all for the trip. Barry and Cadence hesitated moments longer before following him to the city, using their speed and teleportation abilities respectively. Once they arrived in Gotham, Clark led them to Wayne Manor, where an older butler met them at the door.

"Mister Kent, it is good to see you," the older man said. "Master Bruce has been waiting for you." Then his eyes shifted over the other three. "These are the other visitors, I presume?" When it was confirmed, he smiled at the three. "My name is Alfred Pennyworth. If there is anything that you would be needing, please do not hesitate to call."

"Okay…" Barry said, almost in a daze. He didn't even think Oliver had any butlers or maids. He knew Bruce Wayne to be wealthy, wealthy enough to give a grant for metahuman research. But _that_ wealthy? He and Cadence exchanged a glance before following Clark, Cisco, and Alfred inside.

"And I thought I grew up wealthy," she said.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Barry agreed. He reached out his hand and, nervously took hers in his. He was surprised when Cadence didn't pull her hand away, but tightened her grip around his. It wasn't the time to talk about what happened, they just needed to be there for each other.

A door could be heard closing somewhere in the house and moments later, Bruce Wayne appeared at the top of the double staircase that spilled out into the Great Hall. Alfred turned to him and said, "Ah, Master Bruce. I was just about to call you." Then he said to the others, "Would you care for some refreshments?"

"No, I'm okay," Barry said quickly. Cadence shook her head and Cisco, too mute at the presence of Bruce, only managed a small squeak. "Thank you, Alfred." He felt a little awkward addressing the man so formally.

"It was my pleasure, Mister Allen. Please let me know if you, Mister Ramon, or Miss. Nash need anything more." He turned on his heel and left the foyer.

"Please, follow me," Bruce said. He led the group up the double staircase and down a long hallway. Expensive vases, statues with busts of people Barry didn't recognize, and other expensive trinkets lined the hall until they reached the library. Wordlessly, the group went in and Bruce went straight to a grandfather clock that sat in the corner of the room. He turned the hour and minute hands to a certain time and the wall slid open to reveal a spiraling staircase that circled downward.

Barry, Cisco, and Cadence exchanged glances once more but still followed Clark and Bruce all the way to the bottom. As soon as they reached the floor, Barry noticed the change in temperature around him. The air grew damp, almost musty and yet he smelled nothing but rock. His eyes adjusted to the darkness seconds before lights flickered on, revealing the contents of the cave.

Cisco squealed, his hands moving to cover his mouth. "No," he said. "No. No way! Is, this…am I really where I think I am? Am I really in the Batcave right now? The Batcave? The. Batcave? I don't…" he reached his hands out towards Bruce Wayne, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I can't believe I didn't realize you were Batman before! Is Robin here, too? What about Batgirl?"

"One question at a time, Cisco," Clark said with a wave of his hand. "Right now, we've got questions for you."

"Like what are you going to do about Zoom," Bruce added.

Cadence's eyebrows rose. "You know about Zoom?"

"Of course." Bruce turned on his heel and started to walk them around the BatCave, with Cisco taking pictures of nearly every gadget and piece of technology as he passed. "Once the Joker was retrieved from Central City, I made sure to know what was going on while there. I've also been keeping track of the metahuman research I funded and soon found out about what has been going on with Zoom."

"We also heard about the excursions you've been making to…other Earths, was it?" Clark asked, gaining a nod from Bruce to confirm.

"Yeah, we ran into your cousin," Barry said. "Well, not _this_ Earth's cousin. But your cousin from _that_ Earth. We didn't see you over there, unfortunately. That would've been cool. Kara's really cool, by the way." Cadence squeezed his hand and hot him a glare, making Barry realize his mistake. "I mean _that_ Kara."

"Have you still not heard from _your_ Kara?" Cadence asked Clark.

A soft smile came to Clark's lips. "No, I still haven't heard from her. I try to keep my mind off it, there are plenty of things going on in Metropolis I have my hand in, as I'm sure you know by now."

"My mom said she had a hand in helping your mom make sure the VRA wasn't passed," Cadence asked, almost timidly. Clark nodded, making Cadence sigh. "All this time my mom and dad have done a lot to protect me and I was nothing but a spoiled brat."

"If they didn't tell you, then they had a good reason for it," Clark reminded her. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Just as my parents did when I was young. They didn't want others to treat me differently or to fear me. It was hard at first, having to suppress my powers the older I got. But I knew they did it to protect me."

"And right now, you need to work hard to protect your city against Zoom," Bruce agreed. He turned and glared at Cisco, who had stopped at the Batmobile and was in the middle of taking multiple pictures of all angles beside it. "Don't scratch the paint."

Barry smiled as Cisco quickly put his phone away and smiled sheepishly. He had to admit, it was a nice car. And the BatCave was a lot nicer than he'd ever expected. Nor did he believe he'd ever be there himself. Or to be standing with both Superman and Batman at the same time.

"Well, if you've got any ideas on what we can do to stop Zoom, then I'm all ears," Barry said. He finally slipped his hand out of Cadence's and threw them into the air. "Right now we don't know what it is that he does and doesn't know because of the mind-meld."

"Mind-meld?" Bruce repeated.

Barry quickly explained what happened in their excursion on Earth-2 and what had happened since then. There were so many questions but not enough answers and the last thing he needed was to continuously be told he'd figure it out all on his own when he had no idea where to start. Other than the obvious and he wanted to leave that as a last resort.

"Well, I can't say that things haven't gotten any stranger," Clark said with a tilt of the head.

The corner of Bruce's lips turned up. "Not any stranger than the things I've seen," he said. "And continue to see on a daily basis." He folded his arms, coming to a stop at the Batcomputer and sat down in the seat behind it, crossing his legs at the knee. "This Zoom that you're dealing with has run you through the gauntlet."

"You can say that again," Cisco agreed. "Now the guys want us to give him Barry's speed."

"His speed?"

"In return for our friend Caitlin's life," Cadence explained. "But…as you can imagine, we don't know for sure if he'd hold onto that bargain. Zoom…the guy we _think_ is Zoom, is in love with her. He wouldn't give her up that easily. They never do."

"And it's not like we can leave her with him," Barry said. "On Earth-2."

"If that's where she really is," Cisco added.

"I can see your problem," Clark said. He folded his arms and took a deep breath. "I've been through many of the same things though, coming from someone who had their powers since they were born…the idea of being 'normal' can be very tempting. In cases like this, when that decision comes down to it being someone you love being in danger…"

Bruce spoke up and said, "The toughest decision any of us will ever have to make is determining what is our limit. How many innocent people being murdered does it take to change? How many times do your loved ones have to be attacked before you realize _you're_ the problem? How much of your social life…of _living_ do you give up to do what you think is right?"

A humorless chuckle escaped Barry's lips. "It never gets easier," he said.

"It does," Clark insisted.

"Once you know how to separate it," Bruce concluded.

Barry pressed his lips together and turned away from Clark and Bruce. He looked over at Cisco and Cadence, who had now joined him in examining the Batmobile. A small, peaceful smile was on her face as she did so, despite the worry he could see in her eyes. Every day he and Cadence moved back and forth in their identities as Flash and Flare, making sure nothing from one life bled into the other. Every day, he watched Caitlin and Cisco make their career out helping him as The Flash, sacrificing being able to talk about it whenever someone asked. He watched Harry and Jesse navigate their new lives as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

And then there was Joe and Iris and Henry and Wally…they were all trying to figure out what their new lives were, while also working to be make some sort of semblance of their old one. Who was it that said it was no use to hold onto the past when it kept getting further and further away? Whomever it was, they were onto something. There was no way to hold onto the past just as there was no way to keep things the same.

Everything was always changing.

It was his decision to figure out how to get what he wanted, despite things changing. He had a lot of what he wanted; his father was back, he had the best friends he could ever imagine, he had a girl he loved dearly…and he knew the decision they'd make for him.

Barry made his decision.

* * *

Their first attempt at saving Conner had been a bust. Despite being able to track him down to Darkh's place in the city, and even with Mari's help with her own magic powers— a talisman that gave her the power of any animal—Darkh came out on top. It was just as well, Darkh had moved Conner before they could get to him. It had been a tough blow for them all to bear, especially Samantha, who had to sit back and watch and wait for news on her son.

Their second plan looked like it was going to be more successful once Mari realized Darkh's magic had to come from a certain source, that he consistently had to draw from. Once they'd retrieved that information, and what it was that he was using specifically, they were able to start cross-referencing to find Damien Darkh. Along with that plan, Oliver had to pull out of the mayoral race so that Darkh would ensure Conner's retrieval.

That was enough to appease Samantha. She continued to berate Oliver, demanding to know why Conner wasn't returned to her and what more she was going to do. Brady could see it was starting to get to the vigilante and walked over to him as he went through inventor of his arrows saying, "You know, beating yourself up never helps anything."

"Then you clearly don't know me," Oliver shot back.

"Guess not." Brady pulled himself up onto the stool next to him and dropped his hands into his lap. "It's like when we play a soccer game and we do something stupid. Our coach keeps saying that we can't let ourselves get too consumed with what we messed up, because we may do something better later."

"This is a little more important than a soccer game, Brady," Oliver said. He took rubbed his chin. "It's…this past Christmas, shortly after you guys left to go back to Central City Darkh took my friends and held them captive. I could only get them back if I traded myself for them. I did, but he didn't hold up his end of the bargain."

"Did you think he would?" Brady snorted. "This is a bad guy we're talking about. They don't play by the rules. If they did, I don't think Zoom would be trying to get Barry's speed."

"He wants Barry's speed?" Oliver asked.

Brady nodded. "He took Aunt Caitlin and wants Barry's speed in return to give her back. He's going to do it, too. I can tell."

A smile came to Oliver's lips. "You know that for sure?"

"Mhm. Barry would do anything for his friends, even if things don't work very well for him in return. Even if he doesn't trust the other person. But he'd do it because it's his friends. You'd do the same thing again if they were all taken."

"And what about you?"

"Why do you think I'm here?" Brady 's response was so innocent it made Oliver's smile widen. "Things in Central City are crazy. People are getting mad at Barry and my mom because they think they're trying to make some sort of an army out of kids who are metas. They want metas to be gone and even then they're still working. But my friend is in trouble and he risked his life for me and I'm going to do it for him. Even if things don't work out too well."

"You do know, though, that if something happens to you, your mom would go on a rampage."

"I know." Brady nodded like a bobblehead. "She'd rather kill herself then have something happen to me. But as far as anyone else knows, Shdowhunter and Flare only work together, they're not related. And right now, Shadowhunter doesn't care what happens to him."

Oliver laced his fingers together and rested his chin atop his hands, listening to Brady's words. Thing were always so easy, so black and white in a kid's world. There was only right and wrong, good and bad and everything that fell in-between. How much longer would it be for Oliver to get back to that point in life? Where things weren't so complicated and he only had to think of two possible outcomes rather than a hundred and one and more people than he could count. How much longer until Brady had the opportunity to stick to that lifestyle before he realized how needlessly cruel and senseless the world could be.

They didn't have long to think about it before they got a lock on Darkh and moved in after him. Brady stuck to his post, sticking nearby Oliver as they hid in the bushes outside the building Darkh was hiding in. With his hood up and the darkened color of his cloak, Brady was nearly imperceptible, moving along as Oliver's shadow. Adding in his powers and he would be completely invisible in the shadows of the night.

He gripped his slingshot tightly in his hand, waiting for the signal. Oliver nodded at him and the two moved out from their hiding place, making them vulnerable to the men that guarded the house. Ghosts as Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow called them. Brady could see them start to lift their guns and he moved fast, lacing his slingshot with a explosive device. Oliver stood by his side and the two launched their weapons into the air.

Oliver's trick arrow streaked across the sky before it exploded in a brilliant flash of light. At the same time, Brady shot his explosive towards the Ghost and the front of the house. It landed just to the side of the fountain, exploding in a brilliant ball of fire that sent shards of concrete in all directions like shrapnel. A pillar of water arched through the air and landed on the grounded with a deafening thunder, giving Oliver and Brady enough cover to then take out the Ghosts with arrows.

"Vixen," Oliver said, pressing his finger into the comm-link in his ear. "You're up!"

"You got it." Vixen, who was circling the building overhead with the ability of flight from the spirit of an eagle, dropped through the roof with an almighty crash.

"Let's go!"

Brady ran alongside Oliver as they approached the front of the of the building, getting closer it looked like a mansion. Brady's eyes shifted over the windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Conner in any of the rooms. Then his eyes shifted back to the Ghosts that moved in front of them, to bar them from going inside. Brady phased through one and turned around to grab him by the throat, heaving him to the ground.

"Don't worry about them!" Oliver spun on his heel and arched his foot up, kicking a Ghost in the face before turning and driving his elbow into the chest of another one. He grabbed its arm and flipped him over onto the ground. "Get inside and go find Conner."

"Right." Brady turned and sprinted towards the house. He skidded to a stop as the doors opened and a man with white hair and dressed in a nice suit came out onto the porch. Damien Darkh. His ice-blue eyes shifted over the scene in front of him before landing on Brady. "Well, well, I haven't seen you around before."

"Shadowhunter, run!" Oliver called.

Brady nodded at Oliver over his shoulder and started running again. Darkh started to hold up his hand and Brady ran faster, phasing through him before racing into the house. Darkh whipped his head around and glared at him while Oliver stood stock still, frozen in place from Darkh's magic. Without waiting a second longer, Brady continued forward and phased through the wall in front of him. He could hear Darkh's shout behind him before rapid footsteps followed.

 _Blam!_

A hole blasted into the wall directly above Brady's head. He dropped to his knees and slid through the wall in front of him, coming to a stop in an expansive bedroom. The door was kicked in behind him and Brady turned around to find six Ghosts standing behind him all pointing guns his way. A red scope line appeared on his chest seconds before the others joined it.

"Put your hands up," The leader said. "And no one will get hurt."

Brady shrugged and slowly did as he was told. "If that's the way you want it," he said. The Ghosts exchanged glances before slowly moving closer to him. As soon as they were close enough they tried to grab onto his arm. Brady watched as the Ghost's hand phased through his arm. He moved closer to try again, but the same thing happened.

"How's he doing that?" Another Ghost demanded.

"Must be one of those metahumans," The original Ghost said. He leveled his assault rifle towards Brady's face. "Bet you can't phase a bullet."

"Maybe not, but you'll have to find me to be able to shoot me." With that, Brady used his powers to blend into the darkness of the room around him. He heard the started cries of the Ghosts. Their heads whipped around, trying to find him and Brady reacted quickly. With a flurry of punches and kicks, he halved the group in front of him.

Bullet shot out rapid-fire from the assault rifles. Brady's heart leapt to his chest when he felt the bullets phase through him. He couldn't completely control his powers at the best of times, having to concentrate hard at school while in class so that he didn't phase through the chair. If things went wrong now…

Gritting his teeth, Brady shifted around and leapt onto the back of another Ghost, his weight pulling him backwards. The Ghost cried out as the bullets climbed up the wall and through the ceiling, causing plaster to rain down around them. Brady wrapped his legs around the Ghost's waist and pulled his arm aside, turning the gun towards the other Ghost. His body wiggled around as bullets pumped through him before he fell.

Brady flipped off the Ghost's back with a kick of his feet and ran back from the room. He started to go the way he came, then changed directions, finding more Ghosts running towards him. He skidded around the corner and pressed his back against the wall, squeezing his eyes shut. _If there's ever a time I want to be invisible, right now would work_ he thought. The footsteps continued towards him before Ghosts ran by, this time a few more had joined the group, moving like a mini-SWAT army. They ran by Brady and continued down the hall, slowing their footsteps, swinging their rifles back and forth.

Shuffling along the wall, Brady slid slowly until he was out of harm's way. He released a low breath and followed the twisting and turning hallways until he reached what looked to be the master bedroom. He carefully opened the door and stuck his head in before inching his way inside. Outside, he could hear gun fire and motorcycle engines revving. Laurel and Thea had to have joined the fight as well. Damien Darkh was certainly a tough one to go against.

 _I'd like to see him and Zoom duke it out,_ Brady through. He licked his lips, eyes scanning the darkened room. "Conner?" He called. "Conner?"

Hearing a muffled sound, Brady ventured further into the room. Brady raced to the closet and wrenched the door open. Conner screamed from behind the gag in his mouth and Brady quickly ripped it off. "What are you doing here?" Conner blurted once he could breathe.

"I come all the way to Star City to save you and you ask me that?" Brady replied. He pulled out his yo-yo and pressed a button on the side, causing blades to come shooting out the sides. He moved behind Conner and cut through the restraints that held his wrists and ankles together.

"How'd you get here?" Conner asked instead.

"I phased. And, you know, had a couple people shooting at me. No big." He grasped Conner's arm and hauled him to his feet. "What happened? How'd _you_ get here?"

"I don't know," Conner replied. He rubbed his wrists, wincing as his fingers brushed over the cuts in his skin. "I was coming back from practice and the next thing I know, I woke up here. There's some girl here, too that I was supposed to be hanging out with, I think he's that white-haired guy's daughter or something."

Brady nodded and said into his comm-link. "Oliver, I got him."

"Oliver's here?" Conner asked, frowning.

A large explosion made them jump, seconds before the shockwave caught them. Brady felt himself getting lifted off his feet and crashed into the wall behind him. He and Conner fell in a heap, gasping for air. Brady rolled to his side in time to see Mari and Oliver run into the room after Darkh. One of them had to have caused the explosion.

Brady started to his feet then found his arms pinned to his sides. Darkh stood in front of him, hand raised. "Well, can't say I expected this. Arrow, you're using little kids for your dirty work? And to think all I've wanted was to get Oliver pulled out of the mayoral race. I don't know about you, but harming kids has never been my M.O."

"No, you just kidnap them, and use them for leverage," Oliver growled. His voice sounded even more demonic due to the voice modulator attached to his suit.

"I wouldn't have had to if Oliver Queen learned how to stay to of my business," Darkh said. He pursed his lips. "Now, Conner aside, what are you three doing in my house?" Then his eyes settled on the talisman around Mari's neck. "Oh, okay, I think I understand now. I have to admit, Arrow, that was really clever, using magic against me. But don't think it's going to work." Darkh thrust his hand forward, knocking Oliver and Mari against the wall. Conner got to his feet, stretching out his hand. "No!" He cried. "Please, don't hurt them."

"I wouldn't have to hurt them if they'd leave me alone, Conner," Darkh said. He heaved a disappointed sigh, barely casting the boy a glance. "There's too much at stake for me to give up now. But, don't worry, I'm not going to kill them yet. I want to have some fun with them, first."

Brady gasped, feeling his airways suddenly start to constrict. Whatever it was that Darkh was doing with his magic was working. Conner grabbed Brady's arm and tried to pull him aside, but found that even that wouldn't budge him. Darkh's magic was too strong.

"Funny," Mari breathed, pushing her hair back from her face. "I was about to say the same thing to you." She pressed her fingers to the talisman around her neck and a blue mist covered her. When it dissipated she opened her mouth and the sound of a jaguar growl escaped her lips. Darkh's eyes widened at the sound. Mari jumped forward and, with what appeared to be super speed, raced across the room and grabbed what looked like a sculpture of a head off the mantle behind him. She held it high over her head and slammed it to the ground.

A seismic tremor shot through the room. Conner windmilled his arms to stay upright while it knocked Darkh over. With his magical hold released, Brady fell to the ground, sucking in lung fulls of air. Oliver rolled into a crouching position and pulled back on his bow, shooting an arrow towards Darkh. Darkh lifted his hand and with a blat of magic, knocked it away. But Oliver didn't let up on his attack, continuously reaching behind him to lace his bow with arrows.

All the while, Mari continued to smash the talisman against the ground. Each shock wave released a wave of magic. Darkh growled, worry coming to his face. The more he threw out his attacks to hold back Oliver's arrows, the harder it became for him to keep his intensity.

With Darkh distracted, Brady and Conner started to run from the room. Unfortunately, they moved at the exact moment that Mari crashed the talisman down once more. This magic blast was stronger than the ones before, with the talisman close to cracking more and more magic leaked out. It swept against their sides, sending them towards the window. With cries of surprise, Brady and Conner broke through the window and started to plummet towards the ground.

Brady threw his yo-yo and it wrapped itself around the railing of the balcony. The retractable end burned through the palm of his glove from their rapid decent. It jerked to a sudden stop and Brady threw out his hand, grasping onto Conner's wrist to keep him from falling further.

Conner frantically kicked his legs, gripping Brady's arm with both hands to keep himself up. "I'm slipping!" He cried.

"Hold on!" Brady shouted back. His eyes scanned the ground where Laurel and Thea were continuously fighting the Ghosts that kept them from getting inside the house. "Speedy!" He shouted out for Thea. "Help!"

"Help!" Conner repeated.

"Hold on!" Oliver shouted from inside the window.

Brady's hand continued to slip even further, slowly lowering himself and Conner down to the end of the rope. _Blam!_ A shot rang out and Brady felt himself starting to fall to the ground. He screamed as the ground came closer and closer, and closed his eyes, waiting for the impact at the last second. Nothing. No pain. No slam on the ground. Nothing.

For a second, Brady thought he was dead, before he slowly opened his eyes. Conner's grip on Brady's arm tightened, not out of intense fear as it was seconds before, but of surprise as Brady floated over the ground. Brady swung out his other hand and carefully waved it up and down. He was really floating. Careful not to knock himself off balance, Brady slowly ascended back to the window, stretching a toe out to land on the ground. Once they were down, Conner let go of Brady's wrist.

"How'd you do that?" He asked.

"I don't know," Brady breathed in response. Only seconds before Mari succeeded in crashing the talisman to the ground once last time, breaking it apart in her hands. At the same time, Darkh thrust out his hand to unleash an attack of magic so strong it pinned Brady to the ceiling. It swept Mari off her feet and into the wall behind her. The wave raced towards Brady and Conner.

Brady lifted his arm and turned away.

Just as the wave was about to hit them, an opaque shield appeared in front of them, funneling the energy around them all the while throwing out energy blasts into Darkh. It disappeared when Brady dropped his hand. Conner grabbed his friend's arm and shook him.

"How'd you do _that_?"

"I don't know!"

Darkh let out an enraged growl and threw a punch towards Oliver. Oliver brought up his arm, knocking Darkh's away from his and punched him. Darkh backed away, holding his stomach as he gasped for air. He moved to attack again but Oliver darted forward and with five solid punches, Darkh was on the ground.

Outside, police sirens drew near.

* * *

Barry didn't have to wait long for Zoom to show up.

The moment he'd made his decision he knew Zoom would know. So when he got back to the Cortex, he took the time to prepare himself to say the words. And with Cisco, Cadence, Harry, Jesse, Harrison, Tess, Henry, Joe, and Iris behind him he said the words out loud.

"Okay, Zoom. I'll give you my speed."

* * *

 **A/N:** So, looks like I won't be able to make it to my goal of having the next story up before/during season 4 airing but what can you do. A lot happened in this story and I'm enjoying it so, _so_ much. Also, is it 'Master Wayne' or 'Master Bruce'? I've seen both ways but I think Master Wayne is right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Please remember to review, even one word reviews if you'd like; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Henry's and Joe's full conversation is going to be shown. I don't bring something up just to have it half done. But that doesn't mean things always have to be seen directly when it's presented. I think that's a difference of writing and watching things on TV, on TV you can see why things may be held over, but when reading the usually tend to be a linear so when it changes it's harder to see. If that made any sense at all. And, you're right, I put Cade through a lot. I really do need her to be happy for some time. Lol.

 **DarkHelm145:** Unfortunately, things are going to keep getting intense from here until the story ends. Well, that can be a good thing, too. I enjoy it, haha.

 **Guest:** Thank you so much.

 **Yummers:** Yeah, I've been putting Cadence through a lot. She really deserves to be happy.

 **PowerHero432:** Breathtaker and more of the Assassination Bureau will be explained by the story end. I just hope the pay-off is good because it's something that's been plaguing her for a bit but with the readers not really knowing why. I'm always open for new metas so if anyone has any suggestions, I'll hear them out.

 **Spinquin142:** It will be explained too, a lot of people have been asking.

 **Joseophguy217:** Yes, intense was what I wanted so I'm glad it worked out! I hope this one works that way, too.


	47. Flare Flash

**.:47:.**

 _Flare Flash_

* * *

Zoom tilted his head to the side before reaching up to remove his hood. Barry looked away the moment Jay's face was revealed. His stomach clenched the moment he realized he still thought of him as Jay. No. Not Jay. He was never Jay. He was Hunter Zoloman. He was Zoom. Jay was the time remnant that had tricked them, that had decided to align himself with Zoom. He was the one that had betrayed them. So many people he put his trust into and they continued to betray him one right after the other.

"I'm glad you decided to see things my way, Flash," Zoom said, folding his arms. His eyes darted round the Cortex and at all the faces that glared back at him. A smirk came to his face and he let out a snickering, smug laugh. "It took you long enough." He only spoke to Barry. As far as he was concerned, Barry was the only one in the room. "I'm surprised it took me stealing Caitlin away for you to realize how serious I was. You're not going to stop me and I'm going to kill every Flash on every Earth sooner or later. You're just the one who put up the biggest fight."

Barry shook his head, licked his lips. He took a step back and clenched his hands into fists. "This was your plan the whole time," he said slowly, to which Zoom nodded. In a small way he was impressed. He thought Eobard Thawne had managed to pull out the long-con and yet this man was the one who put other lives in the mix to pull off even more emotional torture. It was brilliant. "How'd you do it?"

"It didn't take long, honestly," Zoom said. His voice was flippant enough to make Barry's reluctant respect immediately disappear. "As soon as I saw there were more speedsters on other Earths, I came here and knew what I had to do to become the best. Now, I'm sure none of you would've figured out how I managed to get another version of me to be here with you. I'm not fast enough to be able to create a speed mirage. Not nearly fast enough." He paused. "Well, not yet anyway."

Barry's upper lip curled.

"So, I knew the best way to make sure the trail didn't lead to me was to have enough excuses for me to be around you even if Zoom,"—he waved his hands over himself—"showed himself. So I went back to get a time remnant. It wasn't hard to figure out what would make you run faster, Barry you care about your friends and family more than anything else in the world. You're equally the most selfless and self-centered being I've ever come across." Zoom lifted a finger. "But here's the thing. Convincing my time remnant to agree to me using him took a while. But once he heard my plan, he was all for it." A low chuckle escaped Jay's lips, almost gleeful.

"Then what'd you want with the man in the iron mask?" Barry asked.

"And what about dressing up as the flash?" Joe asked. "If you wanted to get rid of Barry so badly, why take the time to run around the city saving people."

"To give people hope so I could rip it away," Zoom said simply. He smiled to himself, almost like a gleeful little boy who'd just given a handful of candy. "It's so fun pretending to be a hero. As for the man in that mask, you really wouldn't believe me if I told you. I must admit, being the hero was so much more fun than I thought it'd be. It almost made me feel something right here." He tapped the black symbol on his chest. "Almost."

"But you saved Brady and his friends," Cadence reminded him.

Zoom all but rolled his eyes. "That was all a technicality, if it wouldn't have brought suspicion on me. If I had the chance, I would've let them die." Zoom raised amused eyebrows as Cadence immediately lunged towards him, only restrained by Harrison and Harry grabbing onto it. Then Zoom looked at Barry. "So, are you ready to give me your speed or what? I don't have all day."

Barry nodded wordlessly and sent Zoom one last, withering glare. Zoom merely smiled back. Oh, how perfect. Everything fell into place so much better than he thought it would be. There was always someone who was going to be the victor and the loser. This time around, Barry was the loser and the biggest one Zoom'd ever seen. He was surprised Barry managed to last so long. In a way, he was impress with the way Barry handled himself through everything. No matter what he threw his way, Barry and Cadence managed to get back to their feet and come after him time and time again. Did they now understand how these dynamics were supposed to work?

He came to power, they bowed down and out of the way. It worked the same way all around Earth-2, where anyone who tried to stop him very quickly realized it was a bad idea. His recruitment of Killer Frost, Burnout, Deathstorm, and Reverb…all the people that were amazing accomplices to Barry on his Earth were ones who aided in wanting him dead. It was too bad he had to get rid of Deathstrom and Reverb so easily. Pretending that Burnout had died…that'd been easy. He'd seen the way Barry and Cadence were around each other even before their relationship had started back up and knew it was the best way to get to Barry. By attacking his heart. How much of a blow was it so see how easily he'd twisted Burnout's neck to the side, how long did the cracking sound of her neck continue to haunt his dreams.

Zoom could only smile as he imagined the look of horror on their faces once they saw Burnout was back working with him again. That healing factor…it could be a real bitch when it was used in the wrong way but a real blessing other times. Now if only he could figure out how to kill her when he was done with her. Zoom shook his head and shifted his attention back to Barry a he climbed up onto the Cosmic Treadmill. What used to show off how much speed Barry had was now going to siphon his speed.

The irony made Zoom smile the cruelest, most malicious smile he'd ever done. He was so close. _It's only a matter of time…_ he thought. Barry looked over his shoulder at Zoom and Zoom nodded back to him. Go on. Say goodbye to your powers. Get used to not having them ever again. Honestly, Zoom couldn't have gone so far as to just kill him and take his speed but…that wouldn't be fun. He'd leave Barry for last, leave him begging and pleading for his life while covered in his friends' blood before killing him. And it'd be slow and painful, Barry's tortured screams being music to his ears.

Smile fading, Zoom replaced it with an intense stare, his eyes burning into Barry's back. Not much longer…

Barry dragged his feet as he walked onto the Cosmic Treadmill. Then he looked over at his friends once one last time before facing forward. He started to run, slowly, at first. In resignation. His footsteps rhythmically thudded on the belt, slow, medium, fast, fast, fast, faster, faster. Lightning shot over his body, twisting and turning like a slinky as he moved up to his top speed. And it was only seconds later Barry started to slow down. His speed slowly siphoned from his body, enough so that he collapsed to the ground and flew off the back of the treadmill, crashing to the ground in a heap.

Iris and Joe immediately hurried to Barry's side and grabbed his arms, pulling him up to his feet. His head lolled to the side, eyes closed as he fought for breath. Zoom smirked. Barry was normal now, he was no longer a speedster.

Harry, who stood at the controls to be sure the transfer was successful, shook his head as he looked at the loaded syringe beside him. The preciously empty syringe that now housed Barry's speed, red-orange lightning that crackled around the sides as if trying to escape. Harry loaded it into the spring-injector that Caitlin had created for the administration of the Velocity drug and Zoom grabbed it, immediately sticking it into his wrist.

A howl of pleasure escaped Zoom's throat. His eyes turned as black as the night while Barry's powers scourged through his veins. He ripped out the needle tip and threw it aside. With one last look around the room, Zoom said, "Don't try anything stupid." He blasted into the medical bay and came back out, grabbing Jesse around the neck, holding a syringe of Velocity-9 in his other hand. "Just to make sure you've got nothing left to use against me."

"No!" Harry shouted.

Zoom injected the Velocity-9 into Jesse's neck then dropped her to the ground before he turned on his heels and raced from the Cortex.

He ran fast. Faster than he'd ever done before. Everything blurred around him in warp speed before he stopped. Standing at the top of a set of stairs, he looked down over Central City Plaza. What once was shop filled blocks that the residents would take their time to enjoy the day was now filled with a brimming, teaming pool of metahumans waiting for their instructions. The moment Zoom gave the ultimatum to the Flash, to take his speed, he knew it was only a matter of time until he'd get his way. So, he made sure to keep things in his favor. If Barry had agreed to it, he would've forced Barry into making that decision sooner rather than later.

There were enough metas in the city that had kept quiet since The Flash's arrival, those that were tired of the Metahuman Registration Act and how they were already being prosecuted that they were ready to make a statement. And these were the metas Zoom was ready to unleash through the city just as much as they were ready to create some havoc themselves.

Zoom stood over the group, staring down at them. "My friends," he growled. "I've brought us to this new world that lays before us. Defenseless, ours for the taking. The humans think that this planet belongs to them. Who's world is this?"

"Our world!" Was the unanimous chant in response.

"Then let's take it back!"

The uproar was deafening and Zoom watched, standing like a benevolent dictator above them, as the metas ran out and started to create havoc around Central City.

* * *

"Jesse! JESSE!" Harry cradled Jesse in his arms as she started to violently shake. The moment the Velocity-9 entered her system she'd dropped to the floor, seizing with the unbridled power that had been given her.

Cadence knelt by her side, grasping her wrist. She watched for a few moments, then shook her head. "I can't heal her, there's nothing to heal. The only thing we can do is wait for it to leave her system, then I can do something."

"There has to be _something!"_ Harry insisted.

"It's a drug," Henry reminded him. "There's nothing you can do for her at the moment it's administered, only when it is taken away as there are no reasons to believe she's overdosing." He pressed his finger to her neck to check her pulse and frowned, feeling her vein rapidly pulse under her finger. "Her heartbeat is going crazy, we need to get her attached to an EKG right now." Harry pulled Jesse into his arms and hurried her into the medical bay where they put her in a bed and started to attach her to machines.

"Is she going to be okay?" Iris asked, hovering over her.

"This isn't, like, going to turn her into a speedster or anything?" Joe added.

"Not unless there's an abundance of dark matter floating around," Harry practically growled in reply. His eyes were filled with concern as he hovered over his daughter, grasping her hand in his. He watched Henry closely as he moved around the medical bay, looking for what would help slow down her heart. "No, there's too many variables right now the danger is her heart stopping."

"Is there anything here that can stop it?" Maya asked, her hand up to her mouth, gently chewing her fingernails.

"I'll let you know once I find it," Henry said. He let out a low growl, looking through drawers filled with medicines. "Nothing here will do it," he said, slapping his hands down. "Not only am I not sure the side-effects of any of these compounds will make on her body, but the Velocity-9 that was given to her was too pure. She'll need a blood transfusion to help her."

"I'm the only one who'd be a match," Harry said.

Henry nodded. "We'll do the transfusion. But right now, I need something that'll help sedate her."

"I got it." Cadence hurried over to another drawer and rifled through the syringes that sat inside. She picked one up and moved to the head of Jesse's bed. Eyes narrowed in concentration, she turned Jesse's head to the side so the foam that gurgled from her lips slipped down her cheek. Then, after finding a vein on her neck, Cadence injected her with the drug. She then turned her head straight and placed her palms against Jesse's cheeks, holding still until the convulsing slowed.

"What'd you give her?" Barry asked.

"Tegretol," Cadence said. "Or Carbamazepine. It's an anticonvulsant." She ran a hand through her hair. "It's the same sort of medication that we'd use for a girl I used to work with in the hospital, Frankie. She was misdiagnosed as having Bipolar disorder and that was one of the things we used, I got some from the Network the last time Harry asked about finding some things to slow Zoom down." She nodded. "I thought it'd work here."

"Carbamazepine are usually taken orally," Henry said, voice low in amazement as he moved to start a blood transfusion.

"Not when you melt them down," Cadence explained. She smiled when Maya wrapped her arms around her neck in a hug, pressing her head to her chest. "The seizing should stop but…as you said, we just have to wait for the blood transfusion to work."

"That's the least of our problems," Iris murmured. She reached out and patted Jesse's leg before turning and leaving he medical bay to give them some peace. The others moved to go as well with Harry grabbing Cadence's attention with a simple 'thank you'.

"You're welcome," Cadence said before leaving with the others.

Barry let out a long, slow breath, dropping down into a seat behind the computer system of the Cortex. He leaned forward, resting his chin in his hands. He wasn't a speedster anymore. He felt different already, exhausted. Much more so than he'd ever been. He'd certainly taken his powers for granted, being able to move through the little stressors or life at the blink of an eye…and right now it was like everything was crawling to a stop.

Caitlin was gone.

His powers were gone.

Zoom had won.

Zoom'd taken his powers and was now going to take over their Earth, just as he wanted. Barry closed his eyes. What else was he supposed to do? Say 'no' and watch as Caitlin and other innocent people were killed in Zoom's enraged state. Was he supposed to just run around as if nothing else was going to stop him? He lifted his gaze and looked at Cadence and Cisco, wondering what they were thinking. They didn't look at him, too much shock from what had just happened to Jesse.

That was never part of the plan. The plan was never supposed to be deviated from but they hadn't expected Zoom to come back and use the Velocity-9. Now what were they going to do? Tess gently asked the question out loud as she, Harrison, and Maya moved to follow the rest of the group.

"Hope that Zoom doesn't start taking over the world as soon as he'd say he would," Cisco said. His eyes closed as a beeping came from the computer beside Barry. Barry walked the chair towards it and moved through a few screens. Dread filled his stomach as he looked over the bright dots that started to rapidly shift across screen. "Let me guess…spoke too soon, right?"

"Right," Barry agreed. He picked up a remote and pointed it to the TV. The Breaking News immediately flashed across screen, showing footage of metahumans taking over the city, attacking innocent people, destroying buildings, tearing apart everything they could get their hands on and doing it gleefully.

"Yeah, that's going to make everything with the MRA work out so well," Tess said sarcastically. She shook her head. "The moment Chief Paulson gets wind of this…" she ran a finger across her neck.

"Maybe not," Maya said mysteriously. "Chaos has a way of making some of the more unimaginable things to happen." She lowered her hand from her mouth and shook her head. "I only wish I got started on this sooner. There needs to be stricter laws about metas but eradicating them completely? If it weren't for that, this would never have happened."

"You can't blame yourself for any of this, mom, no one knew it was going to happen," Cadence reassured her.

 _We did,_ Barry thought. They knew exactly what the risk was as soon as the figured out he was going to give up his speed. Only one wrench had been thrown into their plan but it had caused enough trouble so fast that they didn't have any other choice. Barry finally drew his hand away from his mouth and murmured, "Cisco, we need to use Velocity-9."

"Velocity-9 is only going to give you back your powers temporarily, Barry, we need a permanent solution," Harrison pointed out. He waved a hand through his hair. "As permanent as, say, another Particle Accelerator explosion."

"You want to put him through _another_ explosion?" Cisco asked, eyes growing wide.

Cadence looked at her father, eyebrows coming together. "You _do_ remember that put him in a coma for nine months last time, right? I know there was another man who was taking over your consciousness at the time, Dad, but I think that's a little drastic."

Barry listened quietly.

"Drastic, is throwing you off a cliff and into a volcano if we thought you were going to get your powers back if they ever go wrong," Cisco denied. "What we're talking about is crazy. What you want to do is douse him with a bunch of chemicals and—"

"—And have him be struck by lightning again," Henry said, walking out of the medical bay and over to the group, lowering the sleeves of his shirt. He shook his head. "That doesn't seem like the safest option."

"It's the only option we have," Harrison pointed out.

"I've watched Barry grow ever since he's become the Flash and I'm proud of that man he's grown into but does he need powers to be that man?" Henry asked. He lifted a hand before Harrison could interject. "Does he really need to be struck by lightning and threaten his life _again_ just to get his speed back when we don't even know it'll work?"

"It'll work," Harrison said. "I've got the information, I've got the readings, I know how to contain it this time."

"That didn't work out so well last time."

 _"Last time,_ I had a future version of Barry's rival who had taken over my body and made sure that things went badly, that's not the case this time, Henry."

"Stop." Barry's word immediately ceased all argument. He slowly got to his feet and folded his arms. He sucked in a breath between his teeth wondering if what he was about to say was a good idea. There weren't many other choices, not when Zoom's meta-army was attacking the city. But if there was that one chance things were going to fail…? Barry shook his head. He couldn't think like that, things _would_ work. "I'll do it."

"Do what?" Cadence asked.

"I'll take the Velocity-9," Barry explained. He needed to Cisco and Cadence. "Just like we planned. I'll take the Velocity-9 and we'll go after Zoom."

"That'd be a great plan, and it was when we came up with it but, uh," Cisco clasped his hands together. "Zoom used up the rest that we had. There's no more Velocity-9."

"Then we'll make some more." Harrison licked his lips and started to protest, started to explain the Particle Accelerator once more, but Barry cut him off. "The Accelerator, it'd take too long to get everything set up all over again, we don't know if it'll work. The Velocity-9 we know for sure works. Once we get more of that, I can inject myself with some and hold off Zoom long enough to…" he trailed off. There was no point in giving everything away. The element of surprise was a real thing, especially when the other side potentially knew what they were going to do. "It'll work."

Henry took a step forward. "Barry—"

"Dad, we don't have a choice!" Barry slammed his fist onto the computer desk. His voice echoed along the walls of the Cortex. "There's too many people out there getting hurt and powers or no powers I have to do something! I'm _going_ to do something even if it kills me!"

Cisco was the first to speak. "I'm not sure what else we have in terms of ingredients to make this," He said slowly. "I didn't expect Zoom to take the only supply we had left. But Caitlin's always been organized to a fault. So it's got to be around here somewhere." He looked over at Cadence. "Do you think there's anything else we can get?"

She thought for a moment, turning her gaze to the ceiling. "No," she said finally. "If Blacksmith were smart, she'd shut down the Network right now, so they didn't run out of supplies."

"What's this about a Network?" Maya asked. "Is that, like, some sort of internet thing?"

If Cadence were annoyed by her mother's question, she didn't show it. Instead, Cadence shook her head and said, "There's a lot I need to tell you but the Network is a black market for villains, criminals, what have you. Whatever you need whether it be drugs, weapons, information, social security numbers, favors…whatever you need you could buy, sell, or trade it there. Anyone who proves their loyalty can use the Network but if they reformed or quit crime the Network, she was sure their minds were erased of it."

"Then how do you still know about it?" Henry asked.

Cadence shrugged. "I'm sure Breathtaker or Mindboggler made sure I remembered. Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me if that computer that Snart and Mick stole before, they sold it to the Network and that's how Ragdoll knew how to get into STAR Labs and about us. I'd bet money on it."

"It's probably how Zoom knew about everything else, too," Cisco greed. "If your whole mind-melding theory doesn't pan out."

Harrison then let out a curse. "That's exactly what they've been doing. They've used the information from your mind-melds to know. Harry and I…we've mind-melded a few times to understand the technology needed to make sure things worked on this Earth, to ensure we had the technology for the Meta-App."

"How can they do that though?" Barry asked, finally voicing the question they should've asked the last time they'd brought it up. "Earth-2 Barry got away and Burnout's dead."

"If she _is_ dead," Harrison said grimly. He nodded towards Cadence. "She has an instantaneous healing factor, how do we know Burnout doesn't have the same ability, if not a stronger one. You've said Reverb was stronger than Cisco, who's to say it's not the same."

"Then he made us think she died," Barry said. He clenched his hands into fists, anger burning through him like fire. Zoom had done so much; he betrayed him, played him like a fool, planned everything down to the last detail, and looked like he was going to win. Barry gritted his teeth. No. That wasn't going to happen.

Suddenly, the pain he'd felt ripped through his body. He trembled, brought his hands to his hair and grabbed it. A scream threatened to rip form his throat, bubbled up to his lips. It took everything in his power to keep it down, to press his lips together and hold it in. He grabbed his hair so tightly it felt like his fingers were going to break, snap in two. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes but he kept it inside. He wanted to rip someone's head off and Zoom was the one it was going to be.

He'd do it even if it killed him.

"Cisco, we're making the Velocity-9 and that's it," he decided. "And we're going to stop Zoom."

* * *

Caitlin held her breath to steady herself, then pulled at the shackles on her hands. The metal slid up to the base of her palm, getting caught on the bones of her thumb. The pressure increased as the seconds passed until Caitlin could no longer push. Not without the chance of breaking her hands. Then what use would she be.

A pained gasp escaped Caitlin's lips before she flopped back onto her bed. Zoom wanted to keep her captive but as comfortable as possible. Giving her the best bed and food she could have. Caitlin's cheek pressed against her tear-stained pillow as her mind worked out how to get out of there. She could always break out of her shackles with a blast of ice, but he'd probably been smart enough to expect her to do it.

As far as Caitlin knew, there was a failsafe of electrocution or any other torture decide that'd tear her down faster than she could blink. Tears came to Caitlin's eyes once more as she laid down. There was nothing to see, everything closed in around her faster than she could blink away the shadows. She knew she was on Earth-2, that much was obvious the moment Zoom had grabbed her. She had to get back to Earth-1, but didn't have any idea of where to start or if her friends new how to get to her.

The tears finally trickled down her cheeks as Caitlin thought of her friends. Barry; was he okay? Did Zoom hurt him? Worse? Had he given up his speed? What happened? Cadence; she knew Cadence would do anything to help her. She hoped Cadence knew the most important thing was that their city was safe and not to make a snap decision for her. Cisco; Cisco had to be going out of his mind with worry and doing everything he could to make sure she was okay. Even if, on the outside, he was staying as calm as he could, making jokes, he was going out of his mind.

They'd find her. She just need to make it easier for them.

Caitlin shifted her legs, jostling the tray of food at the foot of her bed. Every tray she'd been given since her capture had gone untouched. And yet Zoom continued to bring her food. Her stomach growled painfully, she ignored it. She had to focus on getting away. The tray in front of her lay untouched as it had been since she was taken. A door closed in the distance and there was a sudden gust of wind before Zoom appeared in front of her.

Caitlin gasped and shrank away. He'd appeared so suddenly, so fast. Much faster than he had before. Slowly, Caitlin raised herself with a push of her hands against the soft mattress and looked Zoom in the eye. Lightning crackled over her body, she could hear the buzzing of the power radiating from. He'd gotten stronger, too.

Slowly, Caitlin lifted her chin and looked Zoom in the eye. Her lips pulled back and she scowled while snarling, "If you really want to talk to me, then take off your mask."

Zoom looked back at her for a moment then did as he was told. He reached up and pulled off his mask. Caitlin forced herself to look at him. Forced herself to stare defiantly at him, to let him know he wasn't going to intimidate her. No matter how much her stomach tumbled, no matter how much her hands trembled.

"Better?" Zoom taunted.

"Nothing you'll ever do will make me feel better," Caitlin snarled. Zoom smiled softly and knelt next to her bed. He tilted his head, hair falling out of his eyes the way Caitlin used to love. The way that made her want to run her fingers through his hair and press a kiss to his forehead. The way that made her smile and hold his hand when they were alone. "Nothing."

Jay reached out his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. He dropped his hand to his lap when Caitlin turned her head away. "I'm not going to hurt you, Caitlin," He murmured. She knew him well enough to know the intricacies of his voice. He was sincere. She hated that. "I'm not going to do anything to you, I care about you too much to do that. I love you."

"You only care about yourself, Hunter," Caitlin whispered. Zoom's head twitched and a low gasp escaped Caitlin's lips. The movement was so quick it scared her. "I know you think I'm a monster and I understand why." He placed his hands on hers, held them tightly. She felt nothing but cold at his touch. "But that'll change when you see what I'm doing is for the best." He tucked her hair behind her ear and caressed her cheek. "Cait—"

Her eyes closed at the name. Only those she loved called her that. Her father was the first to do so, then Ronnie… "Don't call me that," Caitlin snapped. She opened her eyes and glared at him. "Why are you keeping me? You're cured. You have his speed. You don't need me for anything."

Zoom's eyes shifted then narrowed. A flash of anger shot across his face and in that second Caitlin saw his mask break. "How…did you know I had his speed?" His grasp tightened around her shackles and Caitlin winced in pain.

"I figured it out," she said. "Seeing you come in here, the lightning…you're faster, stronger…"

"Hm, I guess I underestimated how smart you are." Zoom leaned towards her. Caitlin turned her head away but he grabbed her chin and turned her back to him. He forced a kiss to her lips, holding her to him, forcing her lips open so he could move his tongue inside. Violated her in every way he could from the gesture alone.

Finally, Zoom let go of her chin and backed away saying, "You're here because I love you." He kissed her again. Then framed her face, almost lovingly. He pressed his forehead against hers and Caitlin could see right into his eyes. Nothing, she saw nothing in them. He was too far gone. "It may take a while, but someday you'll feel that way about me soon. You may as well make yourself at home, you're going to be here for a while."

With that, he phased her shackles and broke them off. Within seconds, he put his hood back on and raced out of the hideout. The moment he was gone, Caitlin leapt from her bed and started to run to the only entrance she knew was there. She crashed into someone and backed away.

Her jaw dropped, eyes shifting back and forth over the familiar faces in front of her. Cadence's and…her own. Barry, Cisco, and Cadence had said they'd seen each other's doppelganger's and explained how jarring it had been to see them…they hadn't said anything about her own doppelganger. Caitlin's eyes shifted over her doppelganger's blonde hair and dark blue makeup, making her pale skin stand out even further.

This other Cadence looked the same in every way except for the evil gaze in her eyes. Caitlin had only seen it a few times in Cadence's face, when she was getting to the point of unleashing her fury. Now, it and a smug air seemed to be their defaults.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my doppelganger," Killer Frost drawled. She reached out and pulled Caitlin's hair between her fingers. "What do you know? I can still pull off brunette."

Burnout smirked back at her then said to Caitlin, eyeing her up and down. "You want to go home so badly, don't you?"

Caitlin straightened herself. _Don't show your fear,_ she scolded herself. _They'll know how to beat you if you do it._ "How'd this happen to you?" She asked the two.

Killer Frost shrugged. "Woke up one day, cold and pale. Thought I was sick." She tilted her head and folded her arms, almost leisurely. The way her eyes shone proved there was enough ice in her veins to kill her without thought. "Turns out it was something else entirely."

Burnout ran a hand through her hair. "Same story, different consequence. One day I lay down to sleep, next thing to know I'm waking up in the hospital."

 _Just like Cade,_ Caitlin thought. Her eyes shifted back and forth. _Does that mean it was at the same age? Or was it later?_ "You got hit by the dark matter."

"Yes, right after I flunked to of med school," Killer Frost said. She raised a bored eyebrow and added, "I had to move back in with my mother," in a snotty tone.

Caitlin couldn't help but commiserate. "That couldn't have been fun if she's anything like mine." She hadn't seen her mother in years all because she was so…cold, so frigid, so much of a bitch and had been for as long as she could remember.

Killer Frost seemed interested. "Why? Is yours a frigid narcissist, too?" She looked Caitlin up and down when Caitlin nodded. "Yeah, mom's been like that since Charlie died."

"Who's Charlie?"

"My brother."

"Never had a brother."

"Lucky you. The moment he was gone…bye-bye mommy." She slowly finger-waved then smirked. Burnout watched her then looked at Caitlin, eyeing her carefully. Caitlin could see the differences between Burnout and Cadence straight away. While the two were amazing surveyors and watched people to learn their intricacies of character, Cadence was more open and talkative. Burnout was much quieter. "So why was she a bitch on your Earth?'

"I could never figure it out," Caitlin said. It was then she realized he'd made a mistake, allowed herself to be lulled into a false sense of security. Killer Frost's hands started to become encompassed in fog as they spoke. So slowly Caitlin didn't notice it until she was almost hit by a blast of ice.

At the last moment, she held up her hands, them becoming covered in fog and condensation and fired a solid sheet of ice back at her. They collided and sent out chips of ice in all directions. The moment Caitlin lowered her hands, it was followed up by a discharge of fire and smoke that nearly blinded her. Caitlin brought her arms up to cover her face and received a harsh kick to the stomach that sent her flying back to the ground.

She scrambled back to her feet and started to run. Killer Frost chuckled and covered the floor in ice. Caitlin's feet slipped out from beneath her and she landed heavily on the ground. Burnout teleported over and stomped her foot onto Caitlin's back, keeping her down.

"Well, looks like there's a little badass in you after all," Burnout teased. She twisted her foot back and forth, grinding Caitlin's shirt into skin. "Should've accounted for that."

"Oh, don't worry, this is fun," Killer Frost said. She skipped over to the two and grasped Caitlin's hair in her fist, bringing her head back. Caitlin hissed in pain. "Oh Caity, I don't think you're ever going home."

"Is everyone on your Earth this gullible?" Burnout added with a laugh. She knelt over Caitlin, pressing her weight into her. Caitlin cried out in pain, feeling her back crack with the strain. Burnout flipped her hair from her face and held out her index finger. The became engulfed in a thin line of fire like a blow torch. It shone a brilliant blue as Burnout carefully, agonizingly slowly, lowered it towards Caitlin's bare cheek.

Caitlin watched it come closer and closer, feeling the skin of her face start to heat up. She thrashed her legs, trying to get away. Sweat popped up on her hairline, her eyebrows started to singe. It stung.

Killer Frost knelt by Caitlin's face and smirked. "Heels aren't the best on ice, are they?" She tapped her finger against her cheek, taunting Caitlin with the movement. "When I saw you, I realized why Zoom didn't want to kill you. Because you looked just like me. But now that he doesn't need me anymore…"

The tip of the flame struck Caitlin's cheek and she screamed, feeling the nerve ending ignite in pain. In the next moment an almighty draft of wind knocked Burnout side. She soared into the ceiling then crashed to the ground. Killer Frost was grabbed around the neck and lifted off her feet by Zoom, who glared into her shocked face.

"No," he growled. "I don't need you." Instead of sticking his hand through her stomach as he had done with all the others he'd murdered, Zoom clawed her stomach. He ripped through the soft skin of her belly then tore into her intestines, blood splattering all over as he did so.

The light dimmed form Killer Frost's eyes and her arms held limply at her sides. Gurgling gasps escaped Killer Frost's mouth before Zoom tossed her aside. Then he turned back to Caitlin and snarled, "Don't ever make me do that again!"

Caitlin glared. "You killed her…but she's me. How do I know you're not going to kill me, too?" She stood up, aching pain shooting throughout her body. She ignored it and continued to stand up to Zoom, who watched her. "What's your plan? You're going to kill everyone just because you can?"

"Not everyone," he said.

"Then why are you keeping me?"

Zoom walked forward and pressed his hands to the sides of her face. "Because I don't want to be alone anymore," he said. "You think you're better than Killer Frost but I know the truth. You're just as bad as Killer Frost can be, you've got a darkness inside you that needs to be unlocked. And I'll see to it that you do."

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, and raced the two back to Earth-1.

* * *

"Ok, I think we've got all we can get," Cisco said. He turned the blue vial back and forth in his hand. "There was only enough left to make two vials of Velocity-9, but one should be enough to get you to clear the city and go up against Zoom. The second one will give you an extra boost of power to make sure you can take him down and…well, if that doesn't give your powers back permanently then we'll have to face that we may need to use the Particle Accelerator again."

Barry nodded. He took the vials from Cisco's hands and ran his thumb over the glass. Then he lifted his chin and nodded. "Thanks, man."

"No problem," Cisco said. "Just…bring our girl back." He held up his finger just as Barry was about to inject himself. "Don't use any of it until you're out there. We don't know how long it'll last. When you had your powers, your body could absorb it and use it with no side-effects, but we don't know what'll happen without your powers."

"Got it."

"Are you sure about this, Barry?" Tess asked. "The risks…"

"There are more risks of me sitting back and watching things happen rather than going out and doing something," Barry decided.

"They're already calling what's going on the Metapocalypse," Iris added, looking at her tablet. "All articles from CCPN are focused solely on that and where those that are stuck out can go to get safe." She shook her head. "There's not many places in the city that's safe right now."

"Then I guess we have no choice," Cisco said. He turned to Cadence and took her hand. "Now, I know there aren't many bright spots right now, but I do have something that I think may make us all smile a little." He positioned her in front of the alcove that held their suits and flashed on the light. He ducked behind her mannequin. "I thought you could use another suit." He turned her mannequin around.

Cadence all but squealed with glee when she spotted it. What used to be as simple a jacket, a crop top, short shorts, leggings and boots had now been upgraded to something beyond her wildest dreams. The key components on her suit were the same; goggles, headband, gloves, and boots. The rest of the suit received the biggest upgrade.

A sleeveless black body suit encompassed her mannequin from clavicle to ankle, a red off-the-shoulder crop top holding her double 'F' symbol on the back laid over top. She still had her extremely short shorts, but the wide red belt that rested around the hips of the mannequin had been upgraded as well. Red bands wrapped around her arm biceps and thighs. Looking closer, Cadence realized the bands that wound around her thighs were, in fact, gun holsters, with small pistols resting inside.

"So what we've got here is a new and improved suit," Cisco said, waving his hand up and down like Vanna White. "Theoretically, it should be able to keep your temperature down no matter the amount of power you use, but that's something that still needs to be tested."

"Cisco, this is…"

"Wait, don't praise me yet, I have to explain everything else this suit has for you. Not only is it made from a similar material as Barry's suit in that it will keep your protected from friction and heat created by friction, but is also able to keep upright from your power output. But of the other gadget and gizmos, first and foremost is a choker that I've added to disguise your voice. You'll still have that raspy smoker's voice that you can do, but now it'll do it automatically instead of relying on your power to do so. Then there's your goggles and man, did I do some awesome work with those. With your goggles it can now project you maps of the city as well as visual representations of the interior work to buildings and similar structures; building materials, its strongest and weakest points….it'll even give you heat vision."

"She already has heat vision," Joe pointed out.

Cisco pursed his lips. "Okay, so that's something I was working on with your last pair of goggles before I knew you could do it. It was before I perfected them. But maybe with your abilities they'll make them stronger." He waved a hand. "I don't know, who cares? We don't have the time. Now, onto your weapons." He smiled, motioning to the pistols. Obviously, it was his favorite part of the suit. "You'll see that you now have a nifty thigh holster for some guns, I got that idea from you when we were at the Policeman's Ball. They work as regular guns but with not so regular ammo. Caitlin and I decided to give your gun the capabilities of using Kryptonite bullets. After Ragdoll took Metallo's Kryptonite heart and you guys got it back, we broke it down so that you had Kryptonite bullets, Brady has the use of Kryptonite ammo, and Barry has a function on his suit that will draw from Kryptonite to infuse into his suit, just in case you are to go up against an evil Kryptonian." Cisco sighed. "It was a thought we already had of doing, but then Batman suggested it's something we be sure to have." He then noticed Cadence's eager expression and bowed. "You can gush now."

"Cisco, that is fucking awesome!" Cadence finally cried. She flung her arms around Cisco's neck and hugged him tightly. Then she stepped back, resting her hands on his shoulders. "I know we don't hang out a lot, which we should totally do,"—Cisco smiled—"But my life would be _so_ boring without you."

Cisco modestly bobbed his head back and forth. "I know," he said. Then he looked away, a solemn expression coming to his face.

"Thanks for being my friend." Cadence gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek and hugged him again. It gave her the chance to say, "I know how much you love Caitlin. And I'll do everything I can to get her back."

Cisco looked at her, eyebrows lowering. His eyes searched hers, confused. For a moment his mouth opened and closed, trying to protest but found he couldn't. Instead, he nodded and squeezed her again. He was in love with Caitlin and they were going to get her back. That's that.

Cisco then turned and clasped his hand into Barry's to come together in a man-hug, slapping each other's back. And the two walked around the Cortex, saying goodbye to everyone. Cadence didn't realize how much it was going to hurt, how badly she wanted to cry when saying goodbye to Harrison, Tess, and Maya. She'd gone so long on her own, now that she had them around…the emotion came to her harder than she'd thought. An image of her father flashed into her mind and she spun the ring on her pinkie around with her thumb before tapping her fingertips with her thumb.

Kent had given it to her during Thanksgiving when they had a private time alone. It always made her think, maybe he knew he was going to pass when he did. She'd never get the chance to as and honestly, never wanted to. The memory of him was enough to keep her going. So much so that she walked into the medical bay and looked over Harry and Jesse. Harry sat in a chair, eyes closed and cheek resting in an upraised palm and Jesse lay quietly in her bed, tubes filled with blood going from Harry to Jesse.

He opened his eyes and looked over as Cadence approached. She reached out and gently smoothed her hand over Jesse's forehead. "I used to ask for a brother or sister when I was younger, but never thought I'd actually have one somewhere," she said. Then she nodded at Harry and added, "I know it's not the same but…"

"Family is family," Harry replied. He sat up and grasped the arms of the chair. "Even if you don't know it."

Cadence nodded and looked at Harry. "You lost a daughter," she said, referring to Burnout. The sound of Burnout's neck breaking still haunted her.

"So did they," Harry added, nodding towards Harrison and Tess. A moment of silence stretched between then. "If we've got the chance, I want nothing more than for Jesse to know her family, to know I'll do anything for her."

Cadence nodded. She squeezed Jesse's hand and placed hers atop of Harry's before leaving the medical bay. Henry stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know if Barry told you, but I'd like to have dinner with you and Brady when this is all over. To get to know you better. I'd like to keep that date."

Cadence smiled. "I'll bring a cake," she said and gave him a hug. Then she went to her suit and grabbed it from the mannequin. She studied it, turning it back and forth in her hands, as she walked to the locker room to get changed. Barry was already changed, pacing back and forth. He looked over when she arrived then turned his back so she could get changed.

"Are you ready for this?" Barry asked, he brought his hands up to rest atop his head once she was done.

Was she ready to go out in Central City where everyone was gunning to take them down? Where there were more metahumans they'd ever seen coming up to them? Was she ready to face down the Speedster that had Barry's speed and the speed of other Flashes and speedsters he'd managed to overpower. Was she ready to have to force herself to keep from freezing up and flashing back to those she killed in the Assassination Bureau when she killed metas? Was she ready to potentially detail everything from those—almost—ten years she'd been with them?

When she explained her past with the Assassination Bureau she kept a lot of it out, the number of people she'd killed, everything she did, all because she respected them too much. Was she ready to potentially face that?

Cadence looked up from where she was buckling her boot, foot resting on the bench beside her and smiled. She flipped her hair out of her face and said, "Born ready," with the same air of confidence while the intricacies of her voice revealed her nerves underneath her bravado. She reached out her first and gently tapped his shoulder. "You know…since I may not have another chance to ask this, we've been working together for a while…what do you _really_ think of me?"

"Huh?" Barry asked. He dropped his hands from his head and turned to her with a funny expression on his face. They may be going out into an all-out meta war…where was this question coming from? And yet as Cadence grinned at him, he saw the woman he first met two years before.

Who had greeted him with so much warmth and friendliness that it was like they'd known each other for years. Almost like neither of them had faced any hardship or grief within those two years.

Cadence's eyes flashed and she repeated the question, "What do you think of me?"

Barry smiled back. "Cadence or Flare?"

"Both."

"Welllll," Barry held out the word as long as he could, placing his hands on his hips. He gestured towards her and said, "Barry loves Cadence." Then he tapped his fingers against his chin and shook his head like a disappointed parent. "But Flare…eh. Flash thinks she's okay."

Cadence raised an amused eyebrow. "Just okay?"

"Eh." He waved his hand back and forth.

She laughed. "I'm so going to kick your ass for that one."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I'm shaking."

"You should be."

Barry turned and rested his back against the lockers behind him. "Whatever you say, Cay." He explained, noticing Cadence's confused glance. "I figured, since you call me Tholly all the time, I should have a nickname for you."

"Cade is already a nickname, Barry," Cadence pointed out. And as far as she was concerned, it was a lot better than being called Cadey-Cat all the time. He was only just getting over the flash of slight embarrassment that went through her every time she heard it.

"I know, but I was thinking about it for a while. Your mom, dad, and Ryder already call you Cadey, and Caitlin and Cisco always call you Cade. So do I, but I want to stand out. Cay, Cay-Cay, Cayce, Candy, Den, Denny—"

"Like the restaurant?" Cadence chuckled. "You've really thought about this haven't you?"

"I have. CiCi, Dance, Cades, Cadders, Gator…"

"I get the point." Cadence laughed and gave him a hug and kiss.

Barry pressed his forehead against hers and took in a deep breath. His eyes shifted back and forth, searching hers. She looked away, suddenly a little uncomfortable with the intensity of his stare, and looked back to see him still staring at her. She was trapped in his gaze, knowing exactly what he was going to say, feeling it with all her heart, and not wanting hi to say it.

"I just wanted to say," he started.

Cadence shook her head and stepped back. "Don't say anything you can't say later," she warned him. "And besides, I'm much more concerned about my mom actually biting her nails. She likes to be so perfect all the time and now…I wonder if I'm the only one who's actually, legitimately crazy. I mean, really, my mental health is screwed up." With a laugh, Cadence shook her head. Then she turned serious. "If you were going to say what I thought you were going to say…me too."

Barry smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he held out the injector to his wrist and pressed his finger against the plunger. The syringe shot into his wrist and Barry sucked in a deep breath as the power of Velocity-9 raced through his body.

Lightning flashed through his eyes.

* * *

Central City was in nothing but absolute chaos. Metahumans attacked police officers, innocent civilians, and whatever came in their way. With a cornucopia of powers from the wave of mutants there was no one way to handle their power. The CCPD worked as hard as they could. With Chief Paulson and Captain Singh at the head of the team, the entire police force took down as many metas as they could with their regular weapons and the meta technology Cisco implemented.

Along with the CPPD, ARGUS had presence in the city, using their government grade weapons and artillery to capture as many metas as they could at once. Still, when Barry and Cadence came on the scene the chaos didn't seem to be lowering in the slightest. Cadence immediately teleported the closest metas into police custody, moving through the crowd as quickly as she could go. Barry followed along with her, his Velocity-9 powers giving him the opportunity to grab just as many.

They ran down the center street and nodded at each other before splitting up. Cadence continued to teleport and take down metas with as much fire power as she could. She looked over, hearing a familiar scream of pain, just in time to see Captain Singh get hit in the chest with a green blast of energy that knocked him to the ground. Patty cried out for him with a call of, "Captain!" and hurried to his side, pulling him into the back of a cruiser in seconds. She leapt into the driver's seat in time for the same meta to focus his energy on the front of the car.

The energy shattered the window while other metas climbed up onto the hood of the car, jumping up and down and kicking at the windows. Cadence thrust her hands forward and knocked them off with a blast of fire so bright Cadence was sure anyone in the vicinity would've gone blind.

"Whoa." Cadence lowered her hands and studied them. "I don't know what you did, Cisco, but whatever it is, I sure owe you dinner for it." She ran over to the car and peered inside. "Detective Spivot, Captain, are you alright?" She asked, hearing her voice chance to the voice changer choker around her neck.

Breathing heavily, Patty lowered her hands. "Yeah…" she gasped. "I'm fine. Captain?" She twisted around in her seat. "Captain? Are you okay?" Cadence leaned over and peered into the backseat of the car where Captain Singh curled up in a ball, shielding his head from the ceiling that dented over his head. "Captain!"

"I'm okay," Captain Singh replied. "My vest, it blocked the attack but…I _am_ a little cramped."

"I've got you," Cadence said. She moved to the side of the car and pressed her palms against it. Her skin and the metal equally glowed as she used her powers to melt the roof of the car. It became pliable in her hands, easy for her to push it backwards, mushing the metal like a piece of soft candy.

"Look out!" Patty's cry reached her ears a second too late.

Cadence looked over in time for her eyes widened before a giant, clawed hand struck her in the stomach with so much force that it launched her upwards. She flew through the air and landed so hard an imprint of her form cracked into the asphalt. Cadence groaned seconds before she felt her body healing the wounds and, shakily got to her feet.

"Oh God," she muttered. "See if I complain about a hangover every again," she said.

Then the sounds of heavy, Godzilla like footsteps came her way and Cadence got a look at what had hit. Nothing short of a monster. A…a land shark…a King Shark. The towering monster ran towards her, his pale gray skin shining in the streetlights as he went, arms swinging to help him pick up speed. He ran on two human-like feet but managed to hold his balance. And he was heading right towards her.

Cadence stretched her foot back to give herself leverage and used her fire powers to launch herself forward. With a series of teleportation, Cadence buzzed around King Shark, striking him with flame punches and kicks. They weren't strong ones, just to get a test of his ability. And his abilities certainly caught her off-guard. He was faster than she anticipated, bringing his arm back and striking her with enough momentum and power it was like she'd been hit by a speeding rollercoaster.

Cadence screamed as she arched through the air, arms and legs flailing. The wind whipped around her just as the city flashed by before she smacked into what felt like cement. Water so cold it immediately took Cadence's breath as she sank low beneath the surface. A harsh, tinny ring rumbled through her ears the distant sounds of the city being attacked, muffled. A bomb hadn't gone off but it was close enough.

"Cadence!" She could hear Cisco shout in her ears. "He's coming right for you!"

There was a large splash of water and Cadence felt something grab her ankle before she was pulled under water.

"Cadence!"

* * *

After splitting off from Cadence, Barry continued to sprint through Central City, taking down as many metas as the eye could see. He grinned as he ran, the Velocity-9 was holding up much better than they thought it would. And even then, he had another vial to keep him going if need be. It was like nothing had changed.

Suddenly, something struck Barry in the side and he lifted off his feet, crashing into a taxi cab. The sign at the top of the car struck his jaw, flipping him over until he landed chin first to the ground. He felt his jaws snap together and a blinding pain shoot through the side of his head. Mouth filling with blood, Barry staggered to his feet. He spat a blob of blood to the ground and turned around to see what'd hit him.

He'd healed enough to not worry about a broken jaw, but the ringing that filled his ears was more than he could bear. As he came out from the other side of the taxi, Barry's eyes landed on Trajectory. She smiled and waved towards him.

"Hey Flash!" She planted her hands on her hips. "How about a race? Let's see if you're ready to get up to Zoom's level." She backed away in a streak of blue lightning and ran forward again, punching Barry in the face and stomach, rapid-fire. Barry shot upwards but before he could fall, he was hit from behind again. Rolling over, Barry watched as Trajectory came towards him once more and grabbed the door of the car nearest to him, flinging it open.

Trajectory smashed into it so hard Barry felt the collision move through his body and into the ground. Trajectory stumbled backwards and it gave Barry the chance to superspeed a punch into the side of her face. Then he grabbed her arm and with purple lightning trailing behind them—a combination of their lightning trails—Barry and Trajectory flung back and forth across the street, trying to gain the upper hand on each other.

Everything around them moved slowly, but to anyone watching, they saw nothing but flashes of light bouncing around the city street. Finally, Barry careened the two into the side of a brick building, making the two bounce apart. Trajectory snarled and swiped a lightning throw that struck Barry in the emblem of his suit.

"Quit ruining my fun, Flash," Trajectory growled. "You'll never be able to take down Zoom. Bow down and submit to him now."

"Or what?" Barry demanded, chest heaving. He was only getting started, there was more to him than she could ever imagine.

"Or prepare to be thrashed." Trajectory rolled her head, tossing a "See you around," before she started to run. Barry ran after her. The two streaked down main street, zig-zagging back and forth as Trajectory tried to shake him loose.

But Barry kept on her tail. _Faster, go faster,_ Barry pushed himself. He pumped his arms and legs, focused on the Velocity-9 coursing through him. _You have to catch her. Have to stop her. Have to stop Zoom._ They continued to run until Barry faltered, missing a step when he saw Trajectory's lightning suddenly change color from blue to a bright white.

Blinding white. Barry pulled up at her side and what her saw when she looked at him made his heart leap to his throat. Her eyes were wide with fear. Jaw dropped in surprise. His eyes flickered upwards when the light continued to brighten around her head, hands and feet. And as Barry watched, she started to disintegrate before his very eyes.

It overpowered her body faster than Barry could blink and with a long, terrified scream, Trajectory slowly crumbled away to dust.

Barry's eyes widened in fear. Pure, adulterated fear.

And he screamed.

Screamed.

Screamed as his feet continued to take him forward no matter how hard he tried to stop himself. Every thought tried to force his synapses to stop his body movement. Maybe run into a wall, crash into a car, but every time he tried to veer into something his body forced himself out of the way and kept running.

Running until an orange lightning burst swirled around him and blinked out like a twinkling star, taking him with it.

* * *

 **A/N:** That was great, wasn't it? I loved writing that! As you know by now I change things around in terms of fights and things going on in show, so that's what I did here with Barry giving up his speed/going into the speed force. Annnnnd, Cade's new suit has been revealed (pic is on twitter and tumblr, though part of what was described here isn't in the picture).

Please remember to review, even one word reviews if you'd like; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Ethan:** Yes, Oliver respects Brady for the way he stands up to him. Ever since Brady went to save Cadence in _Flash Fire,_ before having his powers and stood up to Oliver he's had a sense of respect for him. And as you saw in the last chapter, or at least it was implied, Cadence would've left Brady go to save Conner no matter what. Technically, Brady only gained one power, his flying is actually him phasing through air molecules, he gained the ability to use darkness/shadows to his whim. And by that point in the show, no, Darkh doesn't know Oliver is the Green Arrow though I probably should've changed it since it's later in the timeline of this fic.

 **Guest:** Thanks!

 **DarkHelm145:** Yes, it was a bit of a throw-in for the Justice League. And thanks for that tidbit I'll keep it in mind.

 **Yummers:** Glad you liked his part, there's plenty more with Brady coming up.

 **PowerHero432:** It's sort of flying sort of hovering. It'll be explained, but yes, he can fly. He can also use darkness/shadows to his whim. Clark and Bruce will have more as the rest of the story unfolds. Like you said, it'd be odd if they were only there for a little bit. Though Barry needed the pep-talk.

 **Spinquin142:** It will be explained too; a lot of people have been asking.

 **Joseophguy217:** Brady's becoming fun to write now that he's getting older, there's more for him to do and his experiences make him mature more so that it helps to give things for him to do.


	48. All That Flash and Flare

**.:48.**

All That Flash and Fire

* * *

"What happened to him?" Maya asked, eyes glued to the monitor in front of her. She turned to look at the sea of stunned faces behind her, eyes shifting back and forth. "What?"

"He's gone," Joe croaked. Iris brought a hand up to cover her mouth, tears freshly starting to fall down her cheeks. They'd seen it happen right in front of them. Barry blinked out along with the lightning that had surrounded him. Just like what had happened with Trajectoy. One minute there, the next turned to dust on the wind. Gone. "Barry's gone."

Henry slowly sank into the seat beside him, eyes wide, staring straight in front of him. Staring at nothing. The last of his family gone in an instant. The only thing he held out hope for in his life blinked out as quickly as the lightning took him. "We lost him," he murmured. His hands shook, resting between his knees. He leaned forward and placed his face in his hands. "We lost him."

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Harrison muttered. "There was nothing that would've shown…I don't…" He looked to Tess as if trying to find an answer. Tess shook her head in response before bringing up her hands to wipe away at the tears that slid down her cheeks.

Iris's sob broke the otherwise silence in the Cortex. She squeaked out a 'Dad', before burying her face into her father's chest, the two hugging each other tightly, sobbing for the man they'd lost. It made the others break, tears flowing form their eyes as fast as a moving stream with no end in sight. Maya stood quietly aside, almost as if she refused to believe what was going on, she'd only just bene brought into the Flash world, it was hard for her to understand the implication.

There was no way around it.

Barry was gone.

Henry squeezed his eyes shut, doing his best to swallow the lump forming in his throat. He was done crying; he'd cried all he needed when his wife was murdered. Now that his son was gone, what was left for him. This wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to be able to move past what happened in their past and have the life they should've if she hadn't had died. If he had known getting out of jail would be like this…

Henry shook his head. No. He didn't know anything was going to happen the way he did. One knowing Barry was The Flash, he knew there was a chance of this happening. There was always that chance when you were consistently putting your life not he line. But for it to happen so soon? He wasn't sure who to blame other than his own guilting the situation. He allowed his son to continue to go out and save the city time and time again all the while he worked hard to integrate himself back into Central City and the lives of everyone around him.

He'd only, finally gotten along with Joe, getting things out in the open and now this.

 _"It's what you didn't do that's the problem, Joe," Henry said to him. "You weren't there for me. You weren't there for me in the beginning and you weren't there for me at the end."_

 _Joe's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you talking about?"_

 _"I'm talking about when I was being detained and arrested for murdering my wife," Henry said calmly. A worrying calm. "You knew I'd never do that. And yet Barry was the only one who believed me the entire time. All the way up to when I was charged and put into jail. You were the one who arrested me, you were the one who locked me away, and I'm supposed to be okay with you being the one that's then took over my role in Barry's life?"_

 _"I wasn't taking over any role," Joe said. Then he stopped, holding up his hands. "Actually, I'm not going to lie about this anymore, I'm not going to defend myself the same way I have. Yes, I did take over the fatherly role for Barry. But it's what he needed." Joe slapped his hand against his palm to emphasize his point. "He was constantly running away from home trying to get to you. He would've gotten himself killed if I wasn't there for him."_

 _"And for giving him clothes, a place to sleep, and food, Joe, I'm grateful. I'm always going to be grateful for that. What I can't ignore is how you were treating my son like your own when you were going to sleep at night thinking I was the one who put him in that position. It doesn't matter that you don't think that way now, but you did. And now I'm ut and I finally get the chance to make up the time I didn't have with my son and I always have to go through you first. I have to go to your house to see him. He doesn't live with me. I missed out on most of his life and knowing that you're replacing me—"_

 _"I'm not replacing you, Henry," Joe insisted. "I'm trying to see how you fit in all of this and—"_

 _"—And what makes it that you have to be the one who decides how I fit in with my family?"_ That question had hit home. Joe had agreed to what Henry was saying, that he hadn't truly thought of Henry's position and how sorry he was for it. They'd said it time and time again, they were sorry. Both sides were sorry and they'd try to make things better.

Now they'd never get better.

"No, no no," Cisco murmured. He continued to look from the monitor to his computer keyboard, frantically typing and moving through interfaces, trying it pinpoint Barry. "He could've gotten knocked somewhere or run there." He shook his head, hooked his hair behind his ear. "Nothing on the GPS," he reported.

"But he had to have gone somewhere," Maya insisted.

Cisco nodded in agreement. "And I'm not going to stop until I find him."

"But what about Cadence?" Tess asked. "King Shark has her. What else are we going to do?"

"If I know her as well as I think I do, she can handle King Shark," Cisco said quickly. He briefly closed his eyes, trying to think. "There's got to be a way we can find him."

 **…**

 **..**

 **.**

Barry gasped, opening his eyes. His body jerked, feeling warm, heart racing in his chest. He looked down towards his feet before turning his head, hearing a familiar gurgling sound. So familiar that he subconsciously knew what it was before he got a good look.

A fish tank, an aquarium. _His_ aquarium. He was in his childhood bedroom. _Impossible._ The word flittered through his mind almost immediately. His house had been closed off, condemned since the night his mother died. And yet, here he was. Looking over the space and sports toys and memorabilia he'd collected over the years. And on the dresser across form him was the _Runaway Dinosaur_ the story he'd read with his mother every night for years.

Lowering his feet to the ground, Barry looked over the room. Yes, it was his bedroom. It wasn't a dream, his feet didn't sink into the floor and he wasn't floating. It was real. Barry slowly moved through the room and out the door, only pausing when he grabbed the doorknob afraid his hand might move through it, afraid one he opened it he'd be thrust back into reality, seeing nothing but a black hole in front of him. Neither happened, the door opened to a hallway, the same hallway he used to traverse going to and from his bedroom.

He slowly made his way down to the living room, the place his mother lay when she had been murdered, unsure of what he would find. This time he could breathe easily, finding Joe crouching over the ground, looking over a photograph. Whether it was a crime scene photo, Barry wasn't quite sure. Still, he approached Joe cautiously, just in case.

"Joe?" He murmured.

'Joe' looked up and nodded. "It's good to see you, Barry." Then he wagged his finger back and forth. "But I'm not Joe."

"Y-you're not?" Barry eyed him warily, taking a step back so that he wasn't directly in its path in case it was second away from springing out and attacking him.

"No."

Barry swept his gaze around. The floor felt solid under his feet and yet he still felt like he was free-falling. Reaching out a hand, Barry pressed his palm against the doorframe beside him. It was just as sturdy, no matter how hard Barry leaned against it, it was real. And yet 'Joe' had said it wasn't. "And all of this…? It's not real," he said.

"How do you feel being back here?"

"I feel awful." It hit him suddenly. His stomach rolled, his throat closed up, and tears suddenly came to his eyes. He hadn't felt that way since his mother's death. The feeling of utter panic and fear coursed through him faster than the Speed Force moved through his veins.

"We thought you'd feel more comfortable talking to someone you were familiar with and in a place you once knew." Joe folded his arms. "There's a lot we need to go over. I'm sure you have a lot of questions…but the first thing you need to figure out is the Speed Force."

"What about it?" Barry lowered his hand from the doorframe and looked at 'Joe', eyeing him warily. It looked exactly like Joe and yet the man was saying he was made to look like someone who Barry was comfortable with. "It gives me my powers to make me a speedster."

"Yes and no. When the first subatomic particle sprang forth from the big bang to form reality as you know it…we were there. When the last proton decays and stops vibrating and plunges the universe to its death, we'll be there too."

The answer struck Barry like a ton of bricks. Pain shot through his head, or maybe he imagined that, too. "I'm…I'm talking to the Speed Force," Barry realized. The Speed Force nodded. "Isn't that like saying I'm having a conversation with gravity or light or…" He ran a hand over his mouth. "I..I just…I'm talking to the source of my power with just so happens to look like my adoptive dad? That's…that's trippy. But I don't know why you brought me here, I need to go back, my friends, my whole family are in danger from Zoom."

"That's the thing," the Speed Force said. "You're not going back until you can figure out why it is that you were brought here."

"I was brought here because I used Velocity-9," Barry said, remembering everything that had happened before he was taken away. "And because I was running fast…" He brought his hands up to his forehead. "And…Trajectory disappeared. She turned into dust. Does that mean she's here in the Speed Force, too?"

He turned around to look at the Speed Force and jumped backwards, finding Harrison Wells standing behind him. No, not Harrison, Barry saw the lightning flicker through his eyes. It was Eobard Thawne when he was still merged with Harrison. The way his bright blue eyes flashed dangerously, the way he ran his thumbs over his fingertips, the smug lift of his eyebrows as he sat in the armchair across the living room proved it.

"You…" Barry breathed, feeling his anger immediately spike.

No. He was dead. Eobard Thawne, every faction of him was dead. They knew that. It was obvious from the way the _other_ Eobard Thawne had come back. The blond haired one. The one that had attacked him for a short period of time due to his anger. He was sent back to his time while the Eobard that had been part of Harrison had died. And yet, here he was in front of Barry again.

Ready to ruin his life moreover.

"Me," Eobard replied. He stopped running his thumb over his fingers and pointed towards Barry. "But do you know who _you_ are?"

"What are you doing?" Barry demanded, taking a step towards him.

Eobard held up his hand, making Barry stop in his tracks. Then he pointed directly at the speedster, pointing directly at his heart. "None of it adds up. With all of the running you've been doing, you should have been chased around by the time wraith. The Black Flash has really been trying to find you, you've come across it before. But why not the time wraith?"

"Time wraith?" Barry repeated.

Eobard grinned. "Those benevolent creatures that try to take down those that run through time and don't know what they're doing. Once the Black Flash came around…well, the time wraiths generally work alongside him. But not you. I'm surprised."

Darting out his tongue to lick his lips, Barry asked, "Are you the Speed Force, too?" A nod. Barry slowly started to chuckle. "So you're not Eobard Thawne?"

"Why are you here?" The Speed Force decided to ask instead.

"I don't know," Barry replied.

"Yes, you do."

Barry shook his head, lowered his gaze to his feet. He clenched his hands into fists. He _did_ know why he was there. Something about the way he had taken Velocity-9 must've messed up. Or else he was as dead as Trajectory way. Maybe he was in purgatory. _The Speed Force…_ Barry thought. _It wouldn't lie. Not when I'm connected to it._ "I want to go faster," Barry murmured. "But I had my powers taken away by Zoom." His voice started out in a croaking whisper and became stronger as the seconds passed. "I _need_ to go faster to stop Zoom, to save my friends. I used Velocity-9 to regain my powers and that's how I got here."

"No." The Speed Force shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no, no. You're only here because something went wrong and you're still alive. You're here because of your heart."

"I need to get back—"

"Good to know. It's good to know you'll do anything to make sure you can go back and save everyone," The Speed Force said. He stepped forward, holding up a vibrating hand.

Barry eyed the vibrating hand and shook his head. He held up his hands and slapped them back to his side. He wasn't going to argue about it, there was no point in arguing. There had to be something he could do. "You kill me, and everything falls apart. Anything happens to me and the people we all know and love will never be able to have the lives they deserve. They're all going to die." He clenched his hand so tightly that it shook. "But go ahead, kill me. See how it all ends."

"Those are tough words," The Speed Force said. "You have a lot of faith in it."

"Because no matter what happens," Barry said slowly. "You're going to help me get faster."

* * *

Cadence's arms dragged over head as she was pulled further beneath the water. She looked down to find a finned hand holding onto her ankle. No, not the fin, teeth. King Shark's teeth were wrapped around her ankle, dragging her further downward.

Silvery bubbles wafted up from her mouth and towards the surface, a dull pain reaching her eras, growing stronger the longer she was under water. How long had she been beneath the surface? Two minutes? Three? She could only hold her breath for five, having trained herself to do so while on the swim team in high school. That was different than being dragged multiple feet under water. There probably wasn't much time left until they hit the bottom of the river or her lungs would collapse.

Twisting her body to the side, Cadence struggled to pull her legs from his grasp, tried to teleport, tried to punch him hard enough so that he'd let go. His grasp was too tight; her legs were pinned together. There was too much water; too much pressure around for her to concentrate on teleporting. He wasn't just park shark, he was human, too, so what she knew to take him down wasn't going to work.

The edges of Cadence's vision started to darken.

Twisting an arm above her head, Cadence released a jet of smoke and ash into the water. King Shark reacted quickly to the smoke and ash that flew through his gills, letting go of Cadence and shifted away, rapidly shaking his head back and forth. Cadence frantically kicked her way towards the surface. Her arms felt heavy, legs were moving sluggishly and yet she continued to move towards the surface. Her lungs burned, stomach jerked in an outwards as she fought the urge to breathe.

Closer, closer.

She wasn't going to make it.

Cadence squeezed her eyes shut, a moaning sound rumbling in her throat before she had no choice but to open her mouth and scream. At that exact moment, her head broke the surface of the water and her scream echoed across the riverfront. Gasping for air, she could hear the sounds of metahumans continuing to attack Central City around her. As she tilted her head back, Cadence saw a red-blue blur streak across the sky before arching into the city, a low bang erupting shortly after it disappeared from sight.

Flipping around, Cadence spotted King Shark's fin arching through the water towards her. She held her hands above water, giving herself time to dry them off, flames immediately coming around her hands. _Okay, it's a shark there has to be something I can do to take him down._ Then she glanced at the flames coming around her hands and grinned. _That's it!_

Cadence turned onto her stomach and held her hands behind her. Focusing hard on her power, she used enough energy to create fire from her hands and feet, jet propelling herself through the water. Fast, fast, faster, faster. King Shark continued to stay on her tail, his fin tearing through the water behind her. No matter how many sharp turns and zig-zags she took, he was right behind her. Still pushing herself forward, Cadence rolled onto her back just in time to see King Shark explode out of the water, arching through the air towards her.

His beady black eyes locked onto her, jaws open wide to rip her to shreds. He'd reach her in a few seconds, clawed fins outstretched towards her. With one arm, she flung a cloud of smoke in his direction, using the other as a ancho to flip herself over and immediately dive down into the water. There was an explosion of power that knocked her head over heels through the water as King Shark landed where she just was.

He recovered quickly and spun around, surging after her. He knocked into her so hard that blinding light shot across her vision before she fell back to the water. Cadence's head popped up and she sucked in sharp, angry grunts. That was the _last_ time he was going to hit her. Using the new enhancement on her goggles, she spotted King Shark's dark form gliding under the surface towards her.

Anger took Cadence over in that moment. Anger of how he was thrashing her to anger of keeping her form saving the city. And with that anger she felt an incredible surge of power that made her eyes behind her goggles glow a bright orange. Her entire body started to glow with the same shade or orange, it slipping over her head to her feet. A fire aura encompassed her body growing more and more, flames leaping up into the sky. The water around her started to hiss and sizzle, steam radiating from around her, clouding the surface of the river front.

Continued to burn and evaporate until a sphere of water started to widen, revealing the riverbed a mile below her feet. King Shark burst through a wall of water and crashed to the ground of the river, whipping around in confusion. He lifted his head and growled at Cadence, slowly stepped forward to rest his feet on large boulders, bending his knees, ready to leap up and drag Cadence' back down. With a rippling outpour of raw power, King Shark leapt up, reaching a fin out towards her. The moment he came in close contact with Cadence a flare, almost like a star burst, erupted from the fire aura around her and he crashed to the ground.

Cadence leapt high into the air and, with her heat mirage ability, created two more clones of herself. At the same time, the three pulled back their hands, fireballs cracking with electricity engulfing them all the way up to their arms. With a cry of effort they threw their arms forward and sent the balls of lightning and fire into King Shark.

A direct hit.

He screamed loudly as he was buffeted on all sides before falling silent, steam rising form his body. He gently drifted towards the bottom of the river while Cadence teleported away, the remaining water falling over him once the heat source that evaporated it dissipated.

Coughing, Cadence stumbled onto the docks, glancing over her shoulder towards King Shark. There wasn't enough time to get him back to STAR Labs or to even worry about it. He'd be knocked out long enough if she didn't outright kill him. She didn't care if she had either, there was no time to worry. Turning back towards the city, Cadence teleported and went back to fight against metahumans once more.

She ducked out of the way of an energy blast and with strong punches, made her way through a group of metas in front of her. All of a sudden a car door exploded off from a truck behind her, crashing into her and smacked her against a building face. She fell to the ground and looked up in time to see a meta's hand returning from it massive size to that of a normal human.

He grinned and cracked his knuckles before advancing towards her. Just as he reached her, he pulled his foot back, it growing to the size of a medium pumpkin and arched it towards her. At the last second, an arm wrapped around her waist and Cadence felt herself being lifted up into the air. They landed on the roof and Cadence turned, eyebrows rising when she recognized Roy standing next to her, letting go of the cable of the retractable arrow in his hand.

"You know I can teleport, right?" She asked.

Roy smirked back at her. "Looks to me like you needed my help."

"I can use as much help as I can get," Cadence said honestly. This wasn't something she could take on alone, not when there were so many people to handle. And without being able to communicate with Cisco and the others in STAR Labs, they needed to finish this first before going to take on Zoom.

 _Wherever he is,_ Cadence thought. Her eye scanned the ground below her. She could see Batman and Superman fighting along with the police force below. No matter how many metas were taken down, there seemed to be five more that'd take its place.

And yet, she couldn't see Barry at all.

The thought worried her, but after exchanging a nod with Roy, Cadence went back down to fight with the others. Barry could always handle himself, he'd be there soon.

Still, she couldn't help but continuously ask herself, _Where's Barry?_

* * *

"Cisco," Tess said gently. "He's gone."

"No, he's not." Cisco closed his eyes, pressing his hands against his forehead. He continued to pace the floor of the Cortex. "He's not gone. Caitlin's not gone. Nobody's gone! I just have to find them! I have to figure out where they are!" He bashed his hands against his forehead. "Think, Cisco, think!"

Tess grabbed his shoulders, holding him still. "It's not going to help anyone if you wear yourself out over this. Barry wouldn't want you to do this, Cisco. Please, come sit in the medical bay and relax a little." She started to steer him over to the medical beds that had been set up, but he wiggled out of her grasp. "Cisco."

"Tess, I know you're trying to help, but I can do this," Cisco said. "I-I-I-I-I just need time to think." His stuttering seemed to grow worse with each protest.

"Ramon, she's right," Harry said from where he leaned against the doorway of the medical bay as he had been since the blood transfusion finished. Every now and then he glanced over his shoulder towards Henry, who continued to work on Jesse. "It's not worth killing yourself over."

Cisco stopped on a dime and violently threw his arm out towards the monitor hanging on the wall of the Cortex where news footage of the Metapocalypse continued to play. "Barry's risked his life for us time and time again. Even Cadence is out there right now, trying to save everyone and you expect me to stop? She's out there, Caitlin's somewhere out there, and Barry's somewhere, I can't let them down! If only I could… _see_ it."

"What about Barry's mannequin?" Iris suggested. Since he'd stopped crying she continued to monitor and call out Cadence's movements. They'd watched her take on and defeat King Shark before running into the city to continue fighting. "You usually have to use something of the person you're trying to vibe to reach them, right?"

"Right," Cisco agreed, snapping his fingers. "Iris, you're a genius!" He went to Barry's mannequin and held his hands out towards it. "God, I know I haven't been working on my powers so much," he whispered. "But please don't fail me now." He pressed his hands to the mannequin and gasped as his powers kicked into high gear.

The wind whipped up around him, lightning flashed through a blue haze. Cisco's eyes narrowed around the wind, he turned his head this way and that, frantically trying to determine what he was seeing. Then he saw a figure in front of him and his heart leapt with joy when he recognized Barry.

"Barry!" He shouted. Barry whipped around when his name was called. His eyes squinted and widened, the same Cisco's had, when he recognized his best friend. Cisco outstretched his hand towards Barry. "Barry, take my hand! We'll get you home!"

Barry stared at Cisco for a long moment. Then, finally, he shook his head and took a step back. Cisco watched, eyebrows coming together in confusion as Barry continued to back away step by step. Then Cisco took a step back and the storm was gone. He sucked in a deep breath and stepped away from Barry's mannequin, eyes darting around.

"So?" Tess asked. "What happened?"

"I saw him," Cisco reported, almost whispering. Almost as if he couldn't believe what he'd just seen. Barry backed away from him. _Away._ Not toward him. Why would he leave like that? "He's in a blue vortex of some sort."

Harry, how had been listening closely, perked up. His eyes widened behind his glasses and he shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "He's in the Speed Force."

"The Speed Force?" Henry and Maya repeated.

"It's what gives him his powers," Iris quickly explained.

"Well, you can get him out, right?" Maya asked.

"I don't know," Harry said.

Henry whipped his head to face him. "You don't know?" He repeated. "You're supposed to be the expert aren't you? You know all about the Speed Force?" Then he regarded Harrison. "Or was it you? Either of you can do something to help my son get back and you're telling me you don't know?"

"Henry!" Joe grabbed his shoulder, squeezing tightly. "Henry, calm down. Yelling at them isn't going to help." Henry turned his gaze to Joe and Joe could see his friend's eyes. How hollow and sad they were. There was a glimmer of hope in it, just a small speck compared to the sorrow.

"Joe, I know you love Barry," Henry said slowly. "But you have Iris and you have Wally. Barry's the only thing I have left."

"And as your friend, I _promise_ we'll get him back," Joe insisted. He nodded towards Harrison and Harry. "Yelling at him isn't going to help. They're doing the best they can with what they're given."

"Which, admittedly, isn't much," Iris agreed. She let out a long sigh, pulling her hair behind her ears. "But, right now, we need to focus on thinking we can do it and figuring out how to get back to Barry and convince him to come back to us."

A moment of silence stretched through the room. And, seconds later, Brady phased up through the ground, holding onto Conner's shoulder as he did so. "What's going on?" Brady asked, immediately noticing the stern faces around him. "What happened? Where's my mom?" Then he looked into the medical bay. "What happened to Jesse?"

"Brady, you're okay," Iris said, beaming when she saw the younger boy.

Brady made a face. "Of course I'm okay, I can't get hurt," he said quickly. "What happened?"

And so Cisco explained everything that happened to them while the young boy was gone and Brady listened quietly, hardly reacting to being told that Barry was gone and the city was being taken over by evil metahumans. Instead, he cracked his knuckles and said, "Okay, I'll go out there and help my mom and you guys find a way to get Barry back."

"You can't go out there," Henry protested.

"Why not?" Brady demanded.

"Yeah, he just helped Oliver take down Damien Darkh while we were in Star City," Conner added, frowning. "And he came back just fine."

"There's too many of them," Maya said. "Cadey's already having a hard time taking down all the ones that are out there even with the help he's being given."

"That doesn't matter," Brady insisted. He reached up, pulling up the hood on his cloak. "Barry wouldn't want us to wait and I'm not going to. If there's anyone who can help fend them off even a little bit, it's going to be us."

Cisco nodded, smiling to himself. They were all feeding off Barry's energy, even if he wasn't there to see it. They would keep moving forward until he was back.

* * *

Without waiting for an answer, Brady grabbed Conner's wrist and phased through the floor, navigating his way to the hangar that held his ATV. Finding, it, he quickly climbed on top and he and Conner raced out to the city and into the thick of the metapocalypse.

Once they arrived, Brady leapt off his ATV and ran directly through a met, toward a street light. Reaching it, he reached out and grabbed the pole. Lifting his feet, he used the momentum to swing himself around and kicked the meta in the face, knocking him backwards. Conner shifted forward onto the seat of the ATV, taking control of the machine to run it into the crowd of metas in front of him with a burst of the engine.

There was a screeching sound and the pole shot into the air with a series of sparks. It flew straight up into the air before falling back down towards Brady. He fumbled for his yo-yo, anything that'd give him leeway to grab the pole and shift it out of the way, but didn't move fast enough. Turning aside, Brady closed his eyes and focused on phasing. As long as it hit the ground, even if he didn't phase completely, it'd take the brunt of the crash.

But he didn't feel anything in his body shift as it always did when he phased. He opened his eyes and turned over, finding Leah standing nearby, holding her hands overhead as the pole continued to hover in the air. His eyes then shifted to the metal metahuman who stood across from her, snarling. Leah shifted her other hand and lifted it, making the meta cry out in surprise as he suddenly faceplanted into the ground so hard the cracking of the bones in his body filled the air.

"Whoa," Conner murmured.

"Leah, what are you doing here?" Brady asked when she lowered her hands. The three winced when the pole crashed to the ground.

"My parents and I were watching the news and I had to come help," Leah explained, wringing her hands over each other.

Brady's eyes narrowed. "Do they know?"

She nodded. "I had to tell them. I had to tell them I'm a meta. I didn't wait for their response." She reached up and wiped at her eyes. "I couldn't. What else can I do to help?"

A loud scream filled the air and Brady looked around, trying to find the source. It was then he realized it was coming from the line of police cars that were stationed in front of City Hall. Evil metas climbed all over the tops of the cars, smashing windows and windshields, tearing off the bumpers and using them to attack the officers that had been knocked to the ground.

"We'll help them," Brady said. He paused, noticing the crush of metas fighting in front of them. "We'll fly."

"You can fly?" Leah asked.

"Not very well," Conner said.

Brady grabbed Conner's left hand and Leah grabbed his right and with a combination of his flying ability and her gravity, they soared over the streets, not stopping until they landed by the police cars. They followed the sound of the screaming until they found Alicia kneeling by her father's body, holding onto his head and crying loudly.

"Daddy!" Alicia wailed. "Daddy, wake up!"

Chief Paulson groaned, hand still clutching the pistol at his side but didn't otherwise move. Alicia screamed as there was a sudden explosion behind her and she turned away, trying to keep from getting hit by glass.

"Get him out of here!" A fellow police officer shouted. "Chief is down! Get him out!" Brady recognized Patty's voice and looked to find her, seeing she was wounded as well, but continuing to fire back against metas that were coming towards them.

"Alicia!" Leah hurried towards her classmate. "Alicia, we have to get out of here."

"What about my daddy?" Alicia tightened her grasp around her father's shoulders. She looked up at Brady, Leah, and Conner, eyes shifting back and forth, almost unseeing. _As long as she doesn't recognize me under this…_ Brady thought. Though knowing it wouldn't take much to figure it out from process of elimination. "Help him, please!"

Brady took a step back and looked at her.

"Look out!"

He turned around and shot up his hand. Once again a black energy appeared above him, shielding him from the green blast of energy that came their way. He lowered his arm and it went away again. Then Brady shot out his other fist and smaller balls of the same energy shot out, striking the meta in the face and chest. He laughed evilly, taking a step back.

"You think that's going to stop me?" He asked. Brady's heard pounded in his chest, standing his ground, watching and waiting to see what the meta would do. "It only makes me stronger." His entire body started to glow the same green as it had before, much brighter and bigger than it had before. With a twist of his arms, he sent it back toward Brady.

He gasped and stepped back, allowing it to pass through his body. Conner dove to the ground, pulling Alicia with him, using his arms to cover both their heads, and Leah used her power to pull a police car around to block them.

The crash was deafening, sending glass shattering in all directions. Seconds later, there was another crash and the car was knocked aside once more, the meta continuing towards them. Brady's mind rocketed through numerous plans of action; he could use his yo-yo to tie the man up, he could use his powers to cause some internal damage. But that meant getting closer to him, putting him in even more danger.

"At least I'll have something to play with," the meta said, continuing to come closer.

There was a sudden rev of an engine and the meta quickly disappeared from sight with the hot rod that crashed into him sending him flying. The door opened and Wally leaned out shouting, "Hurry! Get in!"

Brady nodded to him then turned his friends. "Get Alicia and Chief Paulson out of here. I have to keep helping!" Conner and Leah nodded and hurried Alicia to the car with Leah using her gravity powers to take Chief Paulson with them.

Brady turned on his heels and ran back into the fray. When he saw a burst of flame he changed direction, knowing it's where his mother was going.

* * *

Caitlin watched, tears silently falling down her cheeks as Zoom forced her to watch the carnage. So many lives being lost, so many lives disrupted by the metahumans he was unleashing over the city. All because he could. Now that he had Barry's speed, there was no one to stop him.

"This is what'll happen if you decide to work against me," Zoom growled, holding tightly to Caitlin's shoulder. "You'll fall, just like everyone else has. That is, if you don't join me." He reached up and twisted his hand into Caitlin's hair, pulling her head back to force her to look at him.

Caitlin groaned, feeling her hair painfully pull at the roots. She closed her eyes, unable to look Zoo in the eye. Not after everything he'd done to her, not after everything he'd done to the city. "Please," she muttered.

"It's your choice, Caitlin. You're either with me or against me. And if you choose to be against me…then I won't hesitate to treat you like the others."

The seconds passed as Caitlin tried to figure out what to do. If she told him she'd join him, she'd be betraying her friends, but would have the chance to figure out a way to take Zoo down. But if she said she wasn't on his side, he'd kill her in a second. He was able to move that fast. And the way he'd treated Killer Frost, who was her…

Zoom's hand started to rapidly shake, not with his speed but with his anger. He was growing tired of waiting. He wanted an answer and he wanted it now. When he spoke this time, his voice wasn't the low, dulcet tone that Jay had, but the gravelly, evil one that was always held when Zoom spoke with his mask on. "I need your answer. Now."

Caitlin sucked in a deep breath. "I don't think you're going to like it," she murmured then jabbed her hand down, shoving an icicle through his Achilles. While he held her against him, he hadn't seen the blue mist that encircled her hand, didn't see she was formulating a plan of her own.

And Zoom screamed in agony as the icicle punched though his leg, dropping his hand away from her. Caitlin fell to the ground and pushed herself up, watching as Zoom fell to his knees, howling in pain. He turned and glared at her, his eyes burning into hers. She could see nothing but absolute hatred in the little of his eyes she could see. Zoom turned on his heel and raced through the breach.

The second it closed, Caitlin let out a sigh of relief. He was gone only for a few seconds before Caitlin felt arms wrap around her. She reacted quickly, forming ice around her fist to punch the person behind her. "Whoa! Caitlin, wait! It's me!" Caitlin turned and threw her arms around Cadence's neck as she hugged her back. "I know it took me some time to find you, but I didn't expect you to try and punch me in the face." Caitlin laughed and Cadence pulled back, framing her face with his hands. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay." Caitlin nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm okay."

"Are you _sure?"_

 _"_ Yes!"

Cadence hugged her friend again before pulling her to her feet. "Come on, we have to get you back to STAR Labs before he decides to come back for you." Caitlin nodded. She looked up as Cadence suddenly stiffened, her eyes narrowing. Suddenly, she pushed Caitlin away from her and leaned back out of the way, so that she was parallel to the ground, just as a fireball shot by. She straightened and the two glared towards Killer Frost and Burnout as they stood across from them.

Caitlin gaped at Killer Frost in dumb surprise. "You died," she murmured. She'd seen it happen. Saw how her stomach had been puncture, saw her intestines and…and everything spill out. Saw the blood that escaped her body and pooled along the floor before Zoom had taken her away. Exactly what Zoom had been about to do to her if she hadn't stabbed him.

"Having the power of healing _really_ comes in handy," Burnout bragged, resting her hands on her hips. "Myself, others…kind of makes it like a horror movie. People just keep coming back to life, huh?"

"You've got what you wanted," Cadence said. "Zoom's got the Flash's power. You don't need us."

Killer Frost wagged her finger back and forth. "No, Zoom got what _he_ wanted. The Flash's power. What we want is entirely different." She blew on her fingernails and rubbed them against her chest. "We want to get away from Zoom and the only way that'll happen is if you're gone!" With that she swung out her hand. Her nails shone a bright blue and icicles in their likeness shot towards Caitlin and Cadence.

Caitlin stood firm in front of Killer Frost, the icicles coming closer. She was tired of running, tired of being the damsel in distress, and would do everything needed to take down Killer Frost once and for all. She brought her hands back and thrust them forward, using all of her energy to send an icy wave back at Killer Frost. A block of ice formed and the icicles embedded themselves in the face of it.

Killer Frost frowned, almost pouting.

Caitlin smiled, pleased at being able to hold her off. Then she noticed the red glow that slowly started to form in the center of the ice block before a wave of fire caught her in the chest, sending her backwards off her feet. Then the ice block exploded as Killer Frost followed the path of fire and caught Caitlin in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. The two rolled on the ground, grabbing each other's hair and clothes, trying to get the upper hand to pin each other down. Killer Frost pinned Caitlin to the ground with a foot to her shoulder, her other knee resting into Caitlin's stomach, painfully cutting off air-flow.

"You know, I never knew what Zoom saw in you," Killer Frost drawled. "Must be something warm. Otherwise, he hadn't even looked at me as anything other than a means to fulfill his plans." She tilted her head, still looking into Caitlin's eyes. "And my husband wouldn't have had to _die_ for you." Her upper lip trembled violently. "There've been many breachers…who says there can't be any that have managed to successfully make a life over here?"

With that, Killer Frost raised her hand high above her head, revealing an icicle resting in her grasp and plunged it down towards Caitlin's heart. With a scream, Caitlin swung her free fist upwards, it became encased in ice and when it collided with the icicle it shattered in her hand. Killer Frost reacted with surprise before crying out in pain, feeling Caitlin's icy fist smack into her palm, breaking the bones in her hand.

Caitlin lifted her legs and swung them down, giving herself momentum to get back to her feet, knocking Killer Frost away from her. Killer Frost rolled away and Caitlin wiped sweat off her forehead. It was hot. Too hot. Glancing to the side, Caitlin caught sight of Cadence and Burnout fighting against each other, teleporting every few seconds, flashes of fire shooting back and forth at the small glimpses she caught of them.

Their attacks were vicious and filled with strength, mimicking the power of fire they shared. Just as hers and Killer Frosts's attacks against each other were cold and calculated, mimicking the ice they shared. Fire melted ice jut as ice snuffed out fire. Accelerants made fire grow as ice stuck together and continued to spread. There had to be something that could be done to finish this.

"I'm getting _real_ sick of you," Killer Frost snarled, stomping her way back to Caitlin.

"Funny, I was about to say the same to you," Caitlin shot back. She and Killer Frost attacked at the same time, their icy blasts colliding with each other. The blasts shifted back and forth with the energy the two ice metahumans exerted.

Around them, Cadence and Burnout continued to fight, showcasing abilities Caitlin didn't even know they could do. She hadn't seen Cadence's fire aura get to be so big before, so destructive. Everything she came near seemed to melt under her presence. Adding in Burnout's power and there didn't seem to be anything that could stop them. The sheer strength either of them showed was much stronger than anything she'd seen before. If that was them not at full power then…who knew what it was that Killer Frost could do, too?

Caitlin twisted her wrist, shooting her ice attack to the ground. Killer Frost growled, feeling her feet get frozen to the ground. She switched tactics, shooting icicles towards Caitlin with each punch. Caitlin ducked out of the way of each blow, continuing to enchase Killer Frost in ice up to her waist.

Killer Frost bared her teeth at Caitlin. "Who would've thought you'd have as cold of a heart as me. Must be having your husband murdered right before you. Now that you know how I feel…it sucks doesn't it? Not having anyone I could touch without hurting him. I feel so bad for you, soon, the way your powers will develop, you'll do it, too. And everyone will turn their back on you." Caitlin twisted her mouth to the side. She stopped sending ice towards Killer Frost and, instead, focused it on her hand. She walked closer to Killer Frost, who smiled smugly at her. "I guess I struck a nerve."

"No," Caitlin replied. "I struck _yours_!" With that, she brought back her hand and smacked Killer Frost so hard across the face she immediately went limp.

Caitlin stepped back and turned around in time to find Cadence knocked Burnout to the ground. Straddling the evil meta's waist, she pulled back her fist and punched Burnout across the face. Caitlin hurried over to her friend and gasped, seeing the hollow look on her best friend's face as she continued to punch. Each time a blow landed on Burnout's face her skin tore open then immediately healed closed, only for Cadence to punch her again. Over and over and over, with more strength each time.

"Cade." Caitlin reached for Cadence and grabbed her arm. "Cade. Cade, stop!" She pulled Cadence off her and the two backed away from Burnout.

Burnout smiled an evil smile, blood smearing her gums and teeth, eyes glowing like the fires of hell. She brought her hands back and did a kip-up back to her feet before turning her head and spit blood to the ground before rolling her neck and shoulders.

Caitlin and Cadence both lifted their hands, ready to attack her as she moved closer. Burnout lifted her hands and started to attack back but stopped, seeing a black shield cover them. She looked around in confusion before her eyes landed on Brady, who phased up behind Caitlin and Cadence.

"Brady?" Burnout asked.

"Come on," Brady said.

Cadence grasped his and Caitlin's wrists and teleported out of the streets.

* * *

Barry continued walking along the street that continued to stretch in front of him. He'd left his house as soon as The Speed Force version of Eobard had disappeared. He had to get out of the house. Had to get away from his childhood home. There were too many memories there, too many things that would make him wally in self-pity. He couldn't handle the pain that would come back if he stayed there too long. It was suffocating, too much darkness stretching around him, waiting for him to drown horrifically.

He continued to walk down the street, watching as the area around him slowly changed to a city street rather than the neighborhood he'd grown up in. Everything twisted and turned away until buildings popped out of the ground like daisies. Barry stopped, twisting around to figure out why it appeared so familiar.

"We thought you'd find this place and this appearance less upsetting." Barry turned back around to find Cadence and Brady standing behind him. They tilted their heads the same way, watching Barry's expression. Cadence was the first one to speak but Brady then said, "You seem upset."

"Why are we here?" Barry asked.

Cadence lifted her eyebrows. "You don't recognize it?"

Barry looked around once more then did recognize it. It was where he and Cadence had talked after releasing her from the Pipeline they first time they met. It was the same path they'd taken when Barry had first met Brady.

"It doesn't make you happy," Brady repeated.

At his words, Barry gritted his teeth, unable to keep his frustration at bay. "My friends and my city are in danger and Zoom is on a rampage with the power he stole from me," he snarled. "And you're keeping me."

"You were given a rare and precious gift and you rejected it," Cadence said.

Brady shrugged. "You rejected your powers."

"No, I did _not_ reject it," Barry spat. He took a step closer to the two of them. He slapped himself on the chest as he continued to speak, "I gave up my powers to same one of my best friends. To be a hero. I nearly killed myself trying to get them back. And now I'm _stuck_ here!" He sucked in a deep breath, doing his best to calm down after having yelled directly in their faces. Had it been the real Cadence, he was sure he would've received some sort of a snarky comment in response if not an annoyed look. Nevertheless, Cadence and Brady looked back at him without their expressions changing. "If you'd rather have given these powers to someone else, why'd you give them to me?"

"Because _you're_ the Flash, Barry," Brady said.

Barry was starting to get tired of hearing that. Tired of not getting any response to any of his questions. Tired of not having any sort of hint how to get back to his world. "If I'm the Flash, then why are you doing this to me? Why are you keeping me here?" He ran a hand through his hair, and lowered his head in defeat. "Just…why can't I go back to help my friends?"

"You can always go back, we're not keeping you here," Cadence said, lifting an eyebrow. "Your friends are trying to help you get back home as we speak. But if you go back now, it'll be without your powers."

Barry chewed his lower lip and turned away, placing his face in his hands. He couldn't go back without his powers, he needed to have them to be able to win. Glancing at the Speed Force again, Barry shook his head before turning on his heel and running. Even without his powers, he ran. It helped him clear his head and made things easier to figure out. And so he ran, pumping his arms and legs as hard and fast as he could. Sweat poured down his cheeks and chest, his breath became labored but still he ran. Ran until he was unable to run anymore.

Barry recognized the cemetery as soon as the first headstone came into view. And he screeched to a stop. No. He hadn't been there in so long. No. He couldn't…

"You have this power that's done so much for you." Barry turned around to see The Speed Force in the form of his father standing behind him. "You've saved countless lives with your abilities and now you're the only thing standing between your world and unspeakable evil and yet for all of that you've never been here." He gestured his arms wide, motioning towards the cemetery. "You've never been to where your mother was laid to rest."

"I couldn't," Barry said. The anguish immediately came back to him, dropping him to his knees and making him dig his fingers into his hair. "I can't…I can't come back here. I can't see it. I can't see it or else…"

"Or else what?" The Speed Force asked.

"Or else it'll be real." Tears finally slid down Barry's cheeks, dripping to the ground. He sniffled, trying his hardest to compose himself but the moment the tears started they wouldn't stop. "It'd be real. That she's gone. I can't…she's _gone!"_ He screamed.

"Your mother's death happened to you. It's made you who you are. But you haven't accepted it."

"I know it's real," Barry whimpered. His entire body trembled as he stared at the ground in front of him. "Every day, I know it. I had the chance to save her, you saw what I chose."

"And you're at peace with that decision?" The Speed Force tilted his head.

Barry tightened hi grasp to his head. His hands shook violently. He was unable to catch his breath. Was he passing out? Would he be able to leave if he passed out? "No! No, I'll never be at peace. How can I be at peace? I decided that my life was more valuable than hers! Than _hers!_ After all she's done for me."

The Speed Force crouched in front of Barry and looked at him with a stern expression. Almost a fatherly one. "Do you think your mother would've wanted you to die for her. What about all of the people you've saved as the Flash? Do their lives have value, too?"

And suddenly, everything around Barry shifted. He wasn't kneeling in the cemetery anymore. He was kneeling on the hardwood floor in the middle of the living room. His living room. Lifting his head, Barry looked towards the couch and saw the embodiment of his mother sitting on the couch across from him.

"You're not my mom," Barry murmured. "You're not. Why are you doing this to me?"

"We're not doing anything to you, Barry. You're just so tired," The Speed Force said. She reached out and smoothed Barry's hair off his forehead. Barry almost flinched at the touch. "You're tired of learning what to accept."

"I haven't accepted it," Barry whispered.

"My beautiful boy, you _have_ to learn how to accept it."

The tears came hard and fast. "H-how?" He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around his mother, to be comforted the way he always had been when he was a little boy. Whether he fell, had a bad day, got sick, his mother was always there for him. But now, now that she was in front of him, now that he had his mother back…she wasn't real. And he'd never be real again.

"I don't know," The Speed Force said honestly. Barry looked at her through tear-filled eyes, surprised to find tears coming to her eyes, too. "But The Flash can't outrun the tragedies that will be sent his way. You have to accept that and then you'll be able to run free."

"I know." Barry managed to smile. "I just miss her."

The Speed Force moved and knelt down in front of Barry. She clasped her hands around his, and smiled up at him. "What if I told you that she's proud of you? And of the man that you've become?"

Barry couldn't help the cynical tone that came to his voice. Not when he knew the truth. Not when he'd finally accepted it. "Who's telling me that? The Speed Force or my mom?"

"Both."

Barry lowered his head, letting the tears fall. He cried hard, body wrenching sobs that he hadn't allowed himself to sob. He cried out until his body couldn't take it anymore, until he was completely drained of the grief he'd bottled down as long as he could remember. And The Speed Force let him cry, allowing him to let go of the pain. When he stopped, Barry felt something in his hands and opened his eyes to find _The Runaway Dinosaur_ held tightly in his grasp.

The Speed Force was nowhere to be found. He was alone. And yet, he felt it in his heart.

He was ready to go.

…

..

.

"You're back!"

Cadence moved out of the way when Cisco raced over to wrap Caitlin in a hug. She saw everyone…but Barry and felt her entire body clench in fear. _Where is he?_ The thought was now burned into her head.

Cisco finally let go of Caitlin, allowing the others to move in and give her a hug as well. Harry hesitated for a long moment before reaching out an arm to wrap around her shoulders. He relaxed after a moment and wrapped both arms around her. It looked like he wanted to say something to her but stopped, deciding just to hug her instead.

"Where's Barry?" Brady asked.

"I haven't seen him since we split up to deal with some metas," Cadence said. She pulled her comm-links out of her ears and dangled them over her shoulders. "Did something happen to him? Zoom?" There was a slight pause and she quickly grew impatient. "Where is he?"

"He's in the Speed Force," Harrison said.

"He's _where?"_ Cadence, Caitlin, and Brady repeated at the same time.

"In the Speed Force," Cisco explained. "He used the Velocity-9 to get his powers back to try to stop some of the metas. He went up against Trajectory and…she turned to dust. She ran so fast she actually turned to dust. Which was kind of cool but it's not so cool because, you know, she's gone, and we thought it might've happened to Barry too. But, uh, then we found out that he actually went into the Speed Force."

"Okay, so how's he supposed to get out?" Brady asked.

" _Can_ he get out?" Cadence asked with a little more force than she intended. They'd already lost Caitlin once and got her back, if something happened to Barry and he was stuck…she looked away. _Stay positive, you'll get him out._ "Is he okay?"

"Cisco managed to vibe him in the Speed Force," Tess said. "He tried to reach him, to bring him back, but he wouldn't go."

Cadence frowned. That didn't sound like Barry. He had the chance to come back from the Speed Force but didn't go? There had to be something that was keeping him from coming back to them. He wouldn't stay away like that, not when the city was in so much trouble, not when their friends were fighting so hard to stop everyone. She let out a worried sigh and clasped her hands together, sinking to the floor so that she rested her chin on her hands. Her eyes shifted over the smeared blood on her knuckles and she quickly looked away.

Killer Frost and Burnout were still out there. But there were so many other metas that were being taken down, too many for them to handle them all, even with Superman, Batman, and Arsenal helping them. They needed Barry to make sure ever meta was gone and taken into custody.

 _He knows that, why would he stay away?_

"What are you doing to try and get him back?" Caitlin asked.

Cisco regarded her with surprise. "I thought you'd want to have some time to yourself. I mean, to get some rest. Zoom's had you for a while."

Caitlin raised her hand. "Cisco, I promise I'm fine. Right now, we need to focus on getting Barry back here."

"We're working on it," Cisco said. "With the mannequin we were able to get a lock on Barry, but I wasn't able to hold it long enough for Barry to reach me. What we need is for someone else to try to grab him while I'm vibing."

"You can do that?" Henry asked.

"As long as there's a physical contact, yes," Harry agreed.

Henry took in a deep breath, looked away for a moment. He wiped a hand over his eyes. "The let me do that," he said. "Let me bring him back."

"No," Brady said, taking a step forward. He turned to Cadence. "Let my mom do it. They're partners, she can convince him to come back." He looked at Henry and added, "Dr. Allen, I'm not sure how, but their power work together. If it has something to do with the Speed Force then her powers could have something to do with it."

Henry looked at Brady for a long moment, then smiled and nodded. "I remember telling you to keep asking questions, it's the best way for you to learn. I think now it's time for me to learn some things, too." He went to Cadence and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Bring my son back."

Cadence nodded. It was all happening so fast. One moment she was beating Burnout's face in, the next she was the one who was to take on bringing Barry back. So many emotions flowed through her veins. She felt like crying. No one else had heard what Burnout said to her but it had been enough for her to want to murder her. The sooner the Earth-2 counterpart was gone, the better. She pushed it away, needed to focus on this task.

She reached out her hand to take Cisco's but was cut off by Harrison's voice.

"Wait." Harrison held up his hand. "This could have unseen side-effects that we haven't encountered before."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked.

Harrison hesitated, licked his lips. Then he ran his hands through his hair. "Since the very beginning, their powers have worked together. Brady's mentioned that, we've seen it with our own two eyes. Common sense through chemistry notes that, at a base level, their powers are similar due to the heat signatures that come from fire and fast moving particles. Like when you're shivering, your muscles are vibrating rapidly so that it creates heat."

"So?" Joe asked.

"So, it didn't occur to me that there could be anything else that brings their powers together. Why is it that only his speed and her power work while anything cold will slow him down? Why is it that their abilities are able to 'recharge' each other so to speak. From an objective point, I believe it goes deeper than what we've already seen, to the fact that…Cadence may have the ability to heal or charge in this case, the Speed Force."

Cadence tilted her head to the side. She could charge the Speed Force? The Speed Force wasn't even a thing, as far as they knew, it was just…something that gave him his powers and something he connected to so that he could use his abilities. _If that were the case, how do we still manage to give him Speed Drug?_ Her head was starting to hurt. There was a reason she wasn't a scientist and this was it. Too many questions and not enough answers that were coming fast enough.

"By her going into the speed force," Harrison continued. "It could keep it stable enough to get Barry out, not just that she could convince Barry to go. The Speed Force took him in for a reason and your added abilities could get him out. Like a…Lightning Rod."

"But if what you're saying is true, when wouldn't Cade, in that aspect, be a Speedster in some way?" Caitlin asked, folding her arms. "Or that, she'd need something like a Lightning Rod or the Speed Force to aid her abilities."

"What? And call it a match stick?" Cisco snarked. He shook his head, brushing his hair behind his ears. "Whatever the reason is, we don't have much time left to get Barry out. I don't know if it's going to work and we'll have to try. If you're going to do it, we have to do it now," Cisco said, snapping Cadence from her thoughts.

She nodded and stood in front of Cisco, dropping her goggles down around her neck. She took a deep breath and held out her hand, grasping Cisco's hand in hers. Cisco squeezed her hand tightly and reached out his hand to touch the mannequin next to him.

The second his hand touched the mannequin they were transported to the same storm Cisco had seen before. Cadence gasped in surprise as the wind and lightning buffeted against her. She blinked rapidly before seeing Barry standing in front of her. Not too far away, but not close enough, either.

Lightning shot around them, hurricane force winds growing by the second. Almost as if the Speed Force were angry there were trespassers in its presence. Cadence felt herself starting to lose her grip with the ground, Cisco's hand slipping from hers. She turned and grasped Cisco's wrist with both hands, feeling him slip even further. If they lost connection now…

"Hurry!" Cisco called. "I don't know how much time we have!" The two cried out as a large lightning bolt struck the ground near them. Cadence could feel the heat from the bolt beside her, singing her skin despite the thick material of her suit.

"Hang on, Cisco," Cadence called back. Her words swirled around her, hair blew into her face, lightning continued to rain down as if a child were taunting and teasing its play thing. She let go of a hand and lowered it to the ground, keeping herself balanced.

The second she did, the winds died down. Not completely, but from the hurricane force to a strong wind. The numerous lightning bolts reduced to a few per minute. The wrath of the storm lessened, as if the anger had been dissipated. Surprised, Cadence slowly stood up and exchanged a glance with Cisco. He tightened his grasp on her hand despite being balanced. She saw the look in his eye, no matter what, he wasn't letting go. Cadence nodded and squeezed his hand back before turning to Barry.

"Barry!" Cadence called. Her voice continued to echo through the Speed Force. "BARRY!" Barry slowly turned her way, moving slowly, almost as if he didn't recognize her. Cadence felt relief wash over her. He was safe, he was okay. Though the night, as she fought her way through metas she kept wondering _Where's Barry_? And with no way to communicate with STAR Labs, it made her realize how alone she truly was.

Maybe Burnout knew that, it was probably why she had managed to get under Cadence's skin so easily. Made her lose control. She didn't lose control when Barry was with her. As much as she helped him, he helped her. Maybe it worked further than their powers, their powers could work together and help recharge each other. Maybe the vicinity made them stronger. It felt wrong to fight through Central City without him and now…

"Cade," Barry replied. His voice was muffled. He slowly walked towards her, eyes narrowed to study her. Almost as if he didn't think she was real.

She wasn't doing a heat mirage, she was real. He was okay. "The city…it really needs our help," Cadence said. Emotion suddenly overcame her. "I tried to hold off as long as I could." A chuckle escaped her lips. "I even took on King Shark."

"King Shark?" Barry repeated in that same, dull tone.

"Turns out, Patty was right." Cadence smiled a humorless smile, a tear streaked down her cheek. Barry continued to walk closer. With each step, the storm died down even further. "I thought something happened to you. I kept wondering where you were, I thought you…" She couldn't get the last word out. "Barry, I can't do this without you. Saving the city…I don't _want_ to do this without you," she admitted. She'd been on her own for so long, or so many years wondering if she'd ever be happy again. Have friends again. Have a family again. And since meeting him it had happened and more. The thought of being on her own was more than she could handle. She may have the strength, but Barry was a much stronger person than she was, a much better person. He rubbed off on her, made her a stronger person, made her believe and trust in herself. If that was gone...she didn't know what she'd do. They met for a reason. She believed that with her heart. "There's a reason our powers work together and I think this is that reason." She gestured around the Speed Force with her free hand. "We're _supposed_ to work together. On our own, there's a lot we can do. But together…we're unstoppable." Another tear fell. She stretched her hand out to him, holding as still as possible.

It felt like an invisible hand was pushing hers away from Barry, to make it harder for them to touch. To prove they _really_ wanted it. "Don't make me do this on my own." I'm not strong enough. "Please." I love you. "Come back."

Barry watched her throughout her speech, still moving towards her. Finally, he stopped and after a breath, stretched his hand out to her. Finally, they were close enough that his hand wrapped around hers. There was a tingling sensation that shot back and forth through their hands, the same that happened when their powers merged with each other. A ball of lightning and fire encased their hands, growing bigger as the seconds passed.

Barry smiled at her and Cadence smiled back.

The wind stopped.

The lightning ceased.

Everything was still.

Then the vortex was gone, they were back in STAR Labs, and Cisco backed away from the mannequin, dropping his hand. Barry looked around in surprise for a split second then looked at Cadence. The moment his eyes locked with hers, they lit up with recognition.

Cadence grinned. "Barry," her voice came out in a whisper.

"You did it," he said and the two hugged.

He was home.

* * *

 **A/N:** I think my favorite part was Caitlin and Killer Frost vs. Cadence and Burnout. You will see Burnout's and Cadence's fight in the next chapter as everything will all come together with Zoom and some other plots ending. But seriously, what did you think? Please, please, _please_ let me know? The part with the Speed Force was really fun, especially with throwing Eobard/Harrison/The Reverse Flash in there.

Please remember to review, even one word reviews if you'd like; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **DarkHelm145:** So here's where the RF part from Flash Back (I think is the ep) comes in. I hope it worked out well. And yes, a lot happened in a short period of time, I'm glad it worked out that way. Hope you liked this one as well.

 **Josephguy217:** I hope you enjoyed the take on this episode as well.

 **Guest:** Thank you!

 **Ethan:** If Barry didn't give up his speed, what would the pay-off be for when he was fighting against Zoom at the end? Especially when Velocity-9 had the very bad side-effects of potential death. Yep, Cisco is in love with Caitlin, but we'll see how it ends up working out now that Cadence knows.

 **Yummers:** Thanks, that's always my favorite part.

 **PowerHero432:** Well, now you see that Killer Frost isn't dead either. But who's to say she and Burnout won't end up dead by the end of the story? I think Burnout was a bit creepier in this one, honestly. What'd you think of the 'come home to me' version with Cade? I think it had a bit more heart to show how they work well together in many ways. But, I'm biased. Lol.

 **Babyj:** No worries, hope you enjoyed.


	49. Zoom

**.:49:.**

 _Zoom_

* * *

 **A/N:** I made changes to the ending part of the last chapter (from right before Cade goes into the Speed Force and to the end) so you'll need to go back and re-read that portion to understand part of this one.

* * *

Cadence stood behind Brady, watching as he twisted his hands around, lips sucked into his mouth, working to tie a tie around his neck. Finally, after a few moments, he lowered his hands from his neck and looked at his mother through her reflection and waited.

"Close enough," she said and ruffled his hair. "Can you please see if Caitlin's awake?"

"Okay," Brady said and turned from the mirror.

"I'm awake," Caitlin said as she breezed into her room from the bathroom. She set a pair of heels onto her bed and bent at the waist to hold herself up, balancing against the bedframe to place one heel on her foot. "I told you, you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine."

"Everyone says they're fine and they're never fine, Aunt Caitlin," Brady pointed out, sliding his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. Then he lowered his gaze to his dress shoes and his nose wrinkled. "Do I have to wear these shoes?" He wiggled his toes in the leather.

Cadence and Caitlin laughed at his abrupt change of subject. Then Caitlin rested her hand on his shoulder saying, "Yes, it's really important to pay respects." She turned back to Cadence and lowered her voice as she said, "You and Brady didn't have to stay over last night. I'm fine."

"I know," Cadence replied. "But none of us should be alone right now." She took in a deep breath and looked away. "And, as far as I'm concerned, Zoom doesn't know where you live. And considering he's been gone since the Metapocalypse started, that's obviously not a good thing."

"Oh, so you only stayed with me to save your butt?" Caitlin asked.

"And so I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner," Cadence teased. She laughed and gracefully lowered herself to the chair that rested in front of Caitlin's vanity. She picked up a brush and carefully ran it through her hair a few times before Caitlin reached over and took the brush from her. Cadence relaxed, feeling Caitlin's fingers move through her hair, using one hand to guide the brush.

Funny how relaxing that felt compared to Burnout's nails ripping through her scalp as she grabbed a handful of Cadence's hair during their fight and punched her in the throat. Looking up, Cadence could see Caitlin's pleasant expression as she faced the mirror, a sharp contract to Burnout's nearly psychotic one. A start comparison to how badly she and Burnout were trying to kill each other.

Something snapped in Cadence's head when she saw her doppelgnager back one more. Literally, she heard a loud crack. Maybe it was seeing Killer Frost again, or maybe it was the influx of Burnout's memories that came to her when the doppelgangers were together. One moment, Cadence was staring at Killer Frost and Burnout, and the second she was fighting hard.

The moment she saw Burnout's fire smash through Caitlin's block of ice and strike her friend in the stomach she knew there wasn't going to be anything that'd keep the doppelgangers from killing them. What really threw Cadence off was the fact that she was, in fact, facing off against her doppelganger. Everything about her was mirror, her personality; the side of her mouth that turned up first when he was smiling, and the dominant hand she used to fire against those in front of her. The one thing that wasn't different was the gymnastic abilities she used to fight.

And they thought Ragdoll was slippery. What was harder than fighting against yourself was working out how to defeat yourself. Everything Cadence would throw at herself, whether it be a punch or a kick, was quickly deflected with a block of the arm or a stretch of the leg. The same thing that happened when Burnout tried to attack her. Every try to hit someone with a blitz of punches and they continue to do backhand springs out of the way? Cadence had and it certainly wasn't her favorite thing to have to face as well.

Cadence shook her head, thinking back to the fight. She and Burnout continued to teleport across the city, moving as fast as they could, trying to regain control over each other. She still remembered the way glass and sharp pieces of metal ground into her back when she landed on the roof of a nearby car.

Burnout flipped and landed atop of Cadence, digging her knees into her hips, pinning her down. She reached out and grasped Cadence's neck, the second Cadence closed her eyes, gathering her strength. Then she opened her eyes and a blast of heat shot out and struck Cadence head on. Burnout screamed in pain, the side of her face immediately starting to bubble. With the reprieve, Cadence wiggled her hips out of Burnout's grasp and brought her legs up, grasping Burnout around the middle. Painfully, Cadence lifted backwards, feeling the strain on her neck and with the momentum, threw Burnout as hard as she could.

Flipping back to her feet, Cadence used a shot of fire as an accelerant to ignite the car below her. As it started to smolder, she picked it up and whipped it around, catching Burnout on the back of the head, flattening her to the ground. A vicious snarl escaped Burnout's lip as she whipped her head around, only seconds before Cadence managed to twist in her accelerated burst of speed and kicked Burnout directly in the face. The sound of Burnout's jaw breaking immediately filled the air. It hung loosely before slowly bringing itself back to the right alignment.

And Burnout was on her again, burning Cadence's wrists to the bone when Burnout managed to grab her and flipped over, yanking Cadence's arms straight above her. Cadence felt herself twist and turn through the air before landing on the ground in a crouch. Burnout came towards her and this time Cadence used her gymnastic skills to her advantage. High leaps, balancing on one foot, illusion spins and splits kept her out of Burnout's wait.

Then Burnout chuckled saying, "You think you're going to be as good as the rest of these people. I've seen the future, I am your future and know there's no way you're going to get out of it. Your destiny." Cadence paused, the word echoing through her head. Burnout sensed the moment of weakness and grinned. "You're part of the Assassination Bureau, no matter what it is you do to make your life better, you're not going to get out of it. You'll keep killing everyone you need to because, guess what, you're meant to be the one to destroy the world. And you're going to watch as all of your friends and family are nothing but a pile of dust. Breathtaker knows all…and he's been telling you this since the very beginning. It's coming sooner than you think and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

Cadence surged forward and tackled Burnout to the ground. Her mind went blank. She heard that cracking sound and she punched as hard as she could. Wanted to kill her, wanted to…wanted to do anything to get her to shut up. To get her to stop. To do anything so that she could prove, she was more than the destiny Breathtaker warned her about.

"Cade?" Caitlin's voice came to Cadence's ears and she blinked, shifting her gaze upwards so that it met Caitlin's in the mirror. Or maybe it was Killer Frost…another perfect mirror image. "What do you think?"

Cadence studied the quick up-do that Caitlin had created in her hair and smiled. "Much better than I could do," she replied then stood up from the seat and brushed down the front of her uniform. "How do I look?"

Brady looked over from his cell phone and said, "Like a toy soldier."

Cadence smiled. "That's just because I'm short."

"You look great," Caitlin said. She reached out and brushed off the shoulders of Cadence's police uniform. "I'd look to you to protect me."

"I already do, nearly every day." Cadence laughed to herself and studied her expression once more. Looking good for a bad occasion? What an oxy-moron. Instead, she took in a deep, calming breath, and picked up her nearby habit. "You ready to go?"

"Ready." Caitlin grabbed her purse from her bedpost and motioned for Brady to get going before they walked out to the living room where a pile of blankets sat bundled on the couch and floor. "Don't worry, I'll clean it up later," Caitlin said, noticing Cadence's gaze to where she and Brady had slept the night before. "I've got a lot of stuff I need to do anyway, just add it to my list."

Cadence's eyes narrowed, she studied Caitlin's face. Funny how Brady's words ran true. Everyone said they were 'fine' when they weren't in fact 'fine'. She'd seen the way Caitlin acted when Ronnie died for the second time, the first time she'd witnessed herself. Caitlin had even been a little bit cold towards her at the beginning, not that it was weird by any stretch of the imagination. Would you trust any metahuman that suddenly popped up in your life?

They were right to immediately throw her into the pipeline, though they didn't know she was betraying them at the time. And yet they all continued to move on as if nothing happened. No, none of them were fine. They lost too many people, had too many things happen, had too many traumas to go through. But at least they were doing it together.

"Caity, just wondering, has anyone ever told you to 'relax'?" Cadence teased.

Caitlin pretended to think about it. "No, I don't think anyone ever has before. But it might be something I need to look into." She looped he arm around Cadence's shoulders and the two girls rested their heads against each other as they left Caitlin's apartment.

* * *

Barry took in a deep breath, watching the caskets move by him. He'd been to enough funerals to know how they worked. Of his mother, of his grandparents, of older relatives he didn't really know, of his pets. But nothing was harder than knowing those that died because of him. His mother died because the Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash hated everything in him. Now there were his colleagues that had gotten in between him and Zoom. They did what they signed up to do, served and protected their city and their lives were cut short.

He counted the caskets that went by. Six. Six of them had had fallen as they were taken down by the Metapocalypse, by Zoom's henchmen. There were still a few that hadn't been taken in, STAR Labs noted. Two named Black Blade and White Hot. They'd came to STAR Labs' attention and disappeared right before the Metapocalypse happened; their power signatures and dark matter particles able to be tracked. Now they were gone. The same with Killer Frost and Burnout. As far as any of them were concerned, Zoom could've taken them back over.

Barry pressed his lips together.

He was trying to justify things now. Trying to come up with answers that were given to him. He hadn't done that in so long. Funny how death and funerals made it so much easier to see what was important, to see everything clearly. Barry's mind was clear, almost empty as he watched the caskets get brought to the front of the memorial service. He stood with the rest of his co-workers, in a line with Captain Singh, Joe, and Cadence, all put together in their dress uniforms complete with white gloves, hats, and police badges marked with a thin line of black tape.

The universal sign of a precinct in mourning.

From where Barry stood, he could see Caitlin, Cisco, Brady, Harrison, Harry, Tess, Maya, Jesse, Wally, Henry, and Ryder amongst the audience of family members and Central City citizens. If he shifted his gaze further he could see Samantha, Conner, Leah, and Alicia nearby as well. Roy stood a few rows behind them his hands clasped together in front of him, barely blinking as he watched the caskets move up the line as well. Something flickered over his face, guilt Barry was sure. Though he wasn't quite sure what Roy had to be guilty about.

Guilt was something Barry was slowly starting to learn how to live with. How many more lives were going to be ruined because of him? Family and friends, none of them were safe and Zoom knew that. There were enough times that proved he didn't care the identities of those under the masks were and had no qualms destroying anyone and everything that had to do with him. What other person than a monster would willingly cause danger to kids as young as seven to adults as old as their seventies. No one was safe and they wouldn't be unless he and Cadence figured out what to do to stop him.

"I have a love hate relationship with these ceremonies as they're a reminder we've lost those in our families," Chief Paulson said from the very front of the service, standing next to a row of portraits of those that had fallen. "There are no words that can fill the hole that our fallen comrades. What it shows is the love that our co-workers had for this city and for their jobs, of which they took very seriously. Whether or not they were the ones that had been here the shortest or the longest they did their best to protect this city and the family that lived in it. Our family will continue to be a strong as it ever was, because of those that gave up their lives. And while this may be a dark day for Central City and the CCPD, we know they'd all want us to be better and to continue to hold tightly onto the bonds that make up the brotherhood of this city."

He took a step back and cleared his throat. "Detail!" Chief Paulson bellowed, his voice echoing along the service area. "Attention! Present arms!"

Barry and the rest of the CCPD immediately snapped their legs together as they were instructed to do, then lifted their gloved right hands up to their temple in a salute to those that had fallen. Waiting until Chief Paulson's signal to lower their hands back to their sides. Barry continued to stare straight ahead, did his best not to look at the face of those on the posters. Pretended he didn't know who any of them were. Knew it was useless.

Most of them were people he'd seen around the CCPD since he was very young, following Joe into the precinct to see what it was officers did for their jobs. Wanting to get as much information as he could to see how to have a career in forensics and how it would aid his mother's case. All of them were older except one; Patty Spivot.

She'd been as eager to help Central City defend themselves against the metahuman army that showed up and died with the same eagerness to defend the city. And it'd been as much his fault as anyone else's. If he hadn't allowed Zoom to get so far ahead of him…

Barry shook his head and closed his eyes.

Pushed down the pain as far as it could go. There were only so many times he'd allow himself to feel the pain before it took him over. He couldn't do it again. Not until Zoom was completely gone. So when the memorial service ended he ran. He waited until he was alone, away from prying eyes of those around him and streaked to STAR Labs, changing out of his uniform and into a pair of running shorts and running shoes.

And he ran. He ran laps around Central City, ran to STAR City and back, Opal City, Keystone, any place he could get to where he was close enough to Central City but simultaneously far enough away. He ran and kept running until his nose bled, until he could no longer keep himself upright. Where he stumbled into the nearest Big Bell Burger he could find covered in sweat and grime and ordered as many burgers and fries as he could before the staff looked at him funny. He made his way through all of the food before finally going back to his house and jumped into the shower.

He stood under the showerhead until the water turned cold, knowing he was running the risk of Joe and Iris getting on his case about it later. The house was old enough that the hot water didn't stay on longer than each of them to get more than a few minutes' worth of a shower. Finally, he worked his way back into casual clothes and went to the Motor Car Diner.

"Ah, finally you show up," Roy said as Barry walked up to the front door.

Barry smiled and turned to him, holding out his hand so that Roy could slap his hand into his. "I thought the Fastest Man Alive was supposed to be everywhere on time." He lifted a hand. "You know Oliver always has something to say about punctuality."

"Oliver has something to say about everything," Barry pointed out. "From sports teams to the perfect weather, he has an opinion." Roy joined in on Barry's hollow laughter. "So, I've been meaning to thank you," he said. "For coming to help us out."

"It was something I needed to do," Roy said stiffly. He pushed up the sleeves of his red sweatshirt, shifting his gaze away. "After what happened in Star City….I can't go back there." Barry nodded. He'd been so frantic to figure out if Oliver were alive after hearing about his death the first time, only to feel relief when he found out that Roy had taken Olive's place to throw off the trail of identity. Thus making it impossible for Roy to go back to Star City.

Barry could tell, must've been some sort of a superhero intuition, that something else had to have gone on. Or else Roy wouldn't be so worried about the things he was leaving behind and whether or not he could go back.

"Let's just say I got into a lot of trouble," Roy said noticing Barry's curious glance.

"Anything you can share?" Barry asked.

"Well, let's just say that I already can't be in STAR City because of me being the 'Green Arrow'," he used air quotes around the words. "But after that I was blackmailed to do something against my friends that as much as they say they forgive me, I can never forgive myself of it."

Barry nodded. He knew that feeling and he knew it well. There was truth to the claim that there was no risk without rewards. And there's something to be said about the pressure of trying to keep up appearances when things were getting harder. "We all have to make hard decisions sometimes."

"It's worse when it's against your friends and you think you have no other choice to make."

Barry stifled a snort. Then he turned and noticed Roy's fingers twitching at his sides and lifted an eyebrow. Roy noticed and shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt, pulling up his hood as he did so, as if trying his hardest to blend in. Though there was little to no risk of him being outed by anyone in Central City.

"Let's just say that one of the side effects of Mirakuru has made it that there have been multiple times I've actually understood how someone could be tempted to want to start smoking."

"Been there, done that, don't ever want to start coughing up a lung again." Barry reached out his hand again. "No matter the case, man, we really appreciate your help. Honestly, I don't know if Cade or Superman or Batman could hold off all of the metas that Zoom was unleashing throughout here."

"No problem, dude." Roy slapped his hand into Barry's and they shook hands once more. "I know Oliver would've done the same if he could help it."

"You're going to come inside?" Barry asked.

Roy shrugged. "In a few more minutes. Like I said, I now understand why people would want a cigarette. Being a hero, a vigilante, it's screwed up my nerves more than I'd like to admit sometimes."

Barry smiled and laughed. He certainly knew the feeling. He headed into the restaurant, finding all of his friends and family piled into neighboring tables, as many crammed around them as they could fit. Iris caught his attention as he moved by the table. "Everything okay, Bare?" She asked. "You left the memorial service really fast."

"I'm okay," Barry said. "Just needed to clear my head a little."

"Really? How far did it take you this time?" Joe asked with a half-smile.

Barry smiled back and glanced at Wally, who sat around as well. "Far enough," he replied.

"Yeah, Barry, man, I'm sorry about what's happened," Wally said from Iris's side. He shifted his gaze back and forth for a moment, obviously uncomfortable. "I didn't know Patty at all, but I've heard she'd done a great job trying to keep the city safe from metas."

"She had her own thought and ideas about them," Barry agreed. "But she'd do anything to help anyone in need." He let out a low laugh. "Actually, she ended up being right about a meta that we didn't think existed either but that was Patty, she always had a way of surprising you." He lifted his chin towards Wally. "Though I heard you were a big help through everything, too. Something about using your car to plow into some metahumans."

Wally slowly started to grin, seeming to not notice the wide-eyed stares Iris and Joe were giving him. Sitting across from him, Jesse smiled. "Yeah. I couldn't just sit back and watch. Something needed to be done and…I don't know, there was something in me that said I had to go out there."

" _You_ went out in the middle of the Metapocalypse?" Iris asked.

Wally shrugged. "Well, yeah."

"Don't you know how dangerous that is?"

"There's a reason The Flash and Flare were out there, Wally," Joe added. "Because they had the abilities to stop these people."

"You were out there, too," Wally pointed out.

Joe lifted an eyebrow. "I'm a _cop,_ Wally. That's the whole point. Did you not notice the memorial service we just went to? These were the people that had the means of to take them down. And they _still_ paid the price with their lives."

Barry grimaced, realizing the tense tone his adoptive father's voice was starting to take. Maybe this was the conversation he shouldn't have started. But he did have to give Wally his props for what he was doing. There weren't many people who didn't have powers and would continue to run out and fight anyone that was harming anyone else. They had a heroic trait in them and that was hard to ignore. He'd had that trait long before becoming The Flash and it would've taken a stampeded of elephants to convince him not to work hard towards what he wanted to do.

"Great, Barry, you want to start another world war with these guys?" Iris asked with a joking smile. Barry's sheepish smile widened.

"I thought he did a great job," Jesse said, coming to Wally's defense.

Wally sat up straight. "You really think so?"

Jesse nodded and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I do. I mean, I probably wouldn't have hit anyone with my car." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Actually, my dad probably wouldn't let me drive, but to go out there and help? I'd do that."

Wally beamed at the praise while Iris grasped Joe's wrist. "Daddy, Wally's here and he's okay. He did a good job, okay?" She nodded towards Wally and folded her arms. "And besides, you already kept me from joining the police academy and I'm doing great as a reporter to…" she immediately cut herself off before she revealed too much. "Help get information out as much as possible and I don't see you trying to stop me."

Now Barry snorted for real. "No one can stop you from doing anything, Iris, you're too stubborn."

Iris beamed. "And that's how my daddy taught me."

"So what makes me so different?" Wally asked, raising an identical eyebrow to Iris.

Joe leaned back in his seat, suddenly wondering how he managed to be the one on the defensive side. His eyes shifted over to Barry and he held up a shaking finger. "I'm going to get you for this, Bare."

Barry held up his hands defensively. "And that's my cue to leave." He quickly walked away from the situation he had just created and went to the table his father was sitting at with Brady and Cadence. Brady was leaning over the table, rapidly pointing things out with Henry's phone as Henry nodded slowly, a pair of glasses perched over his nose.

"So when the screen goes fuzzy, all you have to do is restart your phone," Brady said. "Other than that, you may have to clean the camera lens. But then if you want to do a Facetime, it'd make it easier to see the other person you're talking to and for them to see you."

"Okay, but why would I want to, uh, Facetime someone, when I could just talk to them on the phone?" Henry asked, slowly moving his hovering finger up and down the face of the phone.

"That's just if you want to see them," Brady explained.

"Then why couldn't I just talk to them in person?"

"Because there might be something you want to show them that they're not there for."

"What about taking a picture?"

Brady lowered his forehead to the table while Cadence laughed. She stroked the back of Brady's neck until he pushed her hand away. Henry laughed as well, placing his phone face down on the table. He removed his glasses to hang around his neck before saying, "I didn't mean to frustrate him that badly, just teasing him a little."

"Don't worry about it, he thinks anyone over the age of 15 doesn't understand phones," Cadence said with a light smile, scratching right behind her ear. "But then again, he also thinks being my age is old so…"

Henry laughed. "Trust me, Cadence, you don't understand how 'old' is until you're rotting away in a prison cell year after year." He stretched his arms over his head, as if to remind himself he was no longer in prison. "You forget time so quickly it's like centuries has passed by."

"Well, now you have to worry about dealing with everything out here," Brady said.

Cadence glared at him and Henry held up his hand saying, "It's okay. I know he's not trying to be rude."

"What?" Brady frowned. "What'd I say?"

Barry decided to take that moment to sit across from Cadence at the table, giving his dad a smile. "What'd I miss?" He asked, before eyeing the plates around the tables. "Apart from a big feast, I mean."

"You tell me," Cadence replied, eyeing him carefully.

Barry noticed her look and lifted a hand. "I'm fine."

"You're lying," she quickly retorted, her gaze flicking up and down his face. Sometimes he hated how much she'd worked for the Assassination Bureau with how easily she could read people. Or maybe it was she liked him that much and knew him so well. Either way it had the habit of rearing its ugly head at the worst time.

Henry chuckled. "You've come to figure out when Barry lies that quickly? That's a very good quality to have. There's always something to Barry lying about something whether it's to keep the peace or because he's trying to get something." He rested his chin on his hands. "So tell me, when's the wedding."

Barry rolled his eyes, leaning back in his seat. "Dad," he said in warning.

Cadence's smirked at him before smiling sweetly at Henry. "So, if we're getting to _that_ phase, maybe you can tell me why Barry's nickname is Slugger." Brady looked back and forth between the two sides of the table, his smile widening as the seconds passed.

"He still won't tell you?" Henry asked. Cadence shook her head. "Then I'm still saying you need to wait for him."

Cadence pouted. "Mr. Allen, you've been no help to me." Barry laughed. Cadence pushed her half-full plate of pancake towards Barry. "You want some?"

"No thanks, I already ate," Barry said. Then he squeezed his eyes shut, realizing his mistake. Cadence's eyebrow ticked upwards and she tilted her head to the side. Barry squeezed open an eye and said, "Please don't be mad. I promise I'll tell you later. I just…I needed some time to myself."

"No problem. I understand," she said. She ran a hand through her hair. "We _did_ just get back from a pretty…" she tried not to let sadness wash over her. So many lives lost in one day. So hard to keep up a brave smile and move along. "Hard ceremony."

Hard wasn't quite the word Barry was looking for. Devastating. Overwhelming. Upsetting. The words wouldn't come. Instead, Barry changed the subject, saying, "Speaking of, how're you dealing with Brady's new powers?"

"I don't know," Cadence said with a sigh. "I never thought I'd ever have to say the words, 'no flying in the house'."

Brady shrugged. "It's not like I can help it."

"You've got other powers to deal with now, too?" Henry asked. He let out a low whistle, shaking his head. "And I thought my toughest patients were hard to deal with." He nudged Barry on the shoulder. "Any other powers of yours I need to know about? The ability to steal my credit card info?"

"Oh, you mean this one?" Barry lifted his free hand and in a move that looked like he merely flittered his fingers, a plastic card appeared in his fingertips. Henry gaped at him in disbelief before he started to laugh hysterically. Barry handed the credit card back to his father, only mustering up a good smile.

It was funny, but…

Henry noticed his son's behavior and looked at him curiously. Barry turned away. "It's nothing," he said quickly.

"You're lying," Brady said.

Henry laughed while Cadence gave a small smile. "I've, literally, created a monster." She looked up as Ryder came by the table and smiled widely. "Hey, Ry. Ready to head out?"

"Yep, I'm ready to go," Ryder said. He folded his arms, jingling his keys around his fingers. "I've got to stop by the construction site and get the rest of my stuff before we go. I'm having some trouble figuring out a way to fit an extra bathroom into someone's house because they're _insistent_ on it. And…" he rolled his eyes. "I just want my stuff nearby so I can fix it.

"I understand," Cadence said. She started to say something to Brady but found him pressing his hand to her face as he moved to climb over her. "Ow! Brady, I can't—don't you dare climb over the seat."

Brady hopped down and stood by his father, loosening the tie around his neck. "Ready." As if not noticing how he'd just beaten up his own mother.

"Do you want me to get you some ice?" Ryder asked.

"Not unless you want me to shove it down your pants," Cadence replied. She chuckled. "Just let me know when you're bringing him back."

"No problem." He lifted a hand in a wave. "See you, guys."

"Bye, mom." Brady wrapped his arms around his mother then went to Barry, giving him a hug as well. "Bye, Barry. Bye, Mr. Allen."

"Bye." Henry waved back with a warm smile. He turned his smile to Barry, who eyed him warily. "Just reminds me of when you were that age." He paused then added, "You were worse. You didn't stop moving since you were born. It was so hard to keep up with you." He smiled and wrapped his arm around Barry's shoulder, pulling him into his side. "But I'm glad I have the time now."

Barry smiled back.

Lightning crackled. Henry was yanked out of his seat. Zoom's arm wrapped around his neck. Barry stared at him. Everything moved in slow motion. Zoom and Barry stared at each other before moving at the exact same second. Barry leapt to his feet, stretching his hands out towards Zoom as Zoom turned on his heel and streaked from the diner. Barry raced after him and a few seconds later, Cadence was on her feet and teleported after them, grabbing Roy along the way.

Barry pumped his arms and legs sprinting after Zoom. Faster, faster. He had to catch him. Had to save his father. Had to get him back safely. He couldn't go through his again. Not again. Not again. Had to save. Had to protect. Had to—

Zoom streaked around a street corner and raced into a house all the while Barry running after him. They stopped in the living room. Barry stood over the threshold, running into an invisible brick wall. No. Please no. Not his home. Not his childhood home. Not again. He took a deep breath and forced himself to go inside. He could handle it. He went through the same thing in the Speed Force, but that had been like a dream, now…

Who could handle real life when a cosmic dream was more than enough?

Still, Barry forced himself to cross the threshold and walk towards the living room. Zoom was standing behind Henry, arm wrapped around his neck and cowl pulled down. Barry glared into Zoom's—Hunter's—face, waiting for him to say something. A cold, black darkness crept through Barry's body, weighing him down. His subconscious knew what was going to happen long before the rest of him did.

"It's poetic, returning to your childhood home," Zoom rasped to Barry. The merry light in his eyes made Barry curl his fingers into fists. He was so preoccupied with Zoom, he didn't notice Cadence and Roy appear behind him, Roy with his bow drawn and pointing an arrow directly at Zoom.

 _No._ Barry lifted a hand and stretched it towards Zoom. He stepped forward, foot pressing into a squeaky floorboard. It was the only other sound in the otherwise silent room. Even Henry stood still, watching his son. Barry's eyes shot to his father's. _Don't worry, I'll save you._ "Don't do this," Barry whispered. "I'm begging you. I'm _begging_ you." He thumped a hand against his chest. "Take me. Take me instead." He licked his lips, swallowed hard. Throat as dry as a furnace. "Kill me. Kill _me_!"

"No!" Henry shouted.

"Barry," Cadence said from behind him. She exchanged a glance with Roy, he continued to hold the bow directly at Zoom, fingers slowly starting to tremble from the immense strain of pulling the bowstring tight.

"Look at me," Henry said to Barry. Barry shifted his gaze to his father. Shook his head. There had to be something else. _Anything_ else. But Zoom was as fast as him, faster…Words were the only weapon now. "Look at me, son." Henry sucked in a deep breath through his nose, spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't take your eyes off me."

"Barry," Cadence repeated. This time with more force. The tension in the room immediately rose.

"You still won't believe me that you and I are the same," Zoom growled. "That there isn't anything that separates us from each other. That you think you're better than me."

"Come on." Had he said it out loud? Had he whispered it? Yelled it? Each word sounded like a bomb dropping. Shattering everything in sight. But the walls stood tall around them, waiting for the final nail removal that'd take them down. "Come on, Zoom."

Zoom continued as if he hadn't heard Barry say anything at all. "So I'm going to have to make you believe me."

"No," Barry whimpered. His lower jaw started to tremble. Eyes stung. There had to be something. Anything that could be done. Anything other than what was about to happen. His heart rammed against his throat. He knew what was about to happen. His blood went cold. Every part of him turned to ice.

"Whatever happens," Henry said firmly. "You've made me the happiest father."

"Dad," Barry gasped. His jaw shook fiercely. Body equally turned hot. He felt itchy, wanting to tear off his skin, wanted to tear off Zoom's head just as badly.

"This time." Zoom showed all of his teeth as he grinned. A Cheshire grin that couldn't be contained. "You're going to watch your parent die, just like I did."

"No. NO!" Barry shouted.

"This is what's going to make you just. Like. Me."

Father and son's eyes met.

"Your mother and I love—"

One last time.

"Zoom!"

And just like that, Zoom rammed his hand through Henry's heart. Blood splattered along the walls, across Barry's Cadence's, and Roy's faces, dripped to the floor, stuck to Zoom's finger tips along with tiny shreds of Henry's heart.

" _ **NO!**_ " The pain of Barry's scream ripped through his throat. Tore through his body, causing more damage than a bullet could. He blacked out. He didn't see Cadence and Roy attack at the same time, a fireball straight to Zoom's face and an arrow to the shoulder. He didn't see Zoom's roar of pain as he backed away to stumble into the wall where he frantically tried to rub at his face and pull the arrow form his shoulder.

Barry fell to his knees, cradling his father in his arms. "Dad? Dad?" He frantically ran his hands from his father's head to his shoulders, trying to find the best way to hold Henry to him. "Hey, hey, hey. Look at me." Henry's eyes rolled towards Barry as he gasped for air. Frantically swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing repeatedly. Tried to speak. Blood bubbled at his lips, rolled down his chin, a stark contrast against his pale skin. "Dad, don't leave. Don't leave me. Not again, not again."

Henry's movements came weaker, his hand reaching up to brush Barry's cheek. Missed. Barely got his arm. Barry grasped Cadence's arm and pulled her down to her knees next to him. He was surprised to find tears already falling down her cheeks. "Cade. Cay, please," he said. "Please." He couldn't get the words out.

Heal him. Help him. Anything that could get him back on his feet. Anything that'd take him from being so lifeless, so pale so…

Cadence shook her head.

"Please!"

"Barry, I can't," she finally said. "His heart…"

Barry looked down and saw the truth. "DAD!" Barry shouted at him. "Come on, come on. It's alright. Dad?" Henry stopped responding, stopped moving. And Barry continued to scream the word 'dad' over and over again before he broke, sobbing over his father's lifeless body. He was gone.

"I told you family was a weakness," Zoom murmured, standing above them. Immediately, Barry turned a murderous glare towards him. Zoom let out a surprised laugh. "You feel the anger don't you, Flash? And now, you're just like me."

'NO!" Barry screamed.

He slammed Zoom into the wall and started to punch him over and over. Raced out of the house after him, ran as hard and fast as he could. Ran 'til it felt like his head was exploding, ran till blood poured out of his nose. At one point Zoom ran so fast he split in two, one copy of him going one way, the other splitting off. When Barry caught up with the one copy he grabbed onto Zoom and continued to beat him mercilessly.

"I got you, Zoloman!" Barry growled, throwing him around the alleyway. "I got you!"

Zoom tilted his head back and looked Barry in the eye, allowing Barry to rip off his cowl and look him in the eye. "Use your power, Barry!" He taunted. "End me!"

Barry gasped when Zoom was ripped form his grasp. No, not Zoom. Jay. Jay Garrick. The Jay had had betrayed them. The time remnant. Zoom stood behind him, holding the cowl of Jay's suit back, choking him. "I no longer have a need for you," Zoom said, shoving his fist through Jay's chest before tossing his lifeless body aside. Zoom pulled off his hood and hissed, lips pulled back into a sinister smile. "So close, Barry. So close and yet so far. So I killed my time remnant, but what does that mean for you? You can do it, too. You just have to be ready to kill yourself." His eyes shifted over Barry's. "Yeah, you're almost ready."

Zoom ran past Barry, thrusting him into the dumpster beside him and streaked out of sight, leaving a lightning trail behind him. Barry watched after him, chest heaving until his volcano of emotions erupted. Until he was left was bawling, screaming, crying out for the pain to go away but knowing it never would.

He screamed and cried so hard he didn't notice when it started to rain, didn't notice when Cadence grabbed him and pulled him onto her lap, rocking him back and forth and holding him as she cried, too, didn't notice how much his heart was slowly breaking.

* * *

Barry stood at the window of the West house, staring out as the rain continued to fall. It cleaned everything outside, made things fresh. Why didn't it work for him. He laid on Cadence's lap, crying as long as he could as she ran her fingers through his hair, wondering why the pain wasn't washing away with his tears.

"Hey." Barry looked over his shoulder as Wally inched closer to him, holding out a plate of food. "I, uh, I thought you should eating something." He stood nervously, unsure of himself behind Barry. His gaze repeatedly shot from the plate to Barry's face.

Barry gave the briefest hint of a smile. "I'm not hungry," he whispered. His father had only just died. Body hardly growing cold in the morgue. If his funeral was anything like his mother's, it'd be a nice one. "Thank you, though."

Wally nodded and set the plate aside, resting it on the coffee table beside him. He wiped his hands off on the sides of his slacks. Rubbed the back of his neck. "Barry, um, I had no idea you were the Flash," Wally said. "Or, that Cadence was Flare. And all of the other stuff with the metas…but, all the things you've done for everyone, this whole city, and this with your dad and Zoom…I'm so sorry."

Barry's smile widened a fraction of an inch. "Thanks, Wally."

"If there's anything you need, just say the word," Wally eagerly insisted. "I'm…I'm not sure how much I can help but…just say the word."

"I will." Barry patted him on the shoulder, made sure to let him know how much the gesture really touched him. "Thanks." He side-stepped Wally and walked to the kitchen, where his friends were sitting quietly. Morose over Barry's explanation of what had happened. "Guys, Zoom's still out there," he said. "We need to come up with a plan." He pressed his lips together, doing his best to keep up appearances.

He hated the way Iris was looking at him. The way she really wanted to talk to him. With pity. No, not pit. He knew she really, really wanted to be there for him. But he couldn't handle it right now. He had to put his grief on hold to get at Zoom. To get back at Zoom. To _destroy_ Zoom.

"Bare, maybe you should sit down," Iris said, pulling out the chair next to her. She got up from her seat and grasped Barry's arm, forcing him down into the chair. "Get something to eat. Before we worry about Zoom too much."

"The guy can crack open breaches to other worlds," Cisco pointed out. "I mean, if he can do that, what else can he do?" He rest his cheek in his palm. "What else can we do?"

Iris glared at him. "Not helping, Cisco."

"No, he's right," Barry interrupted. "Right after he killed his time-remnant. After he killed Jay,"—Caitlin closed her eyes, turned away. "He told me I was almost ready."

"For what?" Iris asked.

Barr shrugged. "I don't know."

"Classic psychopath," Cisco murmured. "Why can't they ever say what they're going to do?"

"Because they revel in their chaotic mental disorder that causes violent social behavior," Cadence rattled off, picking at her nails. "Being able to put the other person through psychological damage all the while having what they considering a normal brain and a higher power of bidding is what they find pleasurable."

 _My dad's gone._ The thought streaked through Barry's head before he could stop it. It hit too close to home. "I need to get some air." He walked out onto the front porch and placed his face in his hands. A few moments later he heard the door open and close before warmth covered his right side. He didn't need to look to know who it was. "When I was in the Speed Force, I felt like I had finally come to grips with her death," he said. "That I didn't save her. That I couldn't bring her back. But then at the place I felt like I could move on, my father's taken from me. How am I ever supposed to find peace with that?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to figure that out myself," Cadence said. She leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his head. "But we'll have to figure out how to do it or it'll tear us apart."

"I just miss him so much already."

"I know the feeling." Cadence grasped his wrist. "I want to show you something," Without giving Barry the chance to answer she teleported them. Cadence dropped Barry's hand and he looked at her before looking around. Vertigo struck him almost instantly. They were up high, very high. Barry could see lights of Central City as far as the eye could see from the top of the building they were on. He looked towards Cadence for an explanation.

"You know how you go running to clear your head?" She asked. "To give you the sense that nothing can touch you? Where you feel…electrified?" Barry nodded. Running was the best kind of therapy he'd ever had and he wouldn't trade it for anyone else. "My dance classes can do it, practicing my cheers and gymnastics, but…I _really_ like coming up here. It's the highest building in Central City and I feel like I'm in control because I can see everything. I come here whenever I need to feel some sense of control of things. It _really_ helps clear my head. I wanted to share that with you."

"Thanks," Barry muttered.

He understood the gesture, he really did. It just wasn't the right time for it. Not when Zoom was still out there.

Blue lightning streaked by below.

"Zoom," Barry whispered, seeing it. He tensed his muscles, ready to go. Cadence tightened his hand in a crushing grip he knew would be difficult to shake. "Cade."

"No," Cadence said firmly.

Barry turned to her with wide, pleading eyes. "Cade, I have to go."

"NO!" Cadence shouted. "Don't you get it! This is what he wants you to do! He's taunting you, trying to—"

"It _doesn't matter_ what he's trying to do," Barry spat. "I need to catch up to him. I need to stop him. I _need_ …I need to kill him."

"Do you know what that'll do after you do it?" Cadence shot back, still yelling. She violently pointed towards the ground, hundreds of feet blow. "Do you think your heart and soul can take it? Can take watching the life being taken from someone else? Watching the life being drained from their eyes? The moment you do it once you can't go back. You may be able to go back in time but you'll still remember it."

Barry took a step towards her, pushed her hand away. "You're the one who keeps saying that we have to kill people sometimes—"

"Because I know I can handle it!" Cadence hollered. "I can handle it because Breathtaker did something to me. I didn't used to be like this, when I got my powers I was a stupid little eight year old who obsessed over dresses, cheering, and soccer but could produce a flame whenever I wanted. I didn't wnt to kill anyone. But Breathtaker also taught me how to deal. _You_ can't! You're emotional and you care. And I love that about you. But now all of a sudden you want to? You've been telling me time and time again that killing isn't the answer, no matter how anyone else wanted to take down whomever caused them harm, you think rehabilitation is the best way to go. I've never believed that, but you did.

"I understand you want to kill Zoom and I'll support whatever decision you make. I just want you to be aware that the moment you cross that line, there is no coming back from it. It'll haunt your mind every day and you will do nothing but wonder if you can overcome it." Cadence stepped towards Barry and grasped his face. "I don't know if I ever can, no matter how much you and the others support me. But I know you have faith that I can. Zoom is trying to get into your head. Don't give him that satisfaction, Barry."

Barry reached up and pried her hands off his face, held them in his own grasp, eyes searched hers. "Cay," he said. "I have to." And with that he dropped her hands and backed away. The moment his back was to her Cadence rolled her neck on her shoulders and took in a shuddering breath.

"Don't make me stop you," she said.

With that, Barry lifted his head and looked at her. The two stared each other down before Barry took a step forward. He streaked across the rooftop, fist poised to punch her. Cadence bent out of the way and grabbed his fist at the last second of him coming close enough to punch her.

Their hands shook, each using their strength to hold each other still. Cadence had the means of taking him down in seconds, from burning his hand, to filling his lungs with enough smoke to make him pass out and not cause too much damage, to teleporting them away while Barry could release his grasp on her and sprint faster than she could stop him.

Lightning streaked beside them and Zoom came into view. He looked back and forth between the metahumans before asking almost conversationally, "Bad time, Flash? Thought I'd give you some time to mourn. But I don't know if you've noticed, there's always more to take."

Immediately, Barry knew his entire livelihood had been threatened. "You're going to stay away from them," Barry hissed. He kept his eyes on Cadence though he spoke to Zoom.

"That's completely up to you," Zoom said. He sounded bored.

"What?" Barry hissed.

"When we first met, I told you that Zoom needed to be the best. You didn't realize I was talking about myself. I need to be the best. I need to be the fastest."

"That's what this is about?" Cadence demanded, barely able to conceal her disgust. She kept her eyes on Barry. "A race?"

"Yes. A race. I've gotten my revenge on those that have wronged me, I've taken down every Flash except you. You've beaten the odds and came back. It looks like you're becoming better than me, faster." Zoom's hands curled into fists. "But I can't have that. So I need that race. Between you and me. To see who's the fastest. "

Barry shook his head. "I'm not racing you."

"Then your father won't be the only one you love that I'll take away from you. Think about it, Flash. All I want to know is who's the fastest man alive. On either world. I'll be waiting."

And with that, he was gone again.

Everything was silent.

Still.

And Barry, with his face still close to Cadence's, the couple still glaring at each other, stood still. They continued to hold each other in their fighting position, struggling to hold the other at bay, neither willing to let go in fear of what would happen next.

* * *

"He wants to race you?" Cisco blurted as soon as everything was explained to them later that night in STAR Labs. His eyes widened in surprise and confusion. "A race? Like, a race? A playground race?"

"That's what he said," Barry said, lowering his hand from his mouth. The words swirled around his head, continued to beat him down to submission. He was exhausted. "He just wants to be the best. The fastest."

Cadence shook her head. She ran her hands through her hair. This stuff with Zoom. There wasn't anything else they could do. It seemed like a race was the only thing they could do. What else could they do against a Speedster that knew what they were going to do before they did it? Trying to get ahead of him wasn't working out, what other choice did they have?

"He just wants to race," Cisco repeated. An incredulous laugh escaped his lips and he threw his hands into the air. "That makes sense in a very strange sort of way."

"But it can't be everything he wants," Joe said, shaking his head. "Definitely not. I've come face to face with some of the worst of the worst criminals and their motives are never 100% clear."

"That's because it's not," Harry said. His eyes narrowed behind his black rimmed glasses, staring at the monitor in front of him. "There's this Magnetar is being developed by Mercury Labs. It can act as a pulsar. That's what he wants"

"A what?" Cadence asked.

"A power multiplier with a highly dense core that can easily weaponized."

"That's not dangerous at all," Iris murmured. She briefly closed her eyes. "Why can't people want something as normal as just taking over the world? Why can't they it just be that easy?"

"If it gets the right power source it could destroy Barry," Harrison said. Tess stood beside him, chewing her lower lip. "Enough so that it could siphon all of his speed form him. The Speed Force, too, so Barry couldn't get his powers back. Ever."

"When Zoom had me, he said he used to measure his success by counting the number of victims he had, but now the number of Earths," Barry said.

"He wants to destroy the multiverse? Every Earth?" Jesse's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "is that even possible?"

"How many of them are there?" Cadence asked.

"Infinite," Harry said.

"Can he do that?" Catlin asked. It was the first time she'd spoken since Barry and Cadence had raced to get everyone together at STAR Labs to let everyone know what was going on. She'd been quiet ever since hearing about Henry's murder. Almost as if she couldn't quite face the truth of everything that was going on.

"If he can create a breach to Earth-2, he can get to all of them," Harrison pointed out. He stretched his hands up to rest atop his head, suddenly looking very tired. "Able to get the pulse to destroy all of them. It's very brilliant, honestly.

"Then I have no choice. I have to race him. And I have to win." Without waiting for an answer. Barry raced into his suit and won to the pipeline for some time to himself, time to psyche himself up. It didn't take long for Joe to come after him. "I know what you're going to say—"

"Then you won't go," Joe said. Simple as that. No bait, no means to win.

Barry shook his head, keeping his gaze away from Joe's afraid he wouldn't be able to keep going if he looked at the only father he had left. "I can't do that."

"Yes, you can." Joe stepped towards him, keeping his voice as calm as possible. "You just say 'no' and we'll figure out something else to do."

Finally, Barry whirled around, eyes flashing angrily. "And let him kill someone else? Someone we care about? Iris, Wally, Cade, Brady, Ryder, Harrison, Tess, Caitlin, Cisco—" he cut himself off. "Who? Who are you willing to sacrifice for this?"

"Not you," Joe insisted.

"It _has_ to be me."

"He _needs_ you, Bare. He needs your speed to get what he wants. We have the advantage."

"All I have to do is beat him. That saves the multiverse, this city, all of you. I won't let another person I love die when I can prevent."

Joe blinked as he stared at Barry. Looked at the man he'd helped raise for the majority of his life. He didn't recognize Barry at all. "This isn't just about racing Zoom. You want to kill him."

Barry tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Of course I want to kill him. I want to do a hell of a lot more than kill him." His lips pulled back to a snarl. "I want him to _suffer_ , Joe. I get it. I get it now. I get why Cade is always saying killing is the best option to go about these things. It's the best option I have. I have to make him suffer."

"Come on, Bare, listen to what you're saying," Joe said. He took another step closer to him. "Think about it."

"I have to be willing to do whatever it takes. I'm sorry; but I'm racing him whether you want me to or not."

"And there's nothing I can say to stop you?" Joe asked.

"Not this time, Joe." Barry shook his head.

"Then I'm sorry, too," Joe said.

Barry gasped as he was struck in the back with something. He whipped around and saw it. A dart stuck out his shoulder. He looked at Joe, Harry stood behind him holding onto what looked like a rifle. The same gun he'd arrived on Earth-1 with. The ground slanted and everything went black. When Barry woke up, he immediately recognized his surroundings, finding himself in the pipeline. Entraped in a pod.

"No," he whispered. Barry pushed himself to his knees and scrambled to his feet. The fuzzy faces outside the pod came into focus for him. His friends and family stood before him, staring. And arguing.

"Take him out!" Cadence was snapping.

"Sweetie, we can't do that," Tess said gently, though it was obvious from the expression on her face she was just as frustrated.

"What are you doing?" Barry demanded, finding his voice. He slammed his fist against the glass of the pipe. It was no use, his hand bounced back off as if it were rubber. He knew how strong the pods were, knew he wouldn't get out of it. "Why did you put me in here?"

"Because you're too angry right now," Harry explained, gruff voice grating to Barry's ears. "You can't race him like that. Without a plan, you will lose."

"Keeping me in here will get everyone killed," Barry said. He could hear the desperation in his voice, pressed his palms against the glass, willed it to fall. He desperately tried to phase out from his prison but knew it to be no use. Meta-dampeners were a very real thing. He shook his head. "This is not your decision to make."

"It is this time," Joe said.

"We all made it together," Iris agreed.

"What?" Barry whispered. His eyes flickered over his friend's faces. " _All_ of you?"

Cisco cleared his throat and started to look at the ground. "Bro, I went back and forth." He started to twist his toe into the ground. "Well, I was 60-40 at most and—"

"—Ramon," Harry interrupted.

Cisco lowered his head and scratched behind his ear. "Yeah, yeah, we all made the decision."

"Oh come on," Barry whispered. He turned his back on his friends. No. No way this was happening. His friends had all betrayed him. All because Zoom had killed his father. And now they weren't going to help him. It was all he needed to know. He was alone and it was all he needed to know.

"This is for your own good, Allen."

"Bullshit," Cadence snapped. "None of this is for his own good. You think not letting him do what he wants is what's good? He's terrified. And you're not letting him decide what he wants to do to grieve! The more he keeps all of this bottled up the more catastrophic it's going to be. I know, my powers and my anger…they've been linked for a long time. The longer I keep it in, the worse things get. Don't do that to him."

"We have to," Joe said.

"Guys, don't do this," Barry whimpered, finally turning back around. He felt his heart leap into his throat, noticing how close Joe got to the panel that opened and closed the pipeline pods. "Guys, please. Let me out. You have to let—" the pod started to close. In desperation, Barry screamed out. "YOU HAVE TO LET ME STOP HIM! PLEASE!"

The pod slid shut.

Joe stared at the closed pod.

"You okay, Joe?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah, just a little harder than I thought it would be," Joe murmured.

* * *

How long had been in the pod?

Minutes?

Hours?

Days?

Time was irrelevant as a speedster, but to be stuck in the pipeline pod with nothing to show any point of a passage of time was torture. It was unethical. It was...what he and the rest of the team did to the other metas they hunted down. So many times the said they were trying to rehabilitate the metahumans they caught but when had they actually done it? Were they better or worse than those that were trying to get rid of metahumans all together? Were they better or worse than Chief Paulson?

Rhythmic tapping filled his pod, Barry's foot rapidly tapping up and down. His jaw clenched so tightly he was sure it would never become unhinged again. It sent a throbbing pain through his head. He'd been betrayed. Not just by those he had been a team with since the very beginning. But from his friends and family. From the people he loved dearly. They saw him as a flight risk, saw him as nothing more than a rampaging machine that would do nothing but destroy. How wrong were they? How right? His life was getting better. His father was back. He'd made peace with his mother's death. He was getting to the point where he could truly _live_ again and for what? To turn around and have it all ripped away from him.

 _Your mother and I love-_

 _Your mother and I love-_

 _Your mother and I love-_

No! Barry slapped his hands over his ears, willed his father's voice out of his head. He hadn't been able to finish. Would things be different if his father had been able to finish his sentence? The declaration of love, that his parents were proud of him? Or would the anger and pain still cover him like a thick paint weighing him down. The paint he'd never be able to adequately wash off. It would follow him for the rest of his life, leaving footprints only he could see. That same, thick paint dripped over his heart, turning it inky black as he thought of how he would stop Zoom.

And he _would_ stop Zoom, even if he had to do it himself.

Barry's head jerked to the side when he heard footsteps coming closer to his pod. And a tiny whisper of. "Barry?" It was Brady's voice. "Barry?"

"I think it's this one." That was Wally's voice.

Barry's heard soared as he stood up. He leaned forward, pressing his hands against the glass, mentally willed them to find him. The relief nearly knocked him over when he heard the door start to slide open, revealing Wally and Brady standing in front of him. Brady's eyes immediately lit up!" Barry!" He raced over and wrapped his arms around Barry's waist once the pod was open.

Gratefully, Barry returned the hug before noticing the expression on Wally's face. "What's going on? What's wrong? Zoom? The others?" Wally ran a hand over his mouth, shook his head. "Wally! Tell...tell me. What's going on?"

Finally, Wally said. "It's Joe. He's...Zoom has him. They others...they went to take down Zoom, they made a pact that the breaches wouldn't be opened once he was gone. He...I don't know..." Wally ran his wrist over his forehead, voice breaking. He cleared his throat, voice becoming stronger as he said. "I know what's happened to your dad, I'm so sorry but...please...don't let this happen to Joe, too."

"They need you, Barry," Brady added.

Barry nodded. This wasn't going to happen again. No. Not again. He was done with Zoom, tired of him. But first, he needed to know what happened and why and why he was being punished. He needed answers. Barry grasped Wally's and Brady's shoulders and raced them to the middle of the Cortex.

Barry turned to his friends in disbelief while they looked back at him with varying degrees of guilt. "You let him take Joe?" He demanded. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Allen," Harry said gruffly. "There was nothing we could do."

"You could've let me race him," Barry spat.

"You're _not_ racing him," Harry spat back.

"What are you going to do?" Sarcasm dripped from Barry's voice. "Tranq me again?'

"Don't tempt him," Jesse warned.

Cisco stepped towards his best friend, taking in a deep breath to steady himself before saying, "Barry, look at yourself, man. You're not right."

Barry's teeth clenched together. "Cisco, my dad was just killed in front of me," he all but roared. Cisco lowered his head, taking a step back. "Do you have any idea how that feels?"

"Watching someone you love, die?" Caitlin demanded, moving in front of Cisco to defend him. "Yes, I do! Look, Barry, I know how cold and angry and distant that can make you. But you were the one who kept me in check. Taught me to stop and take a breath and that's all we're trying to get you to do."

"That's easy for you say!" Cadence spat. "YOU GOT TO SAY GOODBYE!" She hollered at the top of her lungs, throwing her hands into the air. Finally, _finally_ she was getting out the _one_ thing she'd wanted to say since her father died. This was the one that had been bottled up inside her as long as she could handle it. "Your dad was dying for years, but the day he died you were there to be able to say goodbye! I didn't get that, Barry didn't get that1 And guess what? It fucking sucks! You have no choice over that at all! You want to know how much it hurts? It's watching one of the few people who really knew and cared about our life for reasons we don't understand when you can't do anything to stop it even with your powers. With the Reverse-Flash we got that? The man is fucking psycho! He came back from fucking 2052 just to kill someone to get back at a man he hated. Zoom really had no reason to do it this time! He couldn't just literally ripped Barry's heart out! And now you're trying to tell him that he shouldn't go after Zoom?"

"Because all he wants is revenge," Harrison yelled, making his daughter take a step back. It was funny how similarly their vocal patterns mimicked each other when they were angry. That along with the way they ran their thumbs along their fingers absentmindedly were strong indicators of their relation. "If that's the reason why, he will lose."

"What else is there? Why would anyone else want to stop him?" Barry demanded. "Right now, in this exact moment, you can't think that you wouldn't want to stop Zoom to keep people safe and to get back at him for all of the fear and pain he's caused not just to me, but to this city! We're running out of time. I have to beat him and I'm going to. Whether I have your help or not. You can't stop me."

Cisco ran his hands through his hair before groaning. "Alright, okay. What do you want us to do?"

Barry drew himself up to his full height. "Give Zoom a message."

* * *

Team Flash's footsteps crunched over the gravel as they walked towards the meeting place they worked out with Zoom. Anticipation crackled through the air as they waited, trying to figure out how things were going to work out. Was their plan going to work or would it fall by the wayside? Would they succeed or all die through Zoom's wrath. No one said anything the entire way to the location.

But once they arrived, Brady asked, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"It has to," Cadence replied.

But her knees shook and her hands filed with sweat and her stomach turned with nerves she hadn't felt in her entire life. This was life or death for not just their Earth but multiple Earths. If everything they've done, get the information they needed from Earth-2 Barry and Burnout, getting all of their information that they already knew about Zoom and what he planned on. It had to work.

 _Had_ to.

Brady nodded, glancing up at the Magnetar behind them. He gasped and took a step behind Barry and his mother when there was a whooshing sound and Zoom appeared with Joe at his side. "Well, this'll be a hell of a show," Zoom remarked.

"Let him go, Zoom," Barry said, taking a step forward.

"After we race," Zoom shot back as if talking about the wind blowing. "After I take over the Multiverse and destroy every other Earth with the transdimensional shockwave. Need to make sure no one else can take me down. But, of course, once I'm done with you, Barry, there's no one else." He raced to the Magnetar with Joe in tow.

Barry shook his head, turned back to his friends, face etched in stone. "Don't worry, I'm going to save him." He looked over them, took in a deep breath, knowing it may be the last time he got the chance to say this. "Get back to STAR Labs, It's safer."

"No," Cisco said. "You've got eyes and ears right here."

"Either he goes, or we all die together," Caitlin agreed.

"We believe in you," Harry said.

Cadence took a deep breath and squeezed Barry's hand before turning to Brady and leaned over him, pressing her forehead to his. "Kick his ass, mom," Brady said to her.

"You got it," Cadence replied.

"I know you can do this, Cade," Ryder agreed. He gave her a tight hug. "But come back, okay? I'm going to need help raising our son."

"Don't worry, dad," Brady said to him. Ryder leaned back and looked down at his son in surprise. "Mom can do it." Ryder and Cadence exchanged surprised glances before Cadence nodded mutely and turned away. If there was any other time…

Barry went to each of the members of Team Flash and gave them tight hugs. Then he came to Cisco and Caitlin and looked them both in the eye then looked at Cadence. She returned his gaze before looking to Cisco and Caitlin as well. At the same time, the four stepped forward into a group hug, holding each other tightly, shaking. There was no need for words, apologies and well wishes flowed through the four as they hugged, their grasp squeezing tighter and tighter, afraid to let go. Afraid of what would happen.

Finally, Barry's hands slid away and he raced to face Zoom.

"What are the rules?" He asked.

"One lap inside of this loop will produce 1 gigawatt of energy and I need 500+ to do the job. Once it's full, I win." His eyes roved, almost lovingly over the Magnetar. "There's just no stopping it."

Barry followed Zoom's gaze. "So all I have to do to beat you is to stop that from happening."

"Right." Zoom shrugged. "But if you decide that you want to stop racing before it's done, then father number 2 will die. And so will your fan club."

"They're not my fan club," Barry replied with a proud smile. "They're my family. They're the reason I'm running. Why I'm going to beat you."

Zoom snorted. "Let's see what you're made of, Flash." The two got into position and lowered themselves down into a crouch. "Run, Barry, run." And with that they streaked into the Magnetar, going in circles faster than their friends could see.

And Cadence waited. Waited for her cue, waited for that moment she would go in to help Barry stop Zoom once and for all. Along with her friends and family, her head shifted back and forth, watching the lightning streaks zip all around the Magnetar, the circular tube over and over twenty times within seconds.

And still, she waited.

For the right moment.

Barry raced after Zoom, pushing himself to the limit. Every time he came close, he'd knock Zoom in the side, hoping to jostling him off balance. But Zoom would recover and continue going. Around and around they went, zig-zagging across the surface of the Magnetar as it went, powering up the core as they went along. White lightning struck from the energy they created, slowly beaming up into the sky.

"Come on Barry," Cisco whispered. "Catch up."

The beam continued to streak into the sky, causing a red electrical storm to appear.

And still Barry continued to run. Fast, fast, fast, fast, faster and faster. Until his entire body vibrated, vibrated until it felt like he was splitting in two. There was a jolt of light and he found himself looking at a split version of himself. One went down to release Joe from his restraints, taking him out to his family and friends who waited nearby.

"Barry?" Joe's eyes widened, twisting to look at the sphere above him. "What? I don't—"

"I'll explain later," Barry interrupted.

Zoom, noticing what happened, growled and turned to the other Barry, tackling him out of the Magnetar and to the ground. "A time remnant," he hissed, shaking with fury. "You stole my trick. But you're too late."

A white lightning bolt streaked upwards and illuminated the sky.

Time-Remnant Barry continued to run around the Magnetar while Barry flipped to his feet and started to attack Zoom with everything he had. All the while Time-Remnant Barry continued to sprint as fast as he could go.

"What's he doing?" Brady asked.

"He's creating his own pulse," Cisco realized.

"Why would he do that?" Jesse asked.

"It'll counteract the pulse of the magnetar," Harry said.

"But his body can't handle it," Tess insisted.

"What's going to happen to him?" Brady asked.

"He'll die," Harrison said.

As the words escaped his lips, the Time-Remnant Barry slowly started to deteriorate in front of them, breaking apart into particles of dust as the lightning energy he created shot up into the sky along with the original pulse. Once it reached the electrical field that opened there was a pulse of energy that rained down around them. The pulse swirled through the industrial park, threatening everyone to pitch over, though Jesse and Wally were the only ones who fell.

Then the pulse blinked out.

"No!" Zoom shouted before grasping Barry around the head. He ran the two around, flinging Barry like a ragdoll. Barry broke free and immediately took the offensive back against Zoom.

Finally, Barry pinned Zoom to the ground, holding a vibrating hand over him. He glared down into Zoom's face. Zoom smirked back at him. "You're a hero, Barry," he taunted. "If you couldn't kill me before, you won't kill me now."

Barry smirked back. "I don't have to." He looked over. "Now, Cade!"

Cadence nodded back and ran a few steps before teleporting. Zoom looked up as Cadence teleported over him. Zoom knocked Barry off him and flipped to his feet, started to attack Cadence. Cadence flipped and twisted around Zoom, blocking the punches and grabs he tried to hit her with. But Zoom was still fast enough to grab Cadence by the arm and throw her towards the Magnetar. She fell hard to the ground and flipped back to her feet, just in time for Zoom to get a hold of her.

He'd taken down Barry and now could take down Cadence as well. And he gave her the toughest thrashing of her life. Back and forth, across the industrial area, Zoom threw, punched, kicked, throttled, maimed, and attacked Cadence while she fought back as shard as she could. Every time she was knocked down she continued to get back up, but slower and slower each time.

"Ugh!" Cadence felt her back crack as she smacked against the Magnetar when he threw her again. She fell to the ground and spat blood out of her mouth. Her face burned, body ached, and her arms quivered as she tried to bring herself back to her feet.

"She's not healing," Ryder muttered from where he watched. "Why isn't he healing?"

"She's exhausted," Tess remarked. "Without the energy to heal…"

Cadence stood up, swaying so much the threat of a gust of wind could knock her over. And even with one eye swollen shut, a gash across her forehead, a bruised jaw, bruised and broken ribs, and scratches all up her arms Cadence stood, waiting for Zoom. "What's the matter?" She rasped. "Burned out?"

Zoom's eyes widened behind his mask. He made a show of cracking his knuckles before racing towards her once more. A smirk pulled across Cadence's lips and everything ran through her heard. Everything she saw through Cadence through their mind-meld, everything Zoom didn't know they knew about him.

 _Cadence had never been so angry. But there was nothing that could be done when someone was outvoted. King Shark had been hard to deal with on her own, but she had done it. Burnout was a tough opponent but she'd done that. Zoom was the anomaly. He could move faster than she could, though she still felt she was stronger. She'd watched Zoom long enough to know he didn't have a natural form to the way he fought. He relied heavily on his speed and nothing but his speed. It would be his downfall but only when the time came._

 _Brute strength may not do it, she'd have to be a little more creative. Without Barry by her side she'd have to deal with Zoom herself, figure out his weakness. If only he had one. His reliability on Velocity-9 was probably it, but considering he had Barry's speed within him as well._

 _Zoom looked at Cadence curiously as she walked into the industrial area of Central City._

 _Strange, Cadence thought, coming to a stop in front of him. He didn't seem surprised to see her at all. Zoom only took his gaze away from the Magnetar for only half a second._

 _"You know, I wonder how long it'd take for you to show," Zoom said. He flipped a wrench in his hand, caught it after one rotation. "You must really love Barry. Not that it matters much, love doesn't make the world go round and love doesn't make things better for anyone. It's a pipe dream that they force feed you to make sure it's all you care about while simultaneously making you feel like shit." Zoom turned back to the Magnetar, spinning a bolt on the machine. "But I'm sure you've already known that. How long did you live on the streets over here?"_

 _"Low blows don't do much for me," Cadence replied. "And I don't need Barry. I can stop you myself."_

 _Zoom lifted his eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?" He tilted his head towards the shadows, where Cadence hadn't been paying attention._

 _Now that she looked, she saw Earth-2 Barry and gasped. He looked emaciated, that he hadn't eaten in days. His glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, hair overgrown into his face, and holding a screwdriver as he worked diligently to combine the beams in front of him. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to him, would we? I'm sure you've understood what happens with a mind-meld. Anything happens to you…"_

 _"I've fought Burnout without any problems," Cadence said._

 _Zoom's eyebrows rose. "Are you sure? You and Burnout have been pretty handsy lately. The more you touch…the more you feel and understand."_

 _"Zoom—"_

 _"—Jay!" Caitlin's voice echoed around them._

 _Cadence's shoulders moved up to her ears, immediately tense. Zoom exchanged a glance with her and Cadence held out her hand. "You're problem's with me."_

 _"Jay." Caitlin's voice grew closer before she was standing at the doorway of the hangar. "Jay!"_

 _"Cait, get out of here," Cadence said through gritted teeth._

 _"How did you know I was here?" Zoom demanded._

 _"Dr. McGree said the Magnetar was stolen from her labs," Caitlin explained, stepping further into the hangar. "So I tracked you here. I tracked you here. Cade didn't know I was coming. Jay, I need to explain something to you." She sucked in a deep breath, wrung her hands together. "I made a mistake. I'm so sorry that I abandoned you. But you have to understand that what you said, that there was a dark side of me, that I was like Killer Frost, I didn't want to accept that. But you knew that was already a part of me and you're the only one who did. And now I'm ready to accept who I really am. Now that I've seen Killer Frost up close." Caitlin shook her head. "I'm so sorry that I hurt you. But now I want to be there for you. Please, Jay. Let me try."_

 _"I knew you'd eventually come around, Caitlin," Jay said, walking to her. He tilted his head. "But it's too late."_

 _He moved to punched her, but a BOOT— the meta weapon Cisco hadn't used since they fought Atom Smasher—came out of nowhere and caught Zoom across the neck. Then a portal opened as Cisco shot a breach out behind him. Then Harry rolled out from his hiding spot and blasted Zoom in the front with an energy blast before shouting, "Tranq him!" as he ran for cover._

 _"The gun is jammed!" Joe shouted back. He ran into the fray, sticking Eobard in the shoulders with tranquilizer darts. Only seconds before the breach sucked Zoom and Joe into it._

 _"NO!" Harry shouted. He ran towards the spot Zoom and Joe had just been standing. Cadence quickly teleported everyone out of the way, grabbing Harry last._

 _They arrived in the Cortex where Cadence reached out and gently pushed Earth-2 Barry into a chair. "Are you okay?" She asked him._

 _"I will be," he replied, pushing his glasses up his nose._

 _"Looks like our plan worked," Iris said._

 _"You know, other than the whole Joe getting sucked into Earth-2 thing," Cisco said. At Brady's cry of 'what', Cisco cringed and looked around to see Maya, Ryder, Brady, and Wally heading into the Cortex. Brady frowned as he looked at his friends and teammates. "Joe's gone?"_

 _"He got sucked through a breach and sent to Earth-2 when we were trying to go after Zoom," Iris explained._

 _"Wait you tried to stop Zoom alone?" Wally asked._

 _"Long story," Harry said dismissively._

 _"Long story short, we needed to go to Zoom to get Earth-2 Barry,"—Harrison motioned to Earth-2 Barry who waved weakly to Maya, Ryder, Brady, and Wally who all looked baffled and confused.—"back here to make sure we had everything we need to stay ahead of Zoom. Joe being sucked into the breach was not what we intended it was a terrible side-effect."_

 _Wally ran a hand over his face then said with the simplest of shrugs, "We have to get him back."_

 _"Wally," Iris said slowly. "We all decided that when we got Zoom over there we'd close the breaches for good."_

 _"We didn't all agree on it," Cadence interrupted, lifting a hand over head._

 _Iris ignored her. "And we'd never open them again under any circumstances."_

 _"Why would you do that?" Wally asked, staring wide-eyed at her. Finally, he closed his mouth and shook his head. "No. No way, that's not going to happen."_

 _"He made us agree to it—"_

 _"I didn't!"_

 _"Wally."_

 _"Iris, I'm losing my mom and I already lost Joe once before. But if I lose him again…" he shook his head and left the Cortex._

Then Barry had been brought back to the Cortex and was filled in on everything. They set up the plan and knew it was the best course of action to take donw Zoom. They had done it all together. And Zoom didn't know it was coming.

 _"What's the plan?" Barry asked as soon as he broadcasted the message to Zoom on Earth-2 through Cisco's vibe._

 _"Right now, the plan is to wait to attack Zoom and stop him," Caitlin said. Then she nodded to Earth-2 Barry. "But you'll need to get caught up on everything that's been happening."_

 _"Right." Barry turned to Earth-2 Barry and held out his hand. Earth-2 Barry grasped it and the two Barry's gathered information from each other. Earth-2 Barry took a step back, feeling a tear slide down his cheek when he gathered all of the information. While Barry's eyes widened with the information he received._

 _Zoom had kidnapped and held Earth-2 Barry longer than any of them thought, using him to figure out the best way to destroy all of their Earths. Using Earth-1 Barry's vast knowledge to his aid. It was then Cadence explained what had happened during her last fight with Burnout and the information she retrieved from her during their mind-meld. Enough to know what was the best way to take down Zoom._

 _The second Barry heard the plan he smiled and nodded._

 _It would be over, soon._

Cadence started to chuckle to herself. Gallows humor. How poignant. Her life had come full circle since working at the hospital and now she still managed to find a way to work some things she learned into stopping an evil Speedster. How funny. How ludicrous. How perfect. Zoom surged forward and grasped Cadence by the neck, lifting her off the ground. Her head lolled forward, forcing her to look him in the eye. Zoom's green eyes burned into hers.

"You will never stop me," he taunted. "You're just my plaything until I get tired of you. My face will be the last you see in death. A death I'll make painful and slow."

"Funny," Cadence rasped. "I was going to say the same to you." Cadence brought her hand back and shoved the last of the Velocity-9 vials into Zoom's neck. The moment her thumb pushed down the plunger, Zoom's eyes turned to beady black marbles, lightning shooting over his body. Zoom rocketed around in a circle, he grabbed Barry by the shoulders and rapid-fire punched him in the face before throwing him down.

Zoom looked down at his hands as the lightning trickled over them. Nothing was ever going to be faster than him again. He could finish off the Magnetar himself. Zoom glanced at Barry, who continued to cough quietly on the ground, hands resting on his stomach. Then he looked at Cadence. The moment their eyes met, hers flickered with a fiery intensity that hadn't been seen from her before.

The intensity of wanting to, finally, finish what had been started the year before.

Flames started to flicker, licking at her heels before twisting and turning their way up her body. Higher and higher, faster and faster until they engulfed her. Her eyes glowed a lizard-like orange, turning into slits as the fire continued to engulf her. No, until she was completely made of flame. The features of Cadence's face, her hair, her body melted away and turned into solid flames that covered her form. Growing brighter and brighter as the seconds passed. Cadence slowly started walking towards Zoom. Everything she passed, the metal beams of scaffoldings standing nearby, electrical wires above, all melted into puddles. The ground melted under her feet, leaving footprints of molten rock behind her.

And with a mighty scream of effort, taking all of the energy left in her body, Cadence held out her hands and flung a giant pyre of fire at Zoom. The moment it came towards him, Zoom started to scream, knowing his doom had just erupted in front of him.

He turned to run, the Velocity-9 pushing him harder and faster than he ever had, but the fire caught up with him. Fire and electricity. Lightning. Thunder. His feet propelled him faster, faster, faster, feet no longer touching the ground. No longer having feet, he slowly started to decompose into dust, drifting away as Trajectory hard done. Snarling, he turned back towards Cadence, who had then caught up with him, and tried to punch her. Cadence lifted her hand and caught Zoom's wrist, immediately melting the skin away to bone. Zoom roared in pain.

Then, a white, swirling portal opened above him and the Black Flash shot out. It screeched like a banshee and grabbed Zoom around the neck. Zoom's face immediately rotted away to that of a skeleton, before he was taken up and dragged back through the portal, disintegrating as he went. The portal blinked out as quickly as it came. The second it was gone, Cadence lowered her hand and returned to her original form. She gasped for air, falling to her knees before pitching over.

Barry caught her before she hit the ground. Cadence's head lolled back as she laid lifeless in Barry's arms.

"Don't worry, Cade," he murmured, a proud smile coming to his face. "We got him."

* * *

 **A/N:** Talk about an emotional chapter. There's only one left to go. Thank you so much for everyone's whose been support throughout this story, it really means a lot. It's 3:00 AM where I am, I had so many things I've changed with this chapter and probably still have to. Goodnight, everyone. Or, good morning.

And so the title reveal! First, I bet you'd be surprised to know it doesn't have 'fire' in the title. Had it actually been the third story in the series, it would have, but I found 1) It would've gotten on my nerves very fast had I had the literal word 'fire' in every title. I originally announced it to be called _Storm_ this morning, but my sister CeruleanMusings suggested the title _Friction_ instead to continue with the fire/heat theme, so what do you think? I'm actually leaning more towards _Friction_ now.

Either way, I hope you're ready for it. Also, my sister's story (posted on this account) _In a Flash_ is almost complete, go read it to get caught up on Averey's story before it's finish and the next story starts. Annnd check out my _othe_ r sister's story _The Mark of Sage_ by Cerulean Musings to learn about Sage Moreaux.

Please remember to review, even one word reviews if you'd like; any feedback helps me become a better writer and motivates me to write more. I respond to every review, even anonymous ones.

 **T **his'll be updated again next Wednesday.****

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**

 **Review Replies**

 **Josephguy217:** Again, I'm so glad you liked it. Hope this one was just as enjoyable.

 **Ethan:** Yep, stolen and sold onto The Network. Definitely not good for STAR Labs but, you know, stuff happens. Lol. That sounds so blasé, but yeah, that's not good. Yeah, sometimes I'm not even sure I'm writing Brady very much like a ten year old, but then I feel that he's gone through enough to make him a little different so there's that. BarryCade just work together, don't they? ;) Lol.

 **Kathiena:** Thank you! Hope you liked this as well.

 **DarkHelm145:** Glad you enjoyed it. Just wait for some of the fights I have planned for the next story.

 **Yummers:** Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 **PowerHero432:** And now you know what Burnout told Cadence. Definitely couldn't have helped her so much, especially with the way she's reacted throughout this chapter. Or maybe that's pent-up grief? I mean, I know for sure but you get it. Have to save a bit of suspense, right? Cade's and Roy's scenes aren't until the next chapter, no room really to fit it here.

Well, what I had changed to the part of Cade trying to get to Barry had a big impact with this chapter so I hope that made sense.


	50. Comfort Us

**.:50:.**

 _Comfort Us_

* * *

Barry and Cisco shuffled back and forth across the padded gym mat, blocking each other's punches with their arms. Cisco turned and opened a breach, leaping through it. Barry twisted around, eyes darting around the area to find where the breach would open next. Just as the field started to open, he watched as Cisco, in slow motion, came flying down from an opened breach, first pulled back behind his head.

Barry knew there was going to be either two things that were about to happen. Either he'd be punched in the face, or he'd be smacked with a direct vibrational blast. Instead of running away, Barry watched as Cisco came close then phased, allowing Cisco to crash to the ground and roll away in a heap. Barry turned on his heel and watched as Cisco turned head over heels until he finally came to a stop, resting against the far wall, legs in the air, upper half resting on the ground, arms splayed above his head, hair in a halo around him.

"I'm _really_ going to have to get used to the whole phasing thing," Cisco said.

With a laugh, Barry walked over and grabbed Cisco's wrist, righting him in a few seconds. "You did a good job, though. If I hadn't thought of phasing, then you would've beaten me."

"Yeah, right," Cisco snored. He stood up, dusting his hands off not he sides of his shorts. "I don't know if you've noticed, Barry, but I'm not exactly and expert on using my powers. I like to stand behind a computer desk and make witty comments about the people we're facing."

"You think that doesn't help?" Barry asked. He folded his arms. "Cisco, you're much more than the guy behind the desk and being in my ears."

Cisco grimaced. "We really have to stop saying that."

"You have these powers for a reason and I'm going to help train you to get there," Barry continued. "You can be a great fighter. We know it's possible, Reverb told us that himself. You just have to believe in yourself and not hold back so much." Cisco lowered his chin, looking away for a moment. "I get there's a lot to be scared of. I'm scared every time I go out in battle. And after everything that's happened with Zoom…" he shrugged. "We can't be too careful."

Cisco nodded. He opened his mouth to say something but Barry turned away, moving to go back to the top of the practice mat. He didn't need any more pitying looks, concerned head tilts, or quiet, calm voice asking if he was okay. He was tired of it. And wanted to stop thinking about it. How long would it take for everyone around him to understand that he was moving on. It had been weeks and if everyone else's life could move on, why couldn't his?

Why did he have to constantly be the one who had to mourn for so long? He'd learned how to mourn ages ago. It didn't take him so long anymore. Why did it matter? Why did they all insist that he go to cry to everyone?

"Ready to go again?" Barry asked, stretching out his arms.

"I think I've had enough torture for one day," Cisco said, pulling his hair back into a ponytail to cool off his neck. He stretched his arms as well, only doing one pull on each side before giving up. "I don't know about you, but I don't quite enjoy being thrown around so much."

"It's not a lot," Barry defended himself. "It just seems like it because it happens so fast."

Cisco eyed Barry with disdain. "No one likes a showoff, Barry."

Barry laughed and patted Cisco on the shoulder before pulling off the gloves strapped to his hands. With a tilt of his head, he lead Cisco out of the practice room, smacking the punching bag with the flat of his hand as he went. The two arrived at Cadence's gymnastics room, finding Caitlin sitting on the floor with a tablet in her hand, tucking some hair behind her ear while Cadence clapped chalk off her gloved hands.

"Cait, I _promise you,_ I'm fine," Cadence said, lifting her chin in a nod when Barry and Cisco entered the room.

"You can't be too sure," Caitlin said. "You only just got back on your feet. There could be some lasting damage we haven't seen yet." She smiled at her friends as they sat down next to her and pulled at the neck of her tank-top. Along with capri leggings, a pair of running shoes, and her hair pulled back into a ponytail, it was obvious she had just finished her own round of practicing her fighting skills. "I just want to do another scan of your brain and—"

"—You probably won't find much," Barry teased, laughing when Cadence shot him the middle finger in response. He ran a hand through his hair before wrapping his arms around his upraised knees. "Still, Cade, maybe Caitlin's right. Maybe you should take things easy. It hasn't been too long since you were cleared to leave."

Cadence rolled her eyes before she pinched the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath, dropped her hand, and regarded her friends with an expression of thanks. "I know you guys are worried. I mean, I'm worried about Brady's new powers, the fact that he can now fly isn't something I'm very excited about. And I know I haven't…I haven't used my powers like that, ever, without some sort of seizure following it. But you've scanned my brain and my levels since then and nothing's changed. Maybe it was a one-off moment, or maybe my powers have grown more than we've known. Maybe I can't do that again? I don't know. But I'm just fine. I haven't gone out in the field in a few weeks like you've asked. And I'm _really_ starting to feel cooped up here in STAR Labs." She flashed a smile. "But if you want me to have brain damage so badly just let me smack my head against the wall a few times."

"We're just concerned," Caitlin said.

"I know. And I'm so glad I have friends that are there for me in every way." Cadence smoothed her hair back behind her shoulders. "But you can't hold me back. Zoom's gone but that doesn't mean that there aren't any other metas out there that aren't going to do something because they have the powers to do it." She waved her hand. "Harrison and Tess and mom may have bene able to stop the MRA from happening but I sincerely don't think it'll stop other criminals from doing what they're going to do."

Barry tilted his head back against the wall behind him. Mayor Bellows had announced the MRA was going to be stopped after the way the Flash and Flare had saved the city. And Barry had seen how Chief Paulson grudgingly accepted it. Even after the funeral for Patty and the other officers they'd lost, Chief Paulson had nothing more than a sour expression on his face, throw on top that his bid to get rid of metas didn't work and he soured even further. It nearly killed him to know that metahumans—specifically Brady and his friends—had saved him and his daughter, that Flash and Flare had saved the city, and still want to control them in some way, just for it all to fall apart.

Barry steered clear of him as much as he could, but found it impossible when Chief Paulson was constantly around, telling them how the CCPD was going to change their tactics against working against the metahumans. He was still residing on it over Joe, which caused a bit of tension every time Barry came around the two of them. Enough so it was like a lightning bolt that was stretching between the two. He kept his head low and worked as hard as he could to get the case files that had piled up cleared out. He bent his head and did nothing but work, smiling every so often when co-workers would come by to give their condolences to Henry's passing.

And Barry would simply smile and say his thanks before going back to work. No muss. No fuss. Even going out into the field he found to be even more enjoyable. Not that he really liked working alone; Brady came out to help him every now and then, but it was sometimes nice to be able to run around to clear his head.

"And if they're going to do that, I need to get back in shape," Cadence continued, moving to stand in front of her uneven bars.

"You were only on bed-rest for a few weeks," Caitlin pointed out. "And I've looked over your vitals and physiology. They're just as good as they've always been."

"Doesn't mean I don't still have to work at it." With that, Cadence took in a deep breath before leaping forward. Stretching out her hands, she slapped them down onto the shortest of the uneven bar, moving her legs out into a split. Flexing her muscles, she swung herself forward and up to the higher of the uneven bars, letting go mid-air, using the momentum to propel herself forward onto the bar.

Now higher up, Cadence did a full rotation before letting go and, seeming to fly backwards, landed on the lower bar in a crouch, feet resting on the bar, tucked between her hands. She allowed herself to drop backwards in a back roll then once coming around the full rotation she transferred back to the upper bar once more.

This time, instead of doing a rotation, she easily lifted her body up. The world inverted. Cadence held her body ramrod straight. Her arms hung over her head, tightly grasping the bar beneath her head. She let out a long breath, her arms starting to wobble slightly. She hadn't done this in a long time, her lengthy stay in a hospital bed starting to show. The muscles she hadn't used in as much time was starting to burn. But in a good way. She swung her body forward, doing a full rotation around the bar. Coming back to the top she moved hand over hand until she twisted to face her original position once more.

Rotate, twist.

Rotate, twist.

Cadence let out another long breath to steady herself and on the last rotation, let go of the bar, and snapped her arms towards her ankles. She did seven full, fast-paced flips then landed on the ground in a crouch, feet placed firmly together, then stood up straight, bringing her arms above her head. Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry all clapped, making Cadence give an embarrassed chuckle and turned towards them.

"I draw the line at clapping," She remarked.

"But that was so amazing," Cisco said. He shook his head in awe, resting his chin in his hands. "I mean, you see things like that in the Olympics."

Cadence lifted an eyebrow. She dusted chalk off her hands and said, "The Olympics is a little much, don't you think?" She thought for a moment. "The prelims, sure. But I doubt I'd go that far." She laughed along at her own joke then motioned towards the uneven bars. "You guys want to try?"

Barry's eyebrows rose before he motioned to himself. "And break my face open?"

Cadence laughed and walked over, sitting in front of him. She leaned forward, resting her hand on his knee. He smiled at the immediately warmth of her touch. "If you can handle Oliver's salmon ladder, I think you can handle a couple of uneven bars."

"And besides, Barry, you can heal. I don't think that's going to be a problem," Caitlin pointed out. She nudged him on the arm then looked at Cisco. He nodded back and moved to push Barry forward. But then he and Barry reached over and grabbed onto Caitlin's arms, shoving up to her feet. Her brown eyes widened in panic. "Hey! No, I don't think so."

"Oh, come on, Cait." Cadence grasped her best friend's hands dragging her to the uneven bars with ease. Even with Caitlin trying to dig her heels on, the fire metahuman was just too strong for her. Barry and Cisco were behind her, continuing to shove her forward. "You have to live a little. And a couple swings around a bar can do that."

"But, I can't do it," Caitlin continued to protest. "I don't have the upper body strength."

"That's the beauty of having powers, Cait," Barry said. He patted Caitlin's shoulder. "Your physiology increases and you're stronger than you were before." He and Cisco looked at each other once more and the two stuck their arms underneath Caitlin and started to lift her up while Cadence continued to hold Caitlin's hands, keeping her from lashing out at the others. "Now, let's see what you can do."

"Yeah, I mean, you're a girl. You've got to be a little graceful, right?" Cisco teased.

Cadence gave him a look. "Being a girl doesn't mean you're automatically graceful," she pointed out.

"Oh, is that why you're such a klutz everywhere else?" Cisco asked.

"No, it's because I'm too busy being blinded by how much hair you have. Has Pantene called you yet?"

Barry laughed loudly. Then the four were laughing and screeching as they continued to try and force Caitlin up onto the uneven bars while she continued to wiggle to get out of the way. Back and forth they pushed and pulled until Barry lost his balance and the four crashed to the ground. Their laughter increased as they wrestled amongst each other, then piled on top of Barry, finding him to be ticklish. His laughter turned high-pitched, tears rolling down his cheeks as he continued to laugh.

To laugh, it was just what he needed.

But the mood soon turned somber when Harry and Jesse walked into the gymnastics room to tell them they were leaving. To go back to Earth-2.

"Now that Zoom's gone, there's no point in us staying here anymore," Jesse explained, tugging on the straps to her backpack as their group gathered together in the Cortex. Apparently the four were the lest to be told the Wells's from Earth-2 were leaving. "So…it's time for us to go home." She turned and smiled up at her dad, making Harry smile back. "Thank you so much for giving us a home to still go back to. Now that Zoom's gone we should be living pretty peacefully for a while."

"Not unless Harry tries to start up another Particle Accelerator," Joe pointed out with a wheezing laugh, making Harry's smile widen even further.

"I've already decided that Particle Accelerators are something to leave in the past," Harry said. "No matter how much it'd change the world."

"It changed it alright," Cadence pointed out. "It created a psychotic speedster to come after all of you."

"And without your help, I don't think we would've been able to defeat him," Jesse agreed, gently tapping her on the arm. Cadence smiled back. "But seriously, what happened to him? Cadence nearly blew him up before he was taken away."

"The time-wraiths got him," Harry explained. "Once you mess with time enough they come after you."

"It was the same thing that Zoom was telling me," Barry added. "That's how I got the idea of taking him down. If I went back to get another time remnant, then there'd be a chance they'd be angry and come to take someone away. So Zoom was the perfect bait for them to take."

"Okay, so the time remnant is basically another version of you, right?" Wally asked, scratching the side of his head. He got nods in response then asked, "And that version of you died. But you're still here. And the time-wraiths turned Zoom into a skeleton?"

"Actually, I think Cadence was doing a good job of that before the time-wraiths got him," Harrison said. He thought for a moment to explain. "Her fire powers combined with the speed of Velocity-9 made it so that he was running at a speed much faster than his body could handle. He was slowly starting to disintegrate, but when the time-wraiths came for him, along with the Black Flash, he was then taken to be the new Black Flash."

"So what's a Black Flash?" Wally asked.

"Think of it like a grim reaper for speedsters," Cisco supplied. "So when the time-wraiths came out, they're like collectors for the Black Flash, they held Zoom still until the Black Flash could take him and….well, we don't know what happened after that."

"The good news is that he's gone," Iris reminded everyone. "And that he can't hurt anyone anymore. Ever again."

The group nodded then Harry and Jesse moved around the room to say their goodbyes. Harry reached out to Caitlin and gave her a tight hug. "You're a good scientist," he murmured to her. "But you're an even better person,"

Caitlin smiled, wiping at her eyes. "Don't make me cry, Harry," she said quietly. "I've done enough of that already." Harry nodded and eyed her. Caitlin took a breath and held up her hands. "I'm fine, Harry. I promise."

"I know you are," Harry said. "I know you will be. You're tougher than people give you credit for. Don't forget you have a good head on your shoulders and you're much more than your smarts." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to Joe, as if nothing had just happened. "Joe West, you have great ids, you take care of them."

Joe grinned and pointed back at Harry. "Same to you. You take care of that beautiful girl." He motioned to Jesse, who blushed under the praise.

"Yes, sir." Harry gave a mock salute before moving over to Barry. The two smiled at each other then Harry reached out and shook Barry's hand. The handshake lasted a few seconds before, at the same time, the two enveloped each other in a hug, slapping each other's backs. "I'm a better man than I was before I got here. And it's all because of you."

"I know you'd do the same for me," Barry said modestly. "You've done a lot for us since you've got here. We probably wouldn't have been as successful. This isn't just us. We're a team."

Harry nodded then moved onto Cisco. Cisco gave a wry smile and said, "Don't be surprised if I project myself over to Earth-2 every once in a while to throw your stuff across the office."

Harry laughed. The first genuine laugh at Cisco that wasn't because of some jab or put down Harry had sent him first. If Cisco were being completely honest, he didn't quite remember if he had actually seen Harry ever smile or laugh since they'd been there. "I'll see you, soon. Cisco."

Harry moved onto Cadence at the same time Jesse got to her. "I know we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but I'm still holding out the invitation of being your family over here," Cadence said. She looked at Harry. "Especially since…" Harry nodded as she trialed off. No one knew what had happened to Killer Frost and Burnout since the last time they were spotted. Cisco had kept tabs on their heat and cold signatures and didn't find them on their Earth and assumed Zoo had taken them back. No one knew for sure. "Well, first you'd have to deal with my strange family tree—"

"—I think there's enough we've seen to know that our lives are never going to be normal." Jesse laughed. "So a strange family is alright with me."

"Then feel free to come back whenever this guy drives you crazy," Cadence said, tilting her head towards Harry, who rolled her eyes. "And something tells me that it'll happen sooner rather than later." Cadence gave them both a hug, holding onto Jesse a moment longer before she shyly moved to Wally's side.

Jesse tilted her head, flashing a smile. "I guess I can't text you form another Earth."

"Yeah, I guess not," Wally agreed.

"That's, too bad." Jesse lowered her chin. "'Cause I'm sure there's a lot that you'd find really interesting on my Earth. And I would've liked to hear what's going on back over here."

"You can come visit," Wally said. "Whenever you feel like it."

"I plan to," Jesse agreed. She reached out and took her father's hand. "Thanks so much for saving our home. Thank you for making this Earth our home as well. But now it's time for us to leave."

"We're not going to forget any of you," Harry agreed.

He nodded to Barry who nodded back and the three stepped forward. Cisco held out his hand and opened a breach for them to pass through. Barry stepped up behind the two and grabbed their shoulders. He took in a deep breath and in a flash of lightning, ran them through the breach, coming back seconds later alone.

The breach winked out.

It was time to move on.

* * *

"So you're headed back to Hub City?" Cadence asked, crossing her legs at the knee, cradling her mug of hot chocolate between her hands. She reached up a hand to rub a bruise that formed on her shoulder. She hit the ground hard when she, Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin had toppled over. Funny how she could heal so fast, but bruises could last a while.

Roy shook his head, lowering his own to-go cup of coffee from his lips. "No, I'm definitely not headed there anymore," he said. "Once the Calculator figured out my identity, Hub City wasn't safe for my anymore."

"So where are you going next?"

"Wherever the road takes me, I guess."

"Okay, Little Red. Just don't run into any grandma's dressed as wolves." Cadence smiled to herself as Roy tilted his head back and laughed. "Seriously, there's not too many people around here that we can trust anyway. So why would it be any different staying here?"

Smile fading, Roy leaned back and fell into silence, thinking. It was true, there weren't too many people they could ever trust. It was the life of a metahuman, of a vigilante, of anyone that had a secret identity of some sort. But it was still enough so that they probably weren't able to ever live a complete life. There were too many people who would be put in harm's way. That was another part that made things difficult for them. Cadence could understand the appeal of wanting to move away and go somewhere else for a while.

Somewhere they could be 'normal'. _I don't even know what normal is anymore, _Cadence thought, patiently waiting for his response. Then, finally, the corner of Roy's mouth turned up in a smile. "There's not a lot for me here in Central City," he said. "I mean, not unless your relationship with Barry goes south." His eyebrows twitched upwards. "I have to admit, I didn't see that one coming."

"Aww, you thought I'd wait for you?" Cadence teased.

"More like hoping." Roy smirked back. "No, but seriously. A lot has changed since I've been gone. Even with my old team. I never thought anything with them would surprise me. But knowing Oliver's a dad? That really threw me off."

Cadence nodded. She looked out over the traffic that zoomed back and forth across the streets. So many people who were able to pick up their lives as if nothing had happened before. As if Zoom hadn't almost completely destroyed their world along with the other worlds within the multiverse. It was so weird how they were able to keep moving on while she had nearly died, while Barry had nearly died, while her friends had agreed to stand beside them if anything happened.

"Really?" She asked.

"Well, no. I think we all knew there was a chance he had an army of babies out there," Roy said honestly. "But to actually want to be in his life? That's the part I didn't think he'd do. Not that I don't think Oliver can be a dad, he was the best father figure I've ever had. I just don't know how he'd be able to balance it with being the Green Arrow when he's so…"

"Militant?" Cadence guessed. Roy nodded. "He's been doing a good job so far. He doesn't come into the city as much as he'd want to, but he keeps up with Conner. And Conner's a really sweet kid. He's kind of shy sometimes but he's sweet. Sam's done a great job with raising him on her own for so long. I think Oliver can really help make him more confident, though."

"And you had to tell Samantha who you were?"

"Yyeah…she wasn't that excited to know I was keeping my secret from her. It would've helped her more if she had known but I couldn't do that to her. Not when she'd be a target since Zoom knew who we were by that point. She was also angry that Conner knew who I was and was consistently going out to help Brady fight and putting him in danger. Just a lot of it. She's cool with it now but I had to do a lot of apologizing so she'd understand why I did what I did."

"The life of a vigilante is never easy."

"No, it's not." Cadence looked at her watch as it beeped. "Case in point, I've got to get going. I need to get to work." She stood up and tossed away her napkin, carefully leaving her mug on the table beside her. She stuck a tip underneath the mug.

Roy followed her lead and stood to throw away his to-go cup. "I thought you had the day off?"

"I do, but I still have to get some extra paperwork in with clerical so I can start my new job." Cadence noticed Roy's confused glance and said. "I'm still working at the CCPD, I'm just changing departments to work Child Protective Services through the department. Nothing more than changing my office and my clients."

At that, Roy grinned. "Got tired of having to deal with dead bodies?"

"It's just so much nicer when the people I'm working with talk back," Cadence said. She added, "And I was always afraid someone was going to wake up while I was working on them." She lifted a finger. "The next time you're in town, I'll tell you the story of how Barry and Cisco played a prank on me and scared me to death."

Roy laughed. "I'm sorry I have to miss it."

"You could always come to the play."

"I'm going to have to pass. I need to get as far away as possible before anyone figures out I'm here." Roy pulled up the hood to his hoodie. "Let the others know I'll see them when I see them."

Cadence folded her arms. "You're not going to stick around to tell them yourself? I must be really special."

Roy looked at her for a long moment then asked, as if to clarify. "You still with Barry?"

"Uh, yeah." Cadence laughed.

"Then you're not that special" Roy and Cadence laughed and Roy leaned over to give her a hug. "I'll see you later, Cade."

"See ya, Abercrombie," Cadence replied, returning the hug. Then she turned on her heel and walked to of sight without a backwards glance. Knowing Roy, he was probably gone already. He and Oliver had the uncanny ability to leave places almost as fast as Barry. Thankfully for her, her teleportation came in handy as well.

But she couldn't help but wonder, what did it feel like to live a life where you were constantly running and had no place to call your home? It didn't take much longer for Cadence to realize she was asking herself that question as much as she was asking about Roy.

* * *

Barry and Joe walked through the door of Carmichael Elementary School and almost immediately, Joe started to chuckle to himself. Barry looked over and raised his eyebrows. "What's so funny?" He asked.

"Nothing, it's just…" Joe shook his head. "I never thought I'd come back to this school for the longest time. That got kicked down when the janitor died. But after _that_ I never thought I would've been back here until you or Iris had kids."

"Well, I though the same until Tony Woodward decided to chase me around in here," Barry said. He gave a half smile, pushing his way through the crowd of parents that gathered around the auditorium doors. "Have to say, it's kind of weird to be here when there's not a metahuman running after me."

Joe pinched the bridge of his nose. "And to think my life was so much easier before all of this Flash stuff coming around."

"Mm, maybe not." Barry shrugged. "Even if I didn't become the Flash, things still would've been weird." He lowered his voice. "By some point I would've been the Flash, maybe not at the same time. But you probably would've come across Wally by some point. The Reverse-Flash never said anything about when Wally would show up in your life."

"Yeah, that's giving me an ulcer, too," Joe said. He gently shoved Barry on the shoulder. "And thank you so much for putting Wally _and_ Iris back against me back in the diner." He pumped open the door of the auditorium and they slipped inside, looking for their group. "I have already one, ah, _two_ hardheaded and stubborn children that like to throw themselves into danger, I didn't need another one."

Barry tilted his head back to laugh. "Iris isn't that bad. But you seem to be forgetting that if I don't do what I do then Zoom could've killed you."

Joe sucked in a breath. "I really don't want to think about that again."

"What'd he say?"

"He told me everything," Joe replied. "Everything about his past, how he became Zoom, how he knew how to take you down by taking away everyone you love." Barry frowned. Joe grasped Barry's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Barry, Zoom's gone. You defeated him and you made me proud while doing it. Even if something happened to me, I know how you would've pushed yourself forward to keep protecting the city. Barry, I'm proud of you and everything you do, don't let Zoom take that away from you."

Barry's eyes shifted to the side. Why did everything have to turn back to Zoom? And this time it was his fault. There was so much to talk about that didn't have to do with Zoom and how often the speedster managed to consume Barry's thoughts. Instead, he managed a wry smile and asked, "So you just want to take it away from Wally?"

Joe's face immediately screwed up in confusion at the rapid subject change. "What?"

"You're very quick to go and say how proud Iris and I make you for what you do. But how come when it comes to Wally and what he did, you get upset by it? He did as much to save the city and help Cade as Batman or Superman could've done."

"He doesn't have powers, Barry."

"Neither do you." Joe's jaw dropped. He did his best to keep a neutral expression but Barry saw it. Joe was starting to realize how hypocritical he could've potentially been. "But you keep running out and helping us. You don't have powers, you have a gun and a sense of following the rules and you still go out there to help me."

"That's different," Joe stuttered. "He's in over his head. He only _just_ got to know what— _who_ you are. There's more to being The Flash than running around taking down metahumans." Barry slowly shook his head. "Don't shake your head at me, Bare."

"He's got your values, Joe. He has your inner drive." Barry lifted his eyes, giving himself a moment to collect himself. Then he said calmly, "We're supposed to think we're something until we've really learned what we are. I'm not going to stop him from being what he's supposed to become. And I don't think you should either."

Joe's lips pulled back into a snarl. He hated being wrong. Finally, his expression relaxed and he lifted a finger, pointing directly at Barry's face, making him smile. "I can't wait until you have kids and they torture you," Joe said. "I'm going to laugh at you."

Barry let out a wheezing laugh. Laughing so hard his stomach started to cramp and people turned to see where it was coming from. When he sobered he smiled warmly. His eyes shifted over the stage where Brady and some of his classmates, dressed in black to work as stage crew, ran back and forth, making sure things were get up correctly. Barry looked at Joe and said, "Well, you'd be a little too late, Joe. Because I've already got a great kid." He nodded over towards the stage where Brady and the rest of the stage hands were then working out a tangle with the ropes that controlled the curtains to the stage.

Joe looked at Barry, eyebrows rising in surprise before he smiled as well. Barry slid into the row next to him until he dropped into the seat next to Cadence. "Hey," he greeted before leaning in to give her a peck on the lips.

"Hey," she replied with a bright smile.

"Glad you could make it," Ryder said from Cadence's other side, flipping a program back and forth in his hands.

"Wouldn't miss it."

* * *

Brady stood off the side of the stage, flipping a script in his hands. "Hey," Conner appeared next to him, adjusting his Peter Pan hat. "How's it going?"

"So far so good," Brady replied, speaking quietly. He looked over and could see the audience from where he was standing then shuffled backwards. If you could see the audience the audience could see you. It was drilled into his heat by his teacher enough times. Besides, he'd found his mom and friends really fast. Cisco waved enthusiastically when he spotted Brady, making him grin and wave back. All his friends were there, though he noticed, with dismay, that Harry and Jesse weren't as they had to leave.

"What about you?" Brady's lips pulled back into a teasing smile. "How'd your kiss go?"

"Shut up."

Even in the darkness of the side of the stage, Brady could see Conner's blush. No one in the audience knew that Wendy _wasn't_ supposed to kiss Peter during that point of the play when she had sewn his shadow back to his feet. But someone had set up the stage a little off, making the bed sets too close where Conner's mark was, making him stop short, nearly falling backwards. Leah, as Wendy, hadn't been able to stop in time and accidentally kissed him.

Though from where Brady was, he and the rest of the stagehands all laughed quietly when it happened.

"I'm just saying, other than your swordfight with Hook, I think it's the highlight of the play," Brady continued to tease.

Conner shoved him hard on the shoulder, making Brady stumble back towards the pully system. He knocked into it and phased through at the same time, crashing into the wall behind him. The pulley started to squeak and Brady and Conner quickly grabbed it, hearing the sound of the backdrop starting to fall. A backdrop of the plains rather than the backdrop of the pirate ship that was already down. Conner reached out and grabbed onto the rope as well, the two struggling to hold it down.

"Aren't you supposed to have super strength or something?" Conner asked.

Brady grunted. "I'm stronger but I don't have super strength." His arms started to shake. "And this thing is really heavy."

"Hey, what's going on?" Alicia, who was dressed up as Tiger Lily, walked up. Her face scrunched up when she saw them and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Baking a cake," Brady replied. "What does it look like we're doing?"

Conner had a more diplomatic response saying, "This thing came loose and it's _really_ heavy." Alicia nodded then squeezed herself along with the others to grab the rope in the pully, bringing it down a little bit further. "What are you doing? Don't you have to be on stage?"

"Not until the next scene," Brady said. He blew his hair from his face then his eyes narrowed. "Aren't both of you in the same scene?" Conner nodded back and widened his eyes slightly. The two of them _and_ Leah were in the next scene, if there was anyone who would be able to help him, it was Leah.

But if he let the backdrop fall, then people onstage could be very hurt. And as it was, he couldn't get Barry's attention to ask for help either. All of a sudden, the three felt a jolt and the rope started to move through their hands, taking the backdrop back up to the ceiling. Confused, Brady slowly dropped his hands away from the rope, making Conner and Alicia do the same.

"How'd you do that?" Alicia asked.

"I didn't," Conner said. He looked at Brady, who shook his head as well. He hadn't done it. He can't control things like that, couldn't manipulate solid things, could only phase through them.

"Then, it must've been a metahuman," Alicia said. She turned her head, trying to see if she could figure out who it was. "Someone here's a meta!"

"I thought you hated metas," Brady said.

Alicia lowered her chin. "I did, but, Shadowhunter helped save me and my dad. My dad still doesn't like them but…I wanted to thank Shadowhunter in person. Maybe whoever did this, maybe it's them. Maybe they're in our class. We've already had some other metas."

Conner glanced at Brady, who shook his head in response. He was not dumb enough to say anything, even smugly, about how he—or Shadowhunter—had helped save Alicia and Chief Paulson. As much as it made him smile knowing how wrong she was, it was definitely not the right time. Brady turned to pick up his fallen program, waving it to shoo Conner and Alicia on stage, when something in the audience caught his eye. One of his classmates, who was working backstage with him, lowered his hand and turned away right as Brady looked at him.

He ducked around the corner to pick up multiple pirate hats that were to be worn by the lost boys once they changed scenes, clumsily avoiding Brady's eyes as they were forced to interact with each other. That was the first thing that took Brady's attention. Making him make a quick note to tell Conner about it, about the first meta they found on their own. The first one they could help.

The second thing that caught his attention was towards the end of the play, right when they were about to do their bows. Brady was pulling the curtain closed with hard tugs on the rope when he noticed the audience. It wasn't a standing ovation worthy play, he was sure of that. But there was still a man silvery hair standing in the corner of the auditorium, close to the emergency exit door, as if he was about to leave but wanted to watch a minute longer. He looked at Brady and nodded before taking a step backwards disappearing before Brady's eyes. Brady blinked twice, three times.

No, he wasn't dreaming. The man had walked through the wall as if it were nothing. Brady pressed his lips together then paid attention to closing the curtains before turning to give his classmates a high-five for completing the play. With everything having been finished he felt nothing short of relief and a lot of excited energy.

Finally, he came out from backstage and squeezed through the crowd to find his parents. He reached them and accepted the hugs they gave him. "Hey, buddy," Ryder greeted, ruffling his hair. "You did such a great job."

"I wasn't even on stage," Brady pointed out.

"You don't have to be," Cisco said. "The people who work backstage are just as important as those who actually have parts."

Cadence's head jerked back and she looked at him with a knowing smirk. "Let me guess, you were a stagehand, too."

Cisco pouted. "I would've been a great Danny from Grease but none of those guys could see my creative vision!"

"I think he may still be harboring some feelings about high school," Caitlin said. She put her arm around Cisco's shoulders and patted him gently. "It's okay, Cisco, we all have our demons out there." She laughed as Cisco continued to pout. "But seriously, Brady, that was one of the better versions of Peter Pan I've ever seen."

"Yeah, I've never heard of anyone using lightsabers over pirate swords," Barry agreed.

Brady beamed. "That was my idea. We were told we couldn't use 'weapons'," he used air quotes around the word. "That looked too real so I thought lightsabers would've been a better idea."

"It was, until I had to go to the store at midnight to buy them all," Cadence said with a roll of her eyes. "Not only are there very strange people at the store at midnight, but people kept looking at me funny when I came up with a shopping cart filled with lightsabers. Though I do know what to give out as my next party favor."

Cisco grabbed her arm. "If you do that, I'll love you forever."

"I think Barry's got you beat, Cisco," Brady said, making the group laugh and Barry to blush. "Sheesh, you've been dating my mom for a while, I didn't think it'd still embarrass you."

"Why do you think I tease him so much?" Cadence teased. She reached out and ruffled Brady's hair. "So, where are the others, bud? I want to give Wendy and Peter their props, too."

"They're around here somewhere, probably talking to their parents," Brady said. Then he frowned. "Well, actually, Leah's parents didn't come."

Cadence's eyebrows rose. "They didn't?"

"No. Leah said that they haven't really talked to her since she told them she was a meta. They said they weren't coming to the play today. I don't know if they're going to move or anything but she said they're not happy." Then he noticed the furious expression on Cadence's face and said, "Mom, don't get mad."

"Too late," Cadence replied.

"That's just cruel," Caitlin said with a frown. "How could they treat her like that?"

"The same way Chief Paulson was trying to treat every meta that way," Joe pointed out with a shrug. "Easily. They don't see metas as people but as things to be afraid of. Freaks. Even if it's their own family." He shook his head. "I've seen it enough within the last couple of weeks."

"Sounds like it's enough for a lifetime," Ryder said. He twisted his mouth to the side. "Do you think there's going to be a time that everyone in Central City will be okay with having metahumans around?"

"Time will only tell," Barry said with a shrug. He lifted his chin to Cadence, catching her attention as the others continued to talk to Brady about the play. "I thought you mom would've bene here. Doesn't seem like anything she'd want to miss. Harrison or Tess either."

"Well, you can't really tell the state senator 'no' when they invite you to talk about what they can do to help the metahuman problem," Cadence pointed out, to which Barry nodded in agreement to. "But when it comes to my mom, I didn't think you'd be so upset to see her go. I mean, unless you planned to flash her again." She raised a hand as Barry rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't worry, she wouldn't have complained."

"You're _never_ going to let me forget it, are you?"

"No." Cadence beamed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "But seriously, my mom is so upset to have missed it. But she had to get back to Metropolis. She's got to deal with my dad's company and Metahuman Registration Act as well. Plenty of people to meet with. Trust me, she would've rather been here." Then she looked at him closely. "What's up?"

"What? Nothing!"

"You just look…really glowy."

Barry shrugged. "I'm just happy."

Brady looked over at him, listening to and responding to the conversation going on around him, but also taking the time to eavesdrop on his mother's and Barry's conversation. He didn't have any reason to think so, but he was sure Barry wasn't quite telling the truth.

But then they all got messages on their phones that alerted them to STAR Labs.

Someone was coming through a breach.

* * *

Barry stared at the man in front of him. His father. But he wasn't his father. He was Jay Garrick. The _real_ Jay Garrick. The Jay Garrick that Zoom stole the identity of. He stood in the middle of the basement, freshly shaven and looking as if he'd been out of his shackles for a while. And yet, Barry stared at him, mouth gaping open when he saw the exact resemblance of him to Henry.

 _He looks just like him, he looks just like my dad._ Barry thought. So many thoughts swirled through his head as tears threatened to come to his eyes. Why would he be his father's doppelganger. Not just that, the doppelganger was a speedster. What did that mean? Was Barry _supposed_ to be a speedster no matter what? Eobard had told him that he had gone back in time and made Barry The Flash sooner. But was it in his blood? The metahuman gene? _I can't believe this._

"I know you're surprised to see me," Jay—the _real_ Jay—said, holding up his hands. He slowly stepped further into the basement of STAR Labs, looking at the gaping faces around him. "I'm surprised to see you as well. But I had to see the faces of those who helped me get out of my predicament. I had to thank 'The Flash'."

"How did you get out of your restraints?" Cadence asked. "When we last saw you, you were in an iron mask and…" She made a vague gesture with her hands then folded her arms, chewing her lower lip.

"I was shackled to the ground," Jay said with a half-smile. "That's why I came to see you. Two friends of yours, Harry and Jesse Wells came to save me. They said if it wasn't for you they wouldn't have been able to get back to save me." He nodded towards Barry. "You promised me that you'd get me out of Zoom's lair and you kept that promise."

"But if you're a speedster, how did you not have your powers?" Caitlin asked, tilting her head in confusion. "You could've fused out of shackles."

"Zoom," Jay sighed, nearly hissing the words. "He made it so that he could take over the mantle from me. To bring a false sense of hope to the city. To make sure that I wasn't able, in any form, to take him down." His hands clenched into fists. "He put a meta dampener on the inside of my helmet."

"Wow, Jay doesn't miss a beat," Cisco said, almost sounding as if he were impressed. Barry, Caitlin, and Cadence all glared at him and he took a step back, eyes widening. "Not that, that's anything to congratulate him over. I'm just saying…"

He reached up and pulled down the winged helmet that rested on his head and stepped toward Barry. "Thank you, all of your for saving me from Zoom. Especially you, Flash."

Barry nodded in response. "You're welcome, Flash."

Jay's gaze swept around the room. "This team you have here…this is a team that'll do nothing but continue to work together and will succeed. As long as you continue to be there for each other, then you'll continue to succeed and be a beacon of hope to everyone around you." Jay's chest swelled with pride. Then he blinked rapidly, almost blinking back tears when he said, "I'm sorry I have to make this such a short trip, but I need to get back."

"Where are you from?" Brady asked.

"It's what you all would call, Earth-3," Jay said. "Very much like this Earth but different enough that when I was on Earth-2 I really started to miss it." He took in a deep breath. "And being here has really showed me how important it is to have a home to return to. I'm glad Zoom wasn't able to destroy it." He frowned. "I can only hope that my Earth will be asking welcoming to The Flash being back as they are of you here."

With that, Jay reached out his hand and Barry held his out as well. Their hands squeezed together and Jay nodded. Then he took a step back and raced forward, a breach opening and closing as he passed through. The second he was gone, Barry turned away, letting out a long breath, resting his hands on his head. He felt a hand on his back and turned to see Cadence standing beside him, tilting her head to look at him curiously.

"Seeing him…knowing he's out there should've made it easier. But it doesn't," Barry murmured. "Knowing my father's doppelganger's out there."

"I can't imagine how hard it is," Cadence said.

"We just won, we beat Zoom. And I feel like we've lost."

"Because we _have_ lost a lot. You the most." Cadence rubbed his back. "You haven't lost me, Brady, Caitlin, Cisco, Iris, Joe…we're all here for you, Barry." She continued to look at him carefully. "But it looks like you still need more time to figure out if you'll be better."

Barry couldn't help allow the sarcastic smile that came to his face. "Because you know me so well?" He asked. He needed the reassurance. Needed to know he wasn't crazy. That the way he was feeling wasn't wrong. That he was…that he _wasn't_ hollow.

"Because I went through the same thing with Breathtaker. That hollow, empty feeling inside. I worried about whether or not I had given up my humanity, doing whatever it is he wanted. And, sometimes, it wasn't because it was what he wanted. It was because it was what _I_ wanted, what I was trained to do. Breathtaker he…he has powers no one else can imagine. He's said he's one of the first ones who become a metahuman. Years, years, _years_ ago. He's immortal and he can turn himself and his powers into anything he wants, even giving more powers to those around him, the Assassination Bureau. He can take powers away just as easily as he can take your humanity and it leaves you feeling—"

"—empty, heart-broken, so hollowed out inside. More broken than I've ever felt in my life?" Barry said. Cadence nodded. "I just…I just can't do this. I need to find peace or something. I thought I was fine before, but then seeing him—"

"None of us would blame you if you need some time, Bare," Joe said.

"Yeah, we'll all be here for you," Caitlin said.

"Right where we always are," Cisco added. "Right behind you."

"Mhm," Brady agreed.

Barry smiled at his friends, feeling his heart swell at their faith in him. It gave him more gratitude that he could ever thought he'd feel. He reached out and cupped Cadence's cheek in his hand and gave her a kiss. Pressing his forehead against hers he whispered, "I love you, Cadence."

"I love you, too, Barry," Cadence replied.

Barry smiled and ran from the Cortex. But not fast enough so that he missed Cadence sigh and ask, "Why do I get the feeling he's about to do something stupid?" and Brady's reply of, "Because he's Barry. But everything'll be okay, mom. I know it."

And Barry ran. Ran out of STAR Labs and down the street. There was no direction in mind for him, he just needed to run. Needed to get away. Needed to be as far away from everything that'd remind him of what he'd lost. Of the people he couldn't save. Of the people that had fallen for him. Of the people who's lives had been upended because of him in some way shape or form.

His mother.

His friends.

The residents of Central City.

His father.

Barry squeezed his eyes shut, relying on blind faith of his body to take him where he needed to go. The images came back to him them. Of when they were at his father's funeral.

 _"Comfort us today, with the word of your promise as we return our brother to the Earth and leave us the hope that one day we'll meet again." The pastor had said as the casket was lowered into the ground, the roses from Henry's closest family and friends placed on top. His family and friends—Team Flash. No one else in his family cared. Once Henry Allen had been convicted, the rest of the family turned their back on him. He only had Team Flash on his side._

 _And it was evident form the tiny funeral. A tiny percentage compared to those that had gone to his mother's funeral. How sad. Barry moved to stand in front of his father's grave, holding a rose between his fingertips, hardly reacting when the thorns pierced the skin on his thumb and index finger._

 _"Um," he barely managed to say, lifting his gaze to meet his friends'. He couldn't do it. He couldn't take the way they were looking at him. "My father…" Barry turned away, unable to keep his voice strong. "I can't do this right now."_

 _"It's okay, Barry," Iris whispered._

 _Joe moved up to speak instead. "Um, Henry's suffered two great losses in his life," Joe said. "When he lost his wife Nora and when he lost Barry. He suffered guilt, embarrassment, ridicule, shame and everything that comes with being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. Henry Allen was proof that love can get you through the darkest of days and that love will keep him alive in all of our hearts."_

 _Barry stood by his father's grave even as, one by one, his friends left him for some time alone. Even as the rain fell, soaking him to the bone, he stood in front of his father's grave. Neatly placed next to his mother's. In life and death they were together. Barry wiped rain water—or was it tears—from his cheeks as he knelt down in front of his parents' graves._

 _"I'm going to find him, dad. I promise I'm going take form him what he took from you," Barry had murmured._

But he knew now who did it and how it happened and why. And he was going to stop it from happening again.

Barry continued to run and as a breach opened in front of him, he charged inside.

* * *

 **THE END**

* * *

 **A/N:** And now that's the end! I greatly enjoyed writing this chapter as well as this story. With all of the emotions that have been going up and down through this story, there's only so much that can be done for a happy ending. So it's a bittersweet one. But I hope you enjoyed anyway. Thank you so much for all of you. For everyone who favorited, reviewed, even PM'd to help me with ideas, to give suggestions, even to give me some metahumans when I needed it at times. I've had fun connecting with you guys here and on Twitter. (Twitter name is DarkElements10 if you want to follow). ;)

But that's not all! The next story in The Flash and The Flame series is now up! It's entitled **_Friction_** and the first chapter is posted. It may take some time to show up on FFN so you may want to author alert to see it and/or bookmark this page. Thank you so much and I'll see you over there!

 _Also!_ Don't forget to check out my sister's story _In a Flash_ following the optical metahuman Averey Moore (also found on this profile). The story is almost done and the sequel is coming soon. And check out my other sister's story following the ice metahuman Sage Moreaux, _The Mark of Sage_ by Cerulean Musings. (Formerly Crystal Manning). You won't regret it, check it out!

 **Cheers,**

 **-Riles**


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